8.5 Part 3: String theory and (other) science fiction
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Description
Chetan begins by reviewing the eikonal approximation, and factorization theorems for amplitudes. Amartya then discusses this in context of quantum gravity, causality constraints and regge behaviour. This brings us to Vasiliev gravity the origins of string theory, and Chetan makes interesting remarks about string worldsheets, Ricci flows, the a-theorem, and the Poincare conjecture. We briefly discuss Weyl anomalies and the a-theorem in 6 dimensions. Santhosh then rambles about things such as advanced civilizations, lost knowledge, alien worlds and other fascinating plots for science fiction. Amartya concludes by describing about the recent developments in the anomalous (g-2) of muons, and tension between proposed models and data.
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