Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
IAS High Energy Theory Seminar
Topic: Edge Modes on String Horizons
Speaker: Atish Dabholkar
Affiliation: International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Date: April 13, 2026
Bloomberg Lecture Haall
For a quantum field of arbitrary mass and spin in the static patch of de Sitter spacetime, the Euclidean partition function receives contributions from edge modes localized on the horizon, expressible in terms of the Harish-Chandra character of the de Sitter group. Considering the flat limit and summing over all string fields, we obtain the partition function of edge modes in string theory near the Minkowski-Rindler horizon. Application of the Kronecker limit formula naturally yields a modular invariant one-loop partition function. The resulting expression generalizes the edge contribution of a massive vector boson in a spontaneously broken gauge theory to the infinite tower in string theory. It is naturally ultraviolet finite and amenable to a state-counting interpretation.
IAS High Energy Theory Seminar
Topic: Edge Modes on String Horizons
Speaker: Atish Dabholkar
Affiliation: International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Date: April 13, 2026
Bloomberg Lecture Haall
For a quantum field of arbitrary mass and spin in the static patch of de Sitter spacetime, the Euclidean partition function receives contributions from edge modes localized on the horizon, expressible in terms of the Harish-Chandra character of the de Sitter group. Considering the flat limit and summing over all string fields, we obtain the partition function of edge modes in string theory near the Minkowski-Rindler horizon. Application of the Kronecker limit formula naturally yields a modular invariant one-loop partition function. The resulting expression generalizes the edge contribution of a massive vector boson in a spontaneously broken gauge theory to the infinite tower in string theory. It is naturally ultraviolet finite and amenable to a state-counting interpretation.
