Ethan Torres - Symmetry Operators from Branes

Tuesday, February, 6, 2024

When a quantum field theory (QFT) is engineered from string theory, branes give rise to symmetry operators in the QFT. In the first part of this talk, I will discuss works by myself and collaborators that show that such a perspective can be used to determine the (in general non-invertible) symmetries of such QFTs, understand the fate of such symmetries when coupling to gravity, and offer new perspectives in what symmetry structures can appear in QFTs. I will also mention some work in progress that addresses some puzzles surrounding the generalized symmetries of frozen singularities. For the second part of the talk, I will survey various open conceptual and computational questions related to this program.