Gauge / gravity duality

Abstract

This proposal puts together specialists in various areas of string theory and quantum field theory and their applications in order to analyze and apply various aspects of gauge/gravity duality. This duality and its applications are one of the most important and active areas of research in theoretical physics, and we are fortunate that São Paulo is emerging as the leading center for it not only in Brazil, but perhaps the whole of Latin America. We therefore need to get together, coordinate, and strengthen the interactions of the researchers in the area in order to continue to grow this newly developed competence. Since Maldacena proposed his AdS/CFT correspondence in 1997, it has grown to the current gauge/gravity duality, proposing that string theories and quantum gravity in general on the one hand, and quantum field theory on the other, are just different descriptions of the same system. Since when one side is strongly coupled, the other is weakly coupled, this duality has become an invaluable tool to study both strongly coupled quantum field theories in a weakly coupled way, as well as quantum gravity aspects in terms of a perturbative description.We plan to use the duality to analyze certain aspects of gauge theories, both more concrete and more formal, condensed matter physics, early Universe cosmology, supergravity and string theory, the pure spinor formulation in the AdS/CFT correspondence, the dynamics of strings and branes in gravitational spaces, aspects of integrability, higher spin operators and their connection to string theory, as well as better defining and finding more examples of the AdS/CFT correspondence and gauge/gravity dualities, and various mathematical aspects relevant for these dualities. (AU)