Talks

Upcoming Talks

Invited Talks

Square Seminars

The Square Seminars are a series of talks launched in 2021 by some collaborators of mine and myself to give PhD students in theoretical physics an informal platform to present their research and teach each other new ideas, peer-to-peer. Here are the links to the presentations I gave over the years:

Braneworlds (&) Holography

26/10/2022 17:30: Emanuele Panella from University College London

Location: Hybrid (Imperial College + Zoom)

Abstract: We introduce the topic of braneworlds from the ground up, starting from Israel junction conditions and briefly analysing failures and successes of the RSI and RSII models. We conclude with recent developments, showing how braneworlds have turned out to be extremely powerful calculation tools once paired with holography. No knowledge of string theory or holography will be assumed. 

Click here to access the recording.

Particles: do they really exist? Let’s find out!

Date: 30/05/2022, 17:30

Location: Imperial College London + online (Zoom)

Abstract: A brief excursion through the Unruh effect, Hawking radiation and Bogoliubov transformations.

Click here to access the recording.

The sphere (weirdly) maximises the free energy of quantum field theories

Date: 22/01/2022, 12:00

Location: Imperial College London + online (Zoom)

Abstract: Ever since the discovery of the Casimir effect, the vacuum energy of quantum fields has been at the centre of many discussions in theoretical physics, with an eye to the possible roles that it can play in various cosmological models. We first review the origin of  the Casimir energy for a scalar field in the famous original setup, before proceeding to discuss the weird effects that arise when these fields are placed on curved spacetimes. With these tools in mind, we introduce techniques to analyse the free energy of QFTs specifically on (2+1)-dimensional curved spacetimes. We conclude by suggesting experiments that might verify the surprising result that QFTs seem to reject the spherical geometry in favour of more crumpled configurations.

Click here to access the recording.