TFI 2026: Theories of the Fundamental Interactions

25 May 2026, 13:00 → 27 May 2026, 13:10 Europe/Rome

Centro Paolo VI, Brescia

Davide Cassani (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Domenico Seminara (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Giuseppe Nardelli (TN), Marialuisa Frau (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Marta Orselli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Roberto Auzzi (PG), Stefano Baiguera (INFN, Perugia)

---

Theories of the Fundamental Interactions is a bi-annual meeting, organized by the INFN networks GAST, GSS and ST&FI, which gathers expert and young researchers within the Italian scientific community. The 9th meeting will take place at the center Paolo VI in Brescia from May 25th to May 27th, 2026.

The conference will focus on several aspects of high-energy physics such as: perturbative and non-perturbative quantum field theory, classical and quantum gravity, the holographic principle, conformal field theories, integrable models, supergravity, black holes, quantum information, and applications to cosmology and condensed matter physics. 

The program will include three review lectures, regular talks given by young researchers, and a poster session (where participation from senior master students, PhD students and young postdocs will be encouraged). 

---

Review talks

-- Dionysios Anninos (King's College, London)
-- Zohar Komargodski (Simons Center for Gravity and Physics, Stony Brook)
-- Alexander Zhiboedov (CERN)

---

Regular talks

-- Mohammad Reza Akhond (Roma Tor Vergata)
-- Ivano Basile (MPI Munich)
-- Faizan Baht (Genova)
-- Alessandro Borys (Catania)
-- Nicolò Brizio (Padova)
-- Federico Carta (Bologna)
-- Valerio Descontus (Roma Tre)
-- Alessandro Duci (Milano Bicocca)
-- Francesco Galvagno (Torino)
-- Hengyuan Guo (Pisa)
-- Chrysoula Markou (Pisa)
-- Pierluigi Niro (Trieste)
-- Tommaso Pedroni (Trieste)
-- Paolo Pergola (Napoli)
-- Nicolò Petri (Milano)
-- Natalia Pinzani Fokeeva (Firenze)
-- Andrea Placidi (Perugia)
-- Alejandro Ruipérez (Padova)
-- Palash Singh (Milano Bicocca)
-- Diego Trancanelli (Bologna)
-- Rudolfs Treilis (Parma)

---

Poster session

Those who wish to present their work at the Poster Session are invited to send a message with a title and an abstract of their work to tfi2026@lists.infn.it with the Object: Poster Presentation TFI 2026 by April 30th 2026.

---

Local organizers

Roberto Auzzi, Stefano Baiguera, Lihan Guo, Giuseppe Nardelli, Marta Orselli 

Scientific advisory board

Davide Cassani (Padova), Marialuisa Frau (Torino), Domenico Seminara (Firenze)

---

 

 

                                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Social dinner

The social dinner will take place at "Antica Salumeria e Trattoria Porteri" (https://www.porteri.it/), located close to the city centre (map), on Tuesday 26th May at 20.00.

Important:
1) Please fill the survey https://agenda.infn.it/event/48355/surveys/ by the 15th May 2026 to let us count the number of participants, and specify your dietary restrictions.
2) There are at most 110 places at the restaurant. If we will exceed this number, only the first 110 people subscribed to the conference will be able to attend the social dinner.

---

Practical Informations

Registrations to the conference will be closed on the 10th May 2026.

Rooms at the venue of the conference (Paolo VI) are NOT automatically reserved to the participants, rather each participant should book their room individually. We suggest the participants to book their room in advance following the link. The payment of the rooms is usually done in advance, but many rooms have the option of a free cancellation until the day of the conference itself. 

Alternatively, participants are free to consult other websites and individually book a place of their preference.

The center Paolo VI is located in the center of Brescia, and it is easily reachable by walk from the stop "Vittoria" of the metro. The metro can be taken from the railway station. Pratical informations on public transport within Brescia can be found here.

Brescia is reachable by train (including high-speed lines from the main italian cities), see Trenitalia and Italo for more information. People coming by flight can go to the airports of Milano Malpensa, Linate or Bergamo and then reach Brescia by train.

