Physics Colloquium, May 4, 2010
Applied String Theory for the Impatient Steven Gubser

Princeton University

The main application of string theory is to explain all of fundamental physics in a single framework. Impatient theorists do not want to wait upon this program's full fruition to extract some useful information about experiment from string theory. I will discuss efforts to apply string theory to relativistic collisions of heavy nuclei and to high-temperature superconductors. I will emphasize apparent successes, such as shear viscosity, heavy-quark drag force, conductivity calculations, and ARPES spectra, but I will not entirely neglect reasons for skepticism about the string theory approaches.

Dr. Gubser's Web Site

4:00 p.m., Physics Research Building (PRB), Room 1080

Reception at 3:45 p.m., Atrium, PRB