Wed 10 Dec 10:30: Consequences of symmetry-breaking on conformal defect data BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
Conformal defects break part of the symmetry of a bulk CFT . The broken Ward identities lead to very general sum rules on the defect CFT data as well as on the data of bulk operators in the presence of a defect. We call these sum rules “defect soft theorems”, and they hold generally for defects which break conformal symmetry, flavor symmetry, or supersymmetry. In this talk I will focus on line defects for which we can rewrite the constraints in dispersive sum rule form, and show how the defect soft theorems impose constraints on the defect spectrum and OPE coefficients. This talk is based on https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.26561 with B. Girault and M. Paulos, and on work in progress with G. Bliard, J. Julius, M. Paulos and N. Suchel.
BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
- Speaker: Philine van Vliet (CNRS - Ecole Normale Superieure Paris)
- Wednesday 10 December 2025, 10:30-11:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Mon 19 Jan 16:00: title and abstract tbc (a joint seminar with Spectral Geometry in the Clouds) GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
This seminar is a “joint seminar with Spectral Geometry in the Clouds https://spectralclouds.github.io/
GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
- Speaker: Eugenia Malinnikova (Stanford University)
- Monday 19 January 2026, 16:00-17:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 2, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Wed 28 Jan 14:00: title and abstract tba GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
- Speaker: Leonid Polterovich (Tel Aviv University)
- Wednesday 28 January 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 2, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Wed 10 Dec 09:00: The Numerical Bootstrap of Points and Lines BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
I will describe how to constrain the conformal field theory data attached to boundary conditions of two dimensional theories, using the numerical bootstrap. Even for rational theories, it is hard to construct examples of boundary conditions which break all symmetry except Virasoro, let alone classify them. Yet, as always, the OPE data associated with each conformal boundary condition obeys crossing and unitarity. The ensuing constraints can be organized in a semidefinite program, which allows exploration of a multi-dimensional parameter space involving bulk and boundary data.
BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
- Speaker: Marco Meineri (Università degli Studi di Torino)
- Wednesday 10 December 2025, 09:00-10:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Fri 12 Dec 11:30: Tension of Holographic Defects BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
In AdS/CFT the mass of a particle is related to the scaling dimension of the dual operator. I explain how the generalisation to p-branes, which are dual to p-dimensional defects, leads to two independent definitions of invariant brane tension. I will then prove that superconformal invariance equates them, and discuss implications for the old problem of radiation-reaction for an accelerated charge.
BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
- Speaker: Costas Bachas (ENS, Paris and NTUA, Athens)
- Friday 12 December 2025, 11:30-12:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Tue 09 Dec 09:00: Quantum Anomalies in the Presence of Boundaries BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
I will discuss how quantum anomalies are modified by the presence of boundaries.The focus will be mainly on conformal and chiral anomalies, although gravitational anomalies will be briefly addressed as well. I will also examine the physical manifestations of these anomalies, such as anomalous electric currents induced by external magnetic fields.
BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
- Speaker: Sergey Solodukhin (Université François-Rabelais Tours)
- Tuesday 09 December 2025, 09:00-10:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Thu 29 Jan 15:40: Training Taster Session by: Ben Sparks TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
- Speaker: Ben Sparks (University of Bath)
- Thursday 29 January 2026, 15:40-16:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Thu 29 Jan 15:30: Q&A and Discussion TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
- Speaker: Anna Khoo (Office for National Statistics), Timandra Harkness (Freelance), Ed Day (Science Media Centre)
- Thursday 29 January 2026, 15:30-15:40
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Thu 29 Jan 15:10: TBC TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
- Speaker: John Burn-Murdoch (Financial Times)
- Thursday 29 January 2026, 15:10-15:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Thu 29 Jan 13:00: Q&A and Discussion TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
- Speaker: Anna Khoo (Office for National Statistics), Gillian Prior (National Centre for Social Research), Kat Phillips (University of Warwick)
- Thursday 29 January 2026, 13:00-13:10
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Thu 29 Jan 12:40: Providing access to data and information TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
- Speaker: Anna Khoo (Office for National Statistics)
- Thursday 29 January 2026, 12:40-13:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Wed 21 Jan 14:00: title and abstract tba GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
- Speaker: Bernard Helffer (Université de Nantes)
- Wednesday 21 January 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 2, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Wed 21 Jan 11:00: title and abstract tba GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
GST - Geometric spectral theory and applications
- Speaker: Dan Mangoubi (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
- Wednesday 21 January 2026, 11:00-12:00
- Venue: Seminar Room 2, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Thu 29 Jan 10:20: Be intelligent, not artificial TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
TGM156 - Listening and Responding to Public Interest: A Mathsci-comm Network Event
- Speaker: Christopher Budd (University of Bath)
- Thursday 29 January 2026, 10:20-10:40
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Thu 11 Dec 10:30: Generalized Pinning Fields and Renormalization Group Flows BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
It is commonly believed that exact infra-red (IR) solutions for renormalization group (RG) flows are rare to come by. In this talk, we will consider codimension-one RG flows from pinning fields coupled to bulk local operators in conformal field theories. Using tools from functional analysis, symmetry and anomaly matching, we find exact fixed point solutions for a vast zoo of such flows in d=2,3 and chart the landscape of conformal defects in familiar CFTs.
BIDW03 - The Many Faces of Boundaries, Impurities, and Defects
- Speaker: Yifan Wang (New York University)
- Thursday 11 December 2025, 10:30-11:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.
- Series: Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series; organiser: nobody.
Wed 04 Mar 14:00: Polar Oceans Seminar Talk
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Wednesday 04 March 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
- Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.
Wed 18 Feb 14:00: Polar Oceans Seminar Talk
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Wednesday 18 February 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
- Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.
Wed 04 Feb 14:00: Polar Oceans Seminar Talk
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Wednesday 04 February 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
- Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.
Wed 21 Jan 14:00: Polar Oceans Seminar Talk
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Wednesday 21 January 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
- Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.
Wed 07 Jan 14:00: Polar Oceans Seminar Talk
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
- Wednesday 07 January 2026, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
- Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.