Aisenstadt Chair

[ Français ]

Scott Sheffield (MIT)
September 2 - 5, 2016

CONFERENCE SLIDESHOW

Sheffield

PUBLIC LECTURE - Friday, September 2, 2016 - 4:00 pm - Room 6214

Universal Randomness in 2D [ video ]

ABSTRACT: I will introduce several universal and canonical random objects that are (at least in some sense) two dimensional or planar, along with discrete analogs of these objects. In particular, I will introduce probability measures on the space of paths, the space of trees, the space of surfaces, and the space of growth processes. I will argue that these are in some sense the most natural and symmetric probability measures on the corresponding spaces. I will then describe several surprising relationships between these canonical objects. Many of these ideas have been historically motivated by physics —- especially string theory, conformal field theory, and statistical mechanics.

Sunday, September 4, 2016 - 10:30 am - Room 6214

More universal randomness in 2D and its relationship to gauge theory [ video ]

ABSTRACT: I will continue the narrative begun in the public lecture while also comparing the universal random surfaces we now understand well (SLE-decorated Liouville quantum gravity and the Brownian map) to those that arise in random matrix theory and gauge theory.


Monday, September 5, 2016 - 15:30 pm - Room 6214

More universal randomness in 2D and its relationship to gauge theory [ video ]

ABSTRACT: I will continue the narrative begun in the public lecture while also comparing the universal random surfaces we now understand well (SLE-decorated Liouville quantum gravity and the Brownian map) to those that arise in random matrix theory and gauge theory.