Resurgence in Matrix Models and Topological Strings

Tue Mar 26, 2024 1:30 p.m.—2:30 p.m.
Exterior of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall featuring a stone carving of Yale's coat of arms and motto

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Seminar: 
Special Guest Lecture

Event time: 
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 1:30pm

Location: 
KT 801

Speaker: 
Max Schwick

Speaker affiliation: 
University of Geneva

Event description: 
Many recent developments in matrix models and topological string theory have been driven by resurgence methods.

I will introduce basic resurgence concepts in the context of hermitian matrix models (and their double scaling limits) and demonstrate the natural appearance of negative d-branes associated to anti-eigenvalue tunneling (tunneling on the non physical sheet of the spectral curve). Furthermore I will illustrate how such negative d-branes are a feature of the t’Hooft limit and necessary for a full non perturbative resurgent large N description, but at the same time are turned off at finite N.

Furthermore I will introduce the concept of diagonal framing for resurgent transseries that include negative d-branes. This gives rise to an identification of the non perturbative partition functions of hermitian matrix models and certain topological strings, which I will illustrate using the example of (2,3) minimal strings/H_0 Argyres Douglas Theory.