Philosophy of Physics Seminar (Thursday - Week 1, TT23)
Thursday 27 April, 4:30pm
Lecture Room, Radcliffe Humanities
Sebastian de Haro (Amsterdam): 'Dualities and quasi-dualities: on solitons and phases of quantum field theories'
In physics, a duality is an isomorphism between two theories (here called ‘models’). A quasi-duality is a map between two models that falls short of being a full isomorphism: usually through its being a partial or an approximate isomorphism. In quantum field theory, dualities often exchange particle and soliton states (where a soliton is a solution of the non-linear field equations with finite energy). I take bosonization duality and Seiberg-Witten quasi-duality as case studies to illustrate two aspects of dualities that bear on the interpretation of theories. The first aspect is the conception of a common core theory “behind two duals”. The second aspect is the role of solitons and quasi-dualities in exploring the physical content and phase structure of quantum field theories.
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