Steven S. Gubser

We propose an experimentally realizable quantum spin model that exhibits fast scrambling, based on non-local interactions which couple sites whose separation is a power of 2. By controlling the relative strengths of deterministic,…

We consider scalar field theory defined over a direct product of the real and $p$-adic numbers. An adjustable dynamical scaling exponent $z$ enters into the microscopic lagrangian, so that the Gaussian theories provide a line of fixed…

We study non-local non-linear sigma models in arbitrary dimension, focusing on the scale invariant limit in which the scalar fields naturally have scaling dimension zero, so that the free propagator is logarithmic. The classical action is a…

We study the holographic dual of the simplest notion of spin in a $p$-adic field theory, namely Green's functions which involve non-trivial sign characters over the $p$-adic numbers. In order to recover these sign characters from bulk…

Melonic field theories are defined over the $p$-adic numbers with the help of a sign character. Our construction works over the reals as well as the $p$-adics, and it includes the fermionic and bosonic Klebanov-Tