Lessons from conformal field theory

June 8-9, 2017
Hamburg

Conformal field theory, in particular in two dimensions, is an important source of inspiration and insight at the interface of mathematics and physics. It is closely connected to another such brigding topic, topological quantum field theory, and the better understanding of their interplay resulted in important advances on both sides. Many people, including Jürgen Fuchs, who, by a pure coincidence, turns 60 this year, have made key contributions to these fields.

This conference is funded by the Research Training Group 1670 "Mathematics inspired by string theory and quantum field theory". It is a joint activity of the Research Training Group 1670, and the Center for Mathematical Physics Hamburg.

List of speakers

Terry Gannon (Univ. of Alberta, Canada)
Albrecht Klemm (Bonn University, Germany)
Gregor Masbaum (Jussieu, Paris, France)
Ehud Meir (Hamburg University, Germany)
Victor Ostrik (Univ. of Oregon, USA)
Nicolai Reshetikhin (Univ. of California, Berkeley, USA)
Bert Schellekens (NIKHEF, Netherlands)
Joost Slingerland (Maynooth University, Ireland)
Yinhuo Zhang (Univ. Hasselt, Belgium)

Program

The tentative program is:

Thursday, June 8, 2017

09:00-10:00	-	Terry Gannon, Orbifolds, conformal field theories and modular tensor categories
10:00-10:40	-	Coffee break
10:40-11:40	-	Victor Ostrik, Modular extensions group of a symmetric tensor category
11:55-12:55	-	Joost Slingerland, Zero modes and resonances in parafermionic chains
12:55-14:30	-	Lunch break
14:30-15:30	-	Gregor Masbaum, An application of TQFT to modular representation theory
15:30-16:10	-	Coffee break
16:10-17:10	-	Yinhuo Zhang, Reconstruction of tensor categories from their invariants [slides]
17:30-18:00	-	Ehud Meir, Symmetric monoidal categories, Deligne Theory and algebraic structures

19:15	-	Dinner at Sternchance, Schröderstiftstr. 7

Friday, June 9, 2017

09:30-10:00	-	Bert Schellekens, The joy of discreteness [slides]
10:00-10:30	-	Coffee break
10:30-11:30	-	Albrecht Klemm, Modularity on compact Calabi-Yau three-folds
11:45-12:45	-	Nicolai Reshetikhin, CFT, semiclassical limits and integrable systems

Group photo:

(click on photo to enlarge)

Venue

The conference will take place in the Hörsaal H2 of the Department of Mathematics, Bundesstr. 55, of the University of Hamburg. Here is a map. The closest metro station is "Schlump" on the red line U2 and the yellow line U3. The train station "Sternschanze" (train lines S11, S21 and S31) is also in walking distance. Here is the website for public transport in Hamburg.