Monday 25 May

13:00 → 13:50 Registration

13:50 → 14:00 Introductory remarks

14:00 → 15:00 Review talk n.1

Speaker: Alexander Zhiboedov (CERN)

15:00 → 15:25 Lagrange-EOB dynamics: a new route from post-Minkowskian theory to waveform models

In this talk, I will present a new formulation of the effective-one-body (EOB) dynamics, particularly well suited for incorporating post-Minkowskian information into waveform models for compact binaries. This is especially timely, as several groups worldwide are currently working to derive increasingly accurate post-Minkowskian results for the two-body problem. After motivating the shift in perspective introduced by our approach, I will discuss its main features and show how, through the crucial use of a Lagrange multiplier in the EOB action, it leads to new EOB equations of motion in Euler–Lagrange form. Finally, I will illustrate the performance of an EOB model based on this new Lagrange-EOB dynamics, which combines post-Newtonian and post-Minkowskian information, and I will mention recent developments for neutron-star systems.

Speaker: Andrea Placidi (University of Perugia)

15:25 → 15:50 Regular talk n.2

Speaker: Dr Federico Carta (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

15:50 → 16:15 Parametric, Crossing Symmetric Dispersion Relations for Quantum Field Theories

We derive a new one-parameter family of manifestly crossing-symmetric dispersion relations for 2→2 scattering amplitudes in quantum field theories. We demonstrate that this parametric crossing-symmetric dispersion relation (PCSDR) both enlarges the convergence domain and improves the convergence rate relative to conventional fixed-t dispersion relations in many cases. For tree-level string-theory amplitudes, using the PCSDR, we obtain new series representations that exhibit poles in all the channels and converge in the full kinematic domain. We then apply this framework to bootstrap weakly coupled gravitational effective field theories and derive nontrivial bounds on their low-energy Wilson coefficients.

Based on arXiv: 2506.03862 [hep-th].

Speaker: Faizan Baht

16:15 → 16:45 Coffe break

16:45 → 17:10 Defect RG flows in ABJM theory from weak to strong coupling

Chern-Simons-matter theories in 3 dimensions are known to display a plethora of Wilson loops that can be used to define 1-dimensional defect conformal field theories (dCFTs) living on their contours. In this talk we propose to discuss a few examples from an intricate web of RG flows connecting the dCFTs defined on the BPS and non-BPS Wilson loops of ABJM theory. We compute the anomalous dimensions of the deforming operators, establish g-theorems along the flows, and also discuss the role played by cohomological anomalies and framing. We do this both at weak coupling in perturbation theory and at strong coupling, using the holographic duals of these operators.

Based on: 2211.16501, 2305.01647, 2312.13283, 2410.10970, 2508.21068
and 2604.11896 with M. S. Bianchi, L. Castiglioni, S. Penati and M. Tenser.

Speaker: Prof. Diego Trancanelli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

17:10 → 17:35 Regular talk n.5

Speaker: Natalia Pinzani Fokeeva (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

17:35 → 18:00 Generalised anomalies, QCD, and holography

During the last decade, the notion of an ’t Hooft anomaly has been generalised to the case of discrete symmetries. An interesting instance, discussed by Tanizaki, is the mixed anomaly between the discrete axial symmetry and the flavour and baryonic symmetries in massless QCD. In this talk, I will provide a derivation of this anomaly from a top-down holographic dual of QCD. I will show that the topological couplings in the bulk supergravity dual of the D4-D8 system encode Tanizaki’s anomaly. A technical challenge for this computation is the difficulty in maintaining gauge invariance of supergravity theories in the presence of D-branes. To overcome this issue, a compact formulation of the flux sector of (massive) type IIA supergravity in the presence of D8 branes is presented.

Speaker: Mohammad Reza Ahkond (INFN Roma Tor Vergata)

18:00 → 19:30 Poster session and reception

18:00 7D (non-)susy vacua & DWs from dynamical open strings

The poster describes the effect of introducing open string degrees of freedom (scalars and fluxes) associated with spacetime-filling branes/orientifold planes in dimensional reductions of massive type IIA supergravity on a 3-sphere with warping. The corresponding supergravity description in 7 dimensions needs extra vector multiplets coupled to the gravity multiplet and new embedding tensor components parametrizing the possible gaugings. The scalar potential of such theory exhibits novel AdS
vacuum solutions, with and without supersymmetry. The analysis of domain wall solutions interpolating between the different pairs of vacua allows to identify analytical as well as numerical solutions, providing additional information about the stability and possible non-perturbative transitions between vacua.

