Week 08.04.2024 – 14.04.2024

Euclidean wormholes are exotic types of gravitational solutions that still challenge our physical intuition and understanding. After reviewing universal properties of asymptotically AdS wormhole solutions from a gravitational (bulk) point of view and the paradoxes they raise, I will describe some concrete (microscopic) field theoretic setups and models that exhibit such properties. These models can be reduced to matrix integrals and crucially involve correlated ("entangled") sums of representations of the boundary symmetry group. I will conclude with the realisation of such set-up in N=4 SYM/type IIB SUGRA.

In this talk we will discuss a new window into the solution of Heun differential equations arising in black hole perturbation theory using the tools of two-dimensional conformal field theory and gauge theories. Kerr Compton amplitudes for massless perturbation of generic spin-weight s, are written in compact form in terms of the so-called Nekrasov-Shatashvili functions; their symmetry properties are also discussed. These are then used as building blocks to study the scattering of two Kerr black holes with generic spin orientation. Comparison to conservative observables for bounded systems computed via first-order gravitational self-force methods are shown.