YITP Workshop: New advancements on defects and their applications
Date: July 14 - 18, 2025
Place: Panasonic Auditorium, Yukawa Hall, YITP, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Overview
Boundaries and defects are intrinsic to physical systems, influencing their dynamics in profound ways. From the protected edge modes of topological insulators to the role of D-branes in string theory, defects offer a unique lens into fundamental physics. Recent advances suggest that play distinguished roles in understanding generalized symmetries, transcending their role as mere physical objects. This raises fundamental questions: What exactly is a defect, and what new scenarios and possibilities might emerge from this expanded understanding?
Technical advancements are likely to yield powerful tools to search for or identify the emerging landscape of defects. While quantum field theory remains the central framework for studying defect systems, recent decades have seen the rise of several key methods. These include the conformal bootstrap, integrability, duality, entanglement entropy, and brane-world holography. Many of these techniques are still under active development, with further refinement anticipated in the coming years.
This workshop aims to explore defects from three key perspectives: (1) the expanding theoretical landscape of defects and their novel roles, (2) recent technical advancements such as the conformal bootstrap, integrability, and entanglement entropy, and (3) cutting-edge applications, including the resolution of the black hole information paradox via brane-world models.
By bringing together experts in high-energy theory, condensed matter physics, and quantum information science, this workshop will provide a rare opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange. Through discussions and collaborations, we aim to chart the future directions of defect research and uncover the most pressing open questions in this rapidly evolving field.
Invited speakers
John Estes (SUNY Old Westbury)
Valentina Forini (Humboldt University, Berlin)
Christopher Herzog* (King's College London)
Janet Ling-Yan Hung (YMSC, Tsinghua University)
Charlotte Kristjansen (Niels Bohr Institute)
Yuya Kusuki (Kyushu University IAS)
Sungjay Lee (KIAS, Seoul)
Yu Nakayama (YITP, Kyoto University)
Giuseppe Policastro (Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris)
Bowen Shi (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Tzu-Chieh Wei (YITP, Stony Brook University)
Xi Yin (Harvard University)
*To be Confirmed
Organizers
Dongsheng Ge (University of Osaka)
Tatsuma Nishioka (University of Osaka)
Tadashi Takayanagi (YITP, Kyoto University)
Sponsors
ExU Collaboration, YITP Kyoto University, JSPS Kakenhi