Speaker: Valentina Bevilacqua (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

18:00 Celestial Regge theory

Exploiting the analytic properties of the scattering amplitude, we provide an alternative but equivalent definition of the standard Mellin transform used to obtain celestial correlation functions. From this representation, we identify a celestial dispersion relation that relates the reduced correlation function to the poles and discontinuities of the bulk amplitude. By drawing an analogy with the standard CFT case, we define the celestial Regge limit and identify the relevant celestial CFT data in terms of the partial amplitudes governing the bulk Regge limit.

Speaker: Riccardo Giordana Pozzi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

18:00 Charged Black-Hole Binary Evolution at Second Post-Newtonian Order

We investigate the dynamics and radiation of electrically charged black hole binaries within the post-Newtonian (PN) framework. We derive the conservative dynamics up to second post-Newtonian (2PN) order from a harmonic-coordinate Lagrangian incorporating both gravitational and electromagnetic interactions, and we compute the leading dissipative effects induced by charge. Furthermore, we analyze the radiative sector by evaluating the total energy flux and the waveform modes, focusing on new hereditary contributions generated by the presence of the electromagnetic field.

Speaker: Elisa Grilli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

18:00 Conformal Partial Wave Expansion of Celestial Correlators

The AdS/CFT correspondence provides us with the best working example of the holographic principle. The holographic principle is used to study quantum gravity observables living on the conformal boundary of space-time. For example, this has been applied in the AdS/CFT correspondence, where we studied that quantum gravity observables on the boundary of (d+1)-dimensional AdS space are equivalent to correlation functions of a (non-gravitational) Conformal Field Theory (CFT) in d-dimensional Minkowski space. The natural question is to ask whether this understanding can be extended to space-times closer to that of our universe. One proposal for holography in flat space is celestial holography, where the boundary observables live on the celestial sphere at null infinity of Minkowski space. Recently it has been realized that celestial correlation functions can be written in the more familiar language of AdS/CFT by perturbatively expressing them in terms of Witten diagrams in Euclidean Anti-de Sitter space (EAdS). In this poster I will present that in perturbation theory such celestial correlation functions admit a conformal partial wave expansion with meromorphic spectral density, and hence also an expansion into conformal blocks.

Speaker: Francesca Pacifico (Università di Napoli Federico II)

18:00 Gravity saddles, index degeneracy and one-form symmetry

We study the gravitational origin of the logarithmic term arising in the superconformal index of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ SCFTs, both in the Cardy-like limit and in the large-$N$ limit, focusing on its interpretation in terms of discrete symmetries and saddle degeneracy. On the field-theory side, this contribution is associated with the spontaneous breaking of an electric $\mathbb{Z}_N$ one-form symmetry, which leads to the appearance of $N$ degenerate saddle points contributing equally to the index.

We analyze the gravitational realization of this saddle degeneracy by studying the infinite-volume limit of a supersymmetric non-extremal AdS$_5$ black hole solution, and reproduce the $\log N$ term by working within an appropriate 5d consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity.

Speaker: Gianmarco Esposto (Università di Padova)

18:00 Infrared Spectra of Strongly-Coupled Chiral Gauge Theories

Several simple asymptotically free chiral gauge theories are studied. The only “free parameters” of our models are the choice of the gauge group and the representations of the matter Weyl fermions,and the relative magnitudes of the renormalization-group (RG) energy scales $Λ_{i}$ associated with each gauge group. Equivalently, they can be chosen as small gauge coupling constants at an arbitrarily chosen large ultraviolet mass scale, $Λ_{UV}$. None of our models has non-trivial non-Abelian, fermionic “family”-like, global symmetries. We rely on some recent theoretical developments on the dynamics of strongly-coupled chiral gauge theories, based on the generalized symmetries and associated new types of anomaly-matching algorithms, but also on the solid knowledge of vector-like gauge theories such as QCD and $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The structures of the infrared effective theories, the RG-flows, and the light spectra found in these models are surprisingly elegant and intriguing.

