Speaker
Description
In the first part I will briefly review the Banks-Fishcler-Shenker-Susskind (BFSS) and the Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase (BMN) conjectures relating M-theory and Matrix Quantum Mechanics (MQM) of N × N matrices. In particular, I will differentiate between the weaker form (large N) and the stronger form (finite N) of the conjectures.
In the second part, I will focus on quantum mechanics. After explaining the techniques and subtleties of finding an effective description of a strongly coupled system, I will show that the BMN MQM at strong coupling and finite N describes non-relativistic free particles in a harmonic trap. The energy spectrum predicted by this Hamiltonian matches the supergravity excitation spectrum around the PP-wave background, if we further assume the existence of bound states.
