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Witten's conjecture from a matrix model point of view

Speaker: 
Fran Globlek
Institution: 
SISSA
Schedule: 
Thursday, February 7, 2019 - 14:30
Location: 
A-136
Abstract: 

 The simplest model of quantum gravity, the two-dimensional case, led naturally not only to intersection theory on the moduli space of stable curves but also to a kind of discretization of the problem, both conjectured by Witten to lead to the same algebra of observables. We aim to give a leisurely introduction to matrix models, the main ingredient in the latter approach. Along the way we will encounter some basics of perturbation theory, interpreted mainly as an enumerative tool, comment on where KdV hierarchy enters the picture and how Kontsevich used them to prove the said conjecture. 

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