Events at Physics |
Events on Monday, September 28th, 2026
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- Canceled - no seminar
- Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Ben Dudson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Abstract: No plasma physics seminar this week.
- Host: Vladimir Zhdankin
- Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)
- Generalized Symmetries and the Dynamics of Gauge Theories
- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 5280
- Speaker: Zipei Zhang, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Abstract: Symmetry can place exact constraints on a quantum field theory even when its low-energy dynamics are strongly coupled. In this talk, I will introduce generalized symmetries through topological defects and background gauge fields, and explain how ’t Hooft anomalies constrain possible infrared phases. I will illustrate these ideas with the one-form center symmetry of four-dimensional SU(N) Yang–Mills theory and its implications at theta = pi. I will then turn to non-invertible symmetries in two-dimensional adjoint QCD, where topological lines give an argument for deconfinement, and close with a brief look at their applications in more phenomenologically relevant gauge theories.
- Host: Elio J Koenig-Tarasevich