SP Seminar @SISSA Via Bonomea 265 Rm128 - Tuesday 11 December - C. HERZOG

[CM Section]

Joint ICTP/SISSA Statistical Physics Seminar

Tuesday 11 December at 11:00 a.m.
SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, Room 128

Christopher HERZOG (King's College, London, U.K.)

'Graphene and Boundary Conformal Field Theory'

The infrared fixed point of graphene under the renormalization
group flow is a relatively under studied yet important example
of a boundary conformal field theory with a number of remarkable
properties. It has a close relationship with three dimensional QED.
It maps to itself under electric-magnetic duality. Moreover, it along
with its supersymmetric cousins all possess an exactly marginal
coupling -- the charge of the electron -- which allows for straightforward
perturbative calculations in the weak coupling limit. I will review past
work on this model and also discuss my own contributions, which
focus on understanding the boundary contributions to the anomalous
trace of the stress tensor and their role in helping to understand
the structure of boundary conformal field theory.