Title: Equivalence of gauge theories in the presence of boundaries: insights from General Relativity (there will be a pre-talk at 1pm)
Speaker: Michele Schiavina
Speaker Info: Berkeley
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:
The standard notion of classical equivalence between field theories establishes an arguably simple relation between the critical loci of two variational problem, with little to no mention on how to properly treat the data coming from their symmetries. Although for some applications this is enough, we argue that modern "cohomological" approaches to field theories, like those that stem from the works of Batalin, Fradkin and Vilkovisky, might help in roadmapping beyond this standard notion. In this talk I will present one possible approach to the problem and show how natural examples coming from General Relativity in different space-time dimensions might be a rich class of theories for which a refined notion of equivalence becomes relevant.Date: Thursday, November 8, 2018