Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of New Mexico

Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

The String Landscape and the Swampland

Presented by Cumrun Vafa is Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University. His primary area of research is string theory, which promises to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics.

The string theory landscape of vacua points to new consistency conditions that a quantum gravitational system must satisfy. There are only a small number of quantum field theories that satisfy these conditions and all the rest belong to the 'Swampland' which cannot be consistently coupled to gravity. In this talk I review some of these conditions and their implications for cosmology and particle physics.

3:30 pm, Friday, January 22, 2021
Via Zoom. Contact the department for password

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Disability NoticeIndividuals with disabilities who need an auxiliary aid or service to attend or participate in P&A events should contact the Physics Department (phone: 505-277-2616, email: physics@unm.edu) well in advance to ensure your needs are accomodated. Event handouts can be provided in alternative accessible formats upon request. Please contact the Physics front office if you need written information in an alternative format.

A schedule of talks within the Department of Physics and Astronomy is available on the P&A web site at http://physics.unm.edu/pandaweb/events/index.php