VSI Master Seminar: Jelmer Levenga

Title:
“String theory, a paradoxical overview of beauty and ugliness”

Abstract:
“The name string theory evokes strong emotions in many of todays theoretical physicists. Both for the mathematical beauty it contains as well as the experimental ugliness in its inability to be measured. I will broadly discuss why it is such a hot topic to this day, by outlining the problems string theory purports to solve as well as the new ones it creates. I will do so using bosonic string theory, touching on string exitations, interacting strings and the ADS/CFT correspondence among others.”