71. More talks: M2 branes and AdS/CFT, correlations of low multipoles in CMB

Here is another couple of recent talk at Perimeter Institute worth if not watching, but at least going through the presentation file:

1. Igor Klebanov from Princeton discusses M2 branes and AdS/CFT correspondence. M2 branes are very hot topic in string theory now (see the review of membrane minirevolution on the Lubos Motl’s blog). Let me remind you that M2 branes are supermembranes in 11-dimensional M-theory, and one naturally wants to get a kind of AdS/CFT considering world volume theory on them. Generally, this should be more complicated than the construction of duality, since the M-theory is inherently strongly coupled, while the analysis of the 10-dim. string theory is well under control at least in the regime of weak coupling.

The AdS/CFT duality that appears in studies of M-theory is supposed to be . It is of especial interest for us because three-dimensional CFT describes the vicinity of most phase transitions of the 2nd kind in Nature (ones that belong to the universality class of 3D Ising model).

2. Glenn Starkman from the Case Western Reserve argues that CMB is inconsistent with the standard model of cosmology (Lambda CDM model). His conclusion is based on two facts: a) the lowest CMB multipoles are correlated not just with each other but with geometry of the solar system, and  b) there is a lack of large angle correlations in the part of the sky outside the galactic plane.