Speaker: Matteo Orso (Università di Pisa)

18:00 Logarithmic Divergences in 11D Supergravity: Zeta Function Regularization on Product Spaces via Kaluza-Klein Decomposition

We revisit the one-loop logarithmic corrections to the partition function in 11-dimensional supergravity on $AdS_4 \times S^7$, providing a systematic lower-dimensional framework for precision holography. Starting from the 11d partition function, we perform a complete spherical harmonic decomposition of the supergravity field content on the internal manifold $S^7$, thus reducing the 11d logarithmic divergence to the infinite product of 4d quadratic determinants. Reconstructing the 11d divergence from the 4d ones requires careful study of the zeta-function regularization that was not previously done in the literature, including previously unnoticed zero modes. We demonstrate an exact cancellation of all local logarithmic divergences, confirming top-down expectations that odd-dimensional manifolds intrinsically lack local Seeley-DeWitt anomalies. While serving as a proof-of-concept that reproduces known results for the $AdS_4 \times S^7$ background, this methodology offers a tractable, systematic formulation that circumvents the computational bottlenecks of higher-dimensional Seeley-DeWitt expansions. Furthermore, the framework is constructed to be readily generalizable to other compactifications, such as the Type IIA $AdS_4 \times \mathbb{CP}^3$ background.

Speaker: Federico Arrighi (Leibniz Universität Hannover)

GGI26poster_v2.pdf

18:00 Probing the bubble interior with entanglement entropy and bulk-cone singularities

In the thin wall approximation, we study a class of asymptotically AdS black holes which contain a spherically symmetric vacuum bubble with a different (positive or negative) cosmological constant. Collapsing, expanding, and static bubble solutions are considered. Among these, expanding bubbles with positive cosmological constant can provide a way to apply the AdS/CFT correspondence to describe the physics of an expanding universe. We systematically study the causal structure of the solutions as a function of the cosmological constant, the mass of the black hole, and the tension of the bubble. We then compute the holographic entanglement entropy for a class of boundary subregions using extremal codimension-two surfaces as a probe. For collapsing bubbles, we find examples in which the entanglement entropy also explores the geometry inside the black hole bifurcation surface. As a complementary way to probe the interior of the bubble, we investigate almost-null radial geodesics related to the bulk-cone singularities of boundary two-point correlators. While the bulk-cone singularities for collapsing and expanding bubbles are consistent with thermalization at late time, static bubbles violate thermalization and exhibit properties similar to those of scar states.

Speaker: Lihan Guo (UCSC & KU Leuven & INFN-PG)

18:00 SL(2,Z) Dualization Algorithm for Line Defects

Line defects pose a fundamental challenge for dualities in gauge theories. While it is known that field theories with radically different gauge groups can be dual at low energies, it is not yet fully understood how the presence of a line defect in one theory maps in the dual description. This conundrum was partially solved in the case of 3d theories with N=4 supersymmetry related by mirror symmetry [1], where Wilson loops on one side of the duality were shown to be exchanged with 't Hooft loops in the dual theory [2]. Since mirror duality descends from the action of the S generator of the modular group SL(2,Z), it is natural to ask how line defects map across more general duality transformations within this group.
In this work, we provide a complete derivation of such a duality map in SL(2,Z) dual gauge theories. Remarkably, we adopt an entirely field-theoretic approach, thereby complementing previous results on S-duality obtained by means of brane arguments [2].
Our primary tool is the SL(2,Z) dualization algorithm [3]. This is a systematic procedure to derive SL(2,Z) duals by applying basic duality moves locally to the quiver constituents, proven on pure field theory grounds. The first preliminary result of this work is the extension of this algorithm to include the dualization of line operators. With this tool, we are able to determine how loop operators are dualized into each other when passing through a duality wall, be it associated with the S or T generator of SL(2,Z).
We then reproduce all the results of [2], including the derivation of a microscopic description of 't Hooft loops as coupled 1d/3d system, and provide a field theory interpretation of the manipulations performed at the level of the brane setup. Finally, we present an SL(2,Z) duality web between gauge theories endowed with codimension-two defects. All our results show perfect agreement with the structure predicted by brane constructions.

[1] K. A. Intriligator and N. Seiberg, “Mirror symmetry in three-dimensional gauge theories,” Phys. Lett. B 387 (1996) 513–519, arXiv:hep-th/9607207.
[2] B. Assel and J. Gomis, “Mirror Symmetry And Loop Operators,” JHEP 11 (2015) 055, arXiv:1506.01718 [hep-th].
[3] R. Comi, C. Hwang, F. Marino, S. Pasquetti, and M. Sacchi, “The SL(2, Z) dualization algorithm at work,” JHEP 06 (2023) 119, arXiv:2212.10571 [hep-th].

