Southern California Strings Seminar

12th December 2007

Location: University of California, Los Angeles

Join us as we (members of several of the local groups with interest in string theory and related topics) sit together to discuss new ideas and developments (both general and technical) in the field. The presentations will be accompanied by plenty of discussion and in the first part of each talk the speaker will take special care to set the scene and context of the work in a pedagogical manner so as to encourage participation by younger members of the field.

Please send an email to michael gutperle (use gutperle at ucla.edu) with the subject line: Southern California Strings Seminar if you're coming. This will help us make sure that there's enough room in the lecture hall, and enough coffee!

(Tentative) Schedule:

Time	Event/Speaker/Topic	Location
8:50am	Introductory Remarks	4-340 PAB
9:15am	Arvind Rajaraman (UCI): Unparticles: Status and Open Questions	4-340 PAB
10:15am:	Discussion	4-340 PAB
10:45am	Break	4-340 PAB
11:00pm	Michael Gutperle (UCLA): Half BPS solutions in Supergravity	4-340 PAB
12:00pm:	Discussion	4-340 PAB
12:30pm	Lunch
2:00pm	Takuya Okuda (UCSB): Wilson loops and dual bubbling geometries	4-340 PAB
3:00pm	Discussion	4-340 PAB
3:30pm	Break	4-340 PAB
3:45pm	Joe Marsano (Caltech): (TBA)	4-340 PAB
4:45pm	Discussion	4-340 PAB
5:15pm	End of Day: Explore/talk/seek food/etc	LA

Travel and Related Information:

All events will be at UCLA. There is online travel (to UCLA) information at this link. Note that (despite popular opinion) there are very good public transport links between some points. The campus is served by Culver city bus #6, Big Blue Bus no 1,2,3,8,12 and various MTA buses. Note that the 720 metro rapid bus (or better, the extra fast 920 metro rapid bus) that runs along Wilshire is also a good way to cross the city (East/West) to get to UCLA. It connects at Wilshire and Vermont to the 754 rapid bus which runs from USC along Vermont. Taking the Gold Line from Pasadena to the Red Line, one can also connect to the 720/920 bus at Wilshire and Vermont. See the trip planner at this link for more information; just put in UCLA as the final destination and select Hilgard-terminal.

Parking: A day pass is $8 at the gate. Use Westholme for the closest structure, in grid 4F on map (below).

"PAB" in the schedule refers to the Physics and Astronomy Building, which can be found on the online map (see link here (map)). PAB is in grid reference 4F.

Lunch will be obtained by individually going to nearby points on campus. Some coffee, cookies, and soft drinks will be provided for the breaks.