Aswin Balasubramanian

Room E355
Serin Physics Building
136 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019

Email(s) :

Rutgers : aswinATphysics.rutgers.edu (PGP Key)
Work Gmail : aswinb.physATgmail.com (PGP Key) - This email is preferred for scientific correspondence.
Keybase : aswinb

I am a theoretical physicist with a strong interest in related mathematics. Specifically, my interests are Quantum Field Theories (supersymmetric and otherwise), String/M Theory and aspects of Representation Theory. While it is almost tautological to say that Quantum Field Theories and Representation Theory are closely related, it turns out that we are discovering some very new aspects of this relationship. Exciting times!

Papers

My publications can be obtained from INSPIRE .

Some Talks

Talks about my work (w J. Distler and R. Donagi) on Families of Hitchin systems and 4d N=2 theories (paper) :

Families of Hitchin systems and N=2 theories, Rutgers NHETC Seminar ( video).
Families of Hitchin systems, N=2 theories and the Deligne-Simpson problem, TU Vienna String Theory Seminar.

Talks about my work (with J. Distler) on mass deformations of 3d N=4 and 4d N=2 theories :

Sheets, 3d Coulomb branches and Symplectic Duality (pdf), short video, Poster Presentation, GRT-2020, Perimeter (Virtual) conference.
Masses, Sheets and Rigid SCFTs (notes) , UPenn Math-Physics Seminar (notes for a 60 min blackboard talk, video).
Masses, Sheets and Rigid SCFTs (slides), City College, CUNY High Energy Seminar
Masses, Sheets and Rigid SCFTs (notes) Perimeter Mathematical Physics Seminar (notes for a slightly longer blackboard talk)

Talks about my work (with J. Teschner) on relating Kapustin-Witten and Beilinson-Drinfeld using Class S theories and the Alday-Gaiotto-Tachikawa correspondence (and its variants) :

"Geometric Langlands from 4d N=2 theories", Munich Fields and String Seminar + very similar talk at Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.
A slides talk at a SFB collaboration meeting (short talk aimed at a general high energy physics audience)

General Interest :

The Langlands Dual Group and Electric Magnetic Duality - A short talk given at New Fellows meeting at DESY, Hamburg. The talk is mostly motivational/historical in nature, but I have emphasized some aspects that are traditionally not placed in the foreground of a physics discussion on Electric Magnetic Duality.

Research Notes

I was one of the organizers for a meeting titled "Quantum Fields, Geometry and Representation Theory" that was held in July 2018 at ICTS-TIFR, Bangalore . Here are the abstracts (pdf) and talk videos (on youtube) from the program.
I have a page that collects literature on the gauge theory approach to the Geometric Langlands Program.