From Sigma Models to Four-dimensional QFT

Nov. 29th to Dec. 3rd, 2010
DESY Hamburg, Germany

The intentions of the workshop can be described as follows:

In the last few years many striking connections have been discovered between sigma models in low dimensions, conformal field theories, integrable models and four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories, in particular

• the study of N=4, d=4 SYM in terms of the AdS_5 sigma-model via the AdS-CFT-correspondence and integrability,


• the discovery of connections between S-duality in four-dimensional gauge theory and the geometric Langlands correspondence via 2d sigma models with Hitchin moduli spaces as targets,


• the relations between gauge theory and the quantization of algebraically integrable models like Toda, Calogero and Hitchin systems,


• the discovery that Liouville theory allows one to calculate partition functions and expectation values of loop operators in SUSY gauge theory on S⁴,


• the relations between the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations, wall-crossing and scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM.

It seems to us that the potential of these discoveries is far from being exploited, and that understanding their origin and their mutual relations will lead to deep insights into the physics and mathematics of gauge theories. We therefore plan to bring together researchers from different branches of physics and mathematics in order to stimulate further progress in these fields of research.

Speakers:
S. Alexandrov, G. Arutyunov, J. Bartels, V. Bazhanov, N. Beisert, N. Drukker, S. Frolov, S. Gukov, R. Janik, V. Kazakov, A. Klemm, C. Kozcaz, S. Lee, L. Lipatov, A. Litvinov, K. Maruyoshi, A. Neitzke, N. Nekrasov, V. Pestun, B. Pozsgai, A. Sever, S. Shatashvili, M. Staudacher, M. Taki, G. Vartanov, P. Vieira, K. Zarembo