CMSA Geometry and Mathematical Physics Seminar: Worldsheets, baby universes, and asymptotic representation theory
CMSA GEOMETRY AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR, CMSA EVENTS
When: October 29, 2026
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Where: CMSA, 20 Garden St, G10
Address:
20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Speaker: Elliott Gesteau (MIT & CMSA)
The string worldsheet can be reinterpreted as a baby universe field theory, a formalism first introduced by Coleman, Giddings and Strominger and more recently revived by Marolf and Maxfield to deal with third quantization in quantum gravity. In this talk, I will discuss this reinterpretation in the context of a particularly simple string worldsheet, and connect it to foundational results in asymptotic representation theory.