This is the homepage for the UT Geometry and String Theory Seminar. ##Spring 2009 Schedule## This semester, we will cover a motely collection of topics with no obvios relation between them. {:r: scope="row"} Date|Speaker|Topic| ---:|:------|:---- {:r}1/28 |Jacob Lurie|Discussion with Lurie about ETQFT and the Cobordism Hypothesis {:r}2/4 |Distler|Recursion relations for scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity {:r}2/11 |Jaume Gomis|M2 branes {:r}2/18 |David Ben-Zvi|Factorization and OPE {:r}2/25 |Eric Sharpe| ? {:r}3/4 |Sean Keel|K3 surfaces and torus fibrations (part I) {:r}3/11 |Sean Keel|K3 surfaces and torus fibrations (part II) {:r}3/25 |Anindya Dey|Modular differential equations and null vectors {:r}4/1 |Xi Yin | ? {:r}4/8 |Graeme Segal| ? {:r}4/15 |Graeme Segal| ? {:r}4/22 | Aswin Balasubramanian | Constraints on 2d CFTs and consequences for 2+1 AdS gravity [^foot1]. {:r}4/29 | ? | ? {:r}5/6 | ? | ? {: class="plaintable" style="text-align:center;" summary="Spring Schedule"} ###References### ####Chiral or Factorization Algebras#### * Frenkel and Ben-Zvi, Vertex Algebras and Algebraic Curves (2nd edition) * Gaitsgory, Notes on Factorizable Sheaves * Lurie, On the classification of topological field theories * Beilinson and Drinfeld, Chiral Algebras ###2d CFTs and 2+1 AdS gravity### For Aswin's talk : * A Universal Inequality for CFT and Quantum Gravity, S. Hellerman [^foot1] [0902.2790](http://arxiv.org/abs/0902.2790) * The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force, Arkani Hamed et al [hep-th/0601001](http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0601001) ####Etc####