探花系列

Pacific Northwest Particle Theory Seminar

The Pacific Northwest Particle Theory Seminar is an annual 1.5-day regional meeting for high energy theorists in the Pacific Northwest.

The next meeting will be held at the 探花系列 at:

Date: April 30-May 1, 2026.

Location: Bob Wright Centre (BWC) A104.

(See maps below)

Schedule:

April 30, 2026 (Thursday - TBD)

1330 - 1400: Welcome, coffee.

1400 - 1430: TBD.

1430 - 1500: Break.

1500 - 1630: Student talks.

1630 - On: Dinner, drinks.

May 1, 2026 (Friday - BWC A104)

0930 - 1000: Welcome, coffee.

1000 - 1100: Tien-Tien Yu (U of Oregon), Illuminating the Nature of sub-GeV Dark Matter.

Abstract: Over roughly the last ten years, the search for sub-GeV dark matter has boomed, spurred by a new generation of experiments. Intriguingly, many report an excess of low-energy events. In this talk, I will explore strategies for sifting through such data to disentangle potential dark matter signals from backgrounds. These strategies emphasize the importance of having diverse probes, utilizing a variety of target materials and detection technologies. By combining these approaches, we can sharpen our ability to determine whether any viable dark matter model can explain the observed excesses, and take concrete steps toward uncovering the particle nature of dark matter in the sub-GeV regime.

1100 - 1130: Break, posters.

1130 - 1210: Joaquin Turiaci (U of Washington).

1210 - 1230: TBD.

1230 - 1300: Joydeep Chakravarty (McGill), Imaging black holes: exterior and interior.

Abstract: Within holography, we discuss a high-energy simplification which allows us to probe local physics about a bulk point. We find a factorization of boundary correlators in terms of flat-space like scattering amplitudes. Our techniques also allow us to record boundary imprints of bulk causality using lightcones emerging from the bulk point. We then utilize analytic extensions to study the black hole interior: the Schwarzchild singularity using the two-point function, and also obtain similar factorization leading to flat-space scattering amplitudes about an interior bulk point.

1300 - 1400: Lunch.

1400 - 1440: David McKeen (TRIUMF).

1440 - 1510: Break, posters.

1510 - 1540: Jeremy van der Heijden (UBC), Algebras for generalized entanglement wedges.

Abstract: The geometry of spacetime regions in holography is closely tied to the algebraic structure of the underlying quantum theory. In asymptotically AdS settings, this is manifested through the correspondence between entanglement wedges and boundary subsystems. Bousso and Penington have recently proposed a broader notion of entanglement wedges applicable to more general spacetimes, which retains many of the key structural features familiar from AdS/CFT. In this talk, I will investigate the hypothesis that such generalized entanglement wedges admit an intrinsic algebraic interpretation. Specifically, I will consider a map that associates to each wedge a subalgebra in an underlying (unknown) quantum description, and formulate general properties that such an assignment should satisfy. I will argue that several of the structural relations identified by Bousso and Penington—such as inclusion relations and entropy inequalities—can be naturally understood as consequences of standard properties of entropy in algebraic quantum systems. Finally, I will discuss to what extent these ideas may be realized in simple settings, including tensor network models, and comment on their implications for extending holographic intuition beyond the AdS context.

1540 - 1610: Qinrui Liu (SFU).

1610 - 1640: Break, coffee.

1640 - On: End, dinner, drinks.

The Bob Wright Centre at the 探花系列 is located at

For a map of the campus, including Elliot and Bob Wright Buildings, .

There are many off-campus options for lodging. (Unfortunately on-campus housing is only available after the meeting, from May 8 on.)

• The cheapest option is the , a hostel downtown with rates of O(40-50) CAD/night.
• There are many hotels in, or near the Inner Harbour ranging in costs from O(120) CAD/night to 1/epsilon. You should be able to find reasonable rooms for about 140-160 CAD/night after some digging on the usual aggregators, like Kayak, Hotels.com, &c.