Speaker: Alessandro Brolis (University of Milano-Bicocca)

18:00 String theory Amplitudes for Very Massive Particles

String theory scattering amplitudes exhibit remarkable properties, most notably their ultraviolet softness, easily explained from a worldsheet perspective. From a target space perspective, these features arise from the infinite tower of massive excitations organized into Regge trajectories. Despite this rich structure, string amplitudes are not known in closed form beyond a few low-lying trajectories, or for light states.

In this work, we develop techniques to systematically construct states along entire Regge trajectories and compute their associated three-point amplitudes. These results offer new insight into the organization of string amplitudes at high mass and provide a step toward a more complete understanding of their target space interpretation.

Speaker: Bruno Bucciotti (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa)

18:00 The hyperplane string, RCFTs, and the swampland

Six dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ supergravity features BPS strings whose properties encode highly nontrivial information about the parent 6d theory. We focus on a distinguished set of theories whose string charge lattice is one-dimensional. In geometric theories, the generator of the lattice arises from a D3 brane wrapping the hyperplane class in $\mathbb{P}^2$. This hyperplane string is expected to remain stable even when one ventures beyond the geometric regime where it becomes challenging to verify which candidate 6d theories belong to the swampland. We identify five 6d models which from the perspective of the hyperplane string deviate the most from being geometric. For these theories we are able to provide an exact description of the left-moving sector of the hyperplane string worldsheet in terms of a rational conformal field theory and provide evidence for their consistency. In one instance, using RCFT methods we are able to determine the elliptic genus and find that in the unflavored limit it matches with the elliptic genus of geometric models. We argue that the non-geometric model is connected to geometric ones via a sequence of Higgsing transitions. These results lead us to formulate a proposal relating the quantum corrected moduli space of the hyperplane string CFT with a region of the landscape of 6d $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ quantum gravity.

Speaker: Luca Novelli (University of Bonn)

18:00 Towards non-relativistic supersymmetric localization

Supersymmetric localization is a powerful technique to get exact results from the path integral of a supersymmetric field theories defined on a compact manifold [1,2,3]. Localization relies on the definition of supersymmetric theories in curved space, which need to preserve part of the original supersymmetry existing in flat space. In the relativistic case, this problem was systematically addressed in the seminal work by Festuccia and Seiberg [4].

Motivated by recent progress in non-relativistic field theories, we study the analogous problem for supersymmetric theories coupled to Newton-Cartan geometry [5]. In particular, preserving supersymmetry in a four-dimensional Lorentzian theory with R-symmetry is equivalent to the existence of a conformal null Killing vector in the background geometry [6, 7]. This condition is naturally realized on three-dimensional manifolds obtained via null-reduction [8] of a pseudo-Riemannian geometry.

In this work, I show that, among other solutions, torsional Newton–Cartan geometries provide consistent curved backgrounds on which supersymmetry is preserved. I further show that super-Galilean theories, including super-Galilean Yang–Mills, as well as a non-relativistic chiral theory – both obtained via null reduction of their four-dimensional relativistic counterparts – can be consistently coupled to these curved backgrounds and are Q–exact, i.e. they can be written as supersymmetric variations of scalar quantities. Finally, I comment on the realization of supersymmetric localization in this context.

[1] V. Pestun, Commun.Math.Phys. 313 (2012) 71-129.
[2] B. Willett, DOI: 10.1088/1751-8121/aa612f.
[3] A. Kapustin, B. Willett, I. Yaakov, JHEP 1003:089,2010.
[4] G. Festuccia, N. Seiberg, JHEP 1106:114,2011.
[5] J. Hartong, N. A. Obers, G. Oling, DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2023.1116888.
[6] C. Klare, A. Tomasiello, A. Zaffaroni, DOI: 10.1007/jhep08(2012)061.
[7] D. Cassani, C. Klare, D. Martelli, A. Tomasiello, A. Zaffaroni, Commun.Math.Phys. 327 (2014) 577-602.
[8] C. Duval, G. Burdet, H. P. K¨unzle, M. Perrin; Phys. Rev. D31, 1841.

Speaker: Sante Ruggieri (Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca. INFN, Section of Milano-Bicocca)

18:00 Universal sectors in superconformal defects

We study universal features of defect correlation functions in supersymmetric defect CFTs, focusing on four-point functions of the displacement supermultiplet. By perturbing the leading-order correlators at strong coupling, we derive constraints that identify the operators exchanged at next-to-leading order. From this, we determine the conditions under which four-point functions of defect insertions across different theories are equivalent, thereby establishing universality.
We confirm these features in examples including the 1/2 BPS line in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM, $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories and ABJM, up to the first subleading order in the strong-coupling expansion. We further analyze the 1/2 BPS line in 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ Chern-Simons-matter theories, identifying the preserved defect algebra and the superdisplacement multiplet. Exploiting universality, we find the superdisplacement four-point functions of defect operators and extract the conformal data at first subleading order. Finally, we comment on the 1/3 BPS Wilson line in ABJM, presenting initial results from the strong-coupling analysis.

Speaker: Riccardo Giordana Pozzi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Tuesday 26 May

09:30 → 10:30 Review talk n.2

Speaker: Dionysios Anninos (King's College)

10:30 → 10:55 String theory in the infrared

In the face of theoretical and experimental difficulties in directly probing string theory in its natural, high-energy regime, one hopes that its low-energy regime feature general properties arising from UV/IR mixing. Concretely, I will discuss how the infrared data - potentials, gauge couplings, Wilson coefficients - of gravitational effective theories arising from worldsheet string theory (specifically closed-string sectors at one-loop level) is constrained by conformal and modular invariance. I will comment on how the resulting scaling relations connecting these quantities reflects expectations from holographic and swampland considerations.

Speaker: Ivano Basile (Max Planck Institute for Physics)

10:55 → 11:25 Coffe break

11:25 → 11:50 Bubbling saddles of the gravitational index

I will discuss a large class of supersymmetric solutions of Euclidean five-dimensional supergravity recently studied in 2507.12650 [hep-th]. These solutions admit an interpretation as saddle points of the gravitational path integral that computes a supersymmetric index. They possess a $\mathrm{U}(1)^3$ isometry and are characterized by a rod structure specifying the fixed loci of the $\mathrm{U}(1)$ isometries. These fixed loci can correspond either to horizons or to three-dimensional bubbles, and may have $S^3, S^1 \times S^2$, or lens-space topology. I will then focus on configurations containing a single horizon together with a bubble outside it, and show that these geometries correspond to saddles carrying the entropy of supersymmetric black rings and black lenses. Finally, time permitting, I will discuss a decoupling limit leading to asymptotically $\mathrm{AdS}_3$ solutions, and argue that a subclass of our geometries provides saddle points of the $\mathrm{AdS}​_3$ gravitational path integral computing the elliptic genus of the dual $\mathrm{CFT}_2$.

Speaker: Alejandro Ruiperez (University of Padova)

11:50 → 12:15 Universality of brane scattering from integrated correlators

In this talk we will review some new achievements about the computation of integrated correlators in 4d SCFTs, which possess a dual holographic interpretation in terms of string scattering amplitudes in presence of D-branes. In particular, we will concentrate on two setups: (i) a class of correlators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM with heavy operators dual to semiclassical D3-brane giant graviton solutions; (ii) integrated correlators in special $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs with fundamental and antisymmetric matter content, dual to open/closed string amplitudes in presence of D7-branes. We make use of supersymmetric localization techniques to evaluate the integrated correlators in terms of a matrix model, generating exact results in the gauge coupling. The results from QFT side in the ’t Hooft limit show some remarkable universality properties for the string/brane scattering processes.

Speaker: Francesco Galvagno (TO)

12:15 → 12:40 The Sausage Reheated

The sausage model is a two-dimensional integrable deformation of the O(3) sigma model introduced by Fateev, Onofri and Zamolodchikov. In this talk I will explain how we can gain analytic access to the finite-size energy spectrum in the one-loop minisuperspace approximation using recently developed methods for Lamé and Heun equations, based on their relations to four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and two-dimensional conformal field theories. In particular, this leads to explicit expressions for the energy levels near the two ends of the renormalization-group flow, and to quantitative control of the spectrum in the intermediate regime.

Based on work in progress with G. Bonelli, S. Lacroix and A. Tanzini.

Speaker: Tommaso Pedroni (SISSA, Trieste)

12:40 → 14:15 Lunch

14:15 → 14:40 Heavy maximal-trace operators and their holographic duals

In this talk I will discuss a synthesis of ideas involving localization, modularity and resurgence that allows to one to make precision tests of holography. Localization allows us to compute the exact value of certain integrated 4-point functions of half-BPS operators; the form of these correlators is highly constrained by S-duality and they are modular functions. Then applying ideas from resurgence and solving the model in the large-N limit we find that both the perturbative and non-perturbative terms can be identified within a non-trivial deformation of $\mathrm{AdS}_5 \times S^5$, the so called AdS bubble - argued to be dual to a certain coherent state built from the 20' superconformal primary!

Speaker: Rudolf Treilis (University of Parma)

14:40 → 15:05 Regular talk n.12

Speaker: Chrysoula Markou (SNS, Pisa)

15:05 → 15:30 Regular talk n.13

Speaker: Nicolò Petri (INFN, Milano)

15:30 → 15:55 Celestial Mellin Amplitudes

Celestial holography aims to recast flat-space physics in terms of conformal data on the celestial sphere. This invites the use of CFT techniques to analyse observables in flat holography. In this talk I will introduce a Mellin-amplitude representation for celestial correlators, inspired by the Mellin amplitudes for holographic correlators in AdS/CFT. Celestial Mellin amplitudes streamline both computation and interpretation of celestial correlators, and exhibit an AdS-like analytic structure: contact interactions give polynomial Mellin amplitudes, while particle exchange appears through a characteristic pattern of poles. After illustrating the method in scalar theories, we extend it to the exchange of spinning fields. For massless external scalars we obtain closed-form celestial Mellin amplitudes for spin-1 and spin-2 exchange (massless and massive) and extract direct-channel OPE data, identifying the contributions of the spin-1 current and the spin-2 stress tensor, together with the boundary gauge boson and graviton.

Based on arXiv:2412.11992 and arXiv:2511.09501.

Speaker: Paolo Pergola (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

15:55 → 16:25 Coffe break

16:25 → 16:50 More on TTbar-like deformations in higher dimensions

The TTbar deformation is a remarkable example of a solvable irrelevant deformation in two-dimensional quantum field theory. Its extension to higher dimensions is obstructed by the loss of factorisation and the onset of non-locality.

In this talk, I discuss a class of TTbar-like deformations in $d>2$ formulated directly in terms of the stress-energy tensor. I show how these flows naturally lead to non-linear theories, including Dirac–Nambu–Goto and Born–Infeld–type actions, providing a unified perspective on their structure across dimensions.

These results suggest that stress-tensor deformations offer a general framework to generate and organise non-linear field theories beyond two dimensions, with potential implications for integrability and locality.

Speaker: Nicolò Brizio

16:50 → 17:15 Double and Multiple Copy at the Lagrangian Level

The Double Copy relations allow one to compute (super-)gravitational scattering amplitudes from (super-)Yang-Mills ones. We explore this paradigm off-shell by attempting the construction of $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $\mathcal{N}=2$ Supergravity Lagrangians using suitably chosen pairs of (super-)Yang-Mills theories as building blocks. Our double-copy fields and gauge symmetries are defined as convolution products of single-copy Yang-Mills fields and parameters. When extended to higher spins, the model allows for an interpretation of the latter in terms of either double or multiple copies.

Speaker: Valerio Descontus (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

17:15 → 17:40 Regular talk n.17

Speaker: Alessandro Borys (University of Bologna)

20:00 → 23:00 Social dinner

Wednesday 27 May

09:30 → 10:30 Review talk "Semi-Classical Limits of Conformal Field Theories and Beyond"

Speaker: Zohar Komargodski (Simons Centre for Theoretical Physics)

10:30 → 10:55 Regular talk n.18

Speaker: Alessandro Duci

10:55 → 11:25 Coffe break

11:25 → 11:50 Regular talk n.19

Speaker: Pierluigi Niro (SISSA, Trieste)

11:50 → 12:15 Regular talk n.20

Speaker: Palash Singh (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)

12:15 → 12:40 Regular talk n.21

Speaker: Guo Hengyuan

12:40 → 12:50 Closing remarks