Federico Ardila (Queen Mary).ÌýPolytopes from amplitudes.
Abstract:ÌýScattering amplitudes and other quantities in physics are given by enormous, intricate sums that are very challenging to compute in practice, and often involve mysterious, extensive cancellations. A powerful technique to explain this phenomenon is to encode the combinatorial complexity of these sums in a geometric object. I will introduce some of the beautiful polytopes that arise and discuss their rich combinatorial structure. Our two central examples will be the associahedron (first discovered in homotopy theory and rediscovered in scattering amplitudes) and the cosmohedron (first discovered in cosmology and seeking a homotopy theoretic interpretation).
My talk will discuss joint work with Marcelo Aguiar and {Nima Arkani-Hamed, Carolina Figueiredo, and Francisco Vazão}, and will not assume previous knowledge of this topic.
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