Seminar by Cypris Plantier (LPSC, Grenoble): “Various aspects of higher-form fields: from gauge-group topology to dark matter”

Speaker: Cypris Plantier (LPSC, Grenoble)

Venue & Time: Red Room / 15:00

Title: Various aspects of higher-form fields: from gauge-group topology to dark matter

Abstract: Quantum field theory allows for the existence of antisymmetric tensorial gauge fields possessing several Lorentz indices. These so-called higher-form fields constitute intriguing, ambiguous objects sitting at the interface between local dynamics and global topology: they naturally couple to extended operators, encode topological structures, and play a central role in characterizing the vacuum structure of non-abelian gauge theories. At the same time, those are shown to propagate physical scalar and vectorial degrees of freedom, making higher-form fields natural and promising dark matter candidates.
This seminar will present a historical and conceptual overview of higher-form fields, focusing on their application to dark matter physics. Particular emphasis will be placed on the recent developments regarding the interplay between duality and dark matter portals within effective field theory frameworks.