Friday, February 28, 2025 - 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
DeMeritt Hall - Rm. 240
Title: From Rainbows to Field Theory: Decoding the Path Integral
Presenter: Gerald V. Dunne - Professor of Physics - University of Connecticut
Host: Sergey Pershoguba - Visiting Assistant Professor - Physics & Astronomy Department - UNH
Abstract:
Feynman's path integral encodes a beautiful interpretation of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. This is spectacularly successful as a first-principles computational tool (e.g., lattice gauge theory) for certain observables, such as particle masses, but it has not been successful for other important physical questions, such as high density nuclear matter or non-equilibrium processes. Recent work has approached these fundamental problems using a new framework, known as "resurgent asymptotics", which dates back to work of Airy and Stokes on rainbows, and in modern language unifies perturbative and non-perturbative physics. I will describe the basic ideas underlying resurgence, and illustrate with some physical examples.
