High Energy Theory Seminar

We start by reviewing the gauging of the superconformal symmetriesin BLG and ABJ(M) theories and some of the features of the resulting theories. These include a new type of SO(N) theories with 8 supersymmetries which turn out to have a number of (critical) background solutions like AdS, Schroedinger etc. We then turn to a discussion of conformal higher spin systems in three dimensions with the goal of "solving" the higher spin equations in terms of the frame fields to find the non-linear field equations. This discussion will then be extended to include an attempt to construct the higher spin coupling to a scalar field with self-interactions. This is done by explicitly unfolding a "scalar field equation" with source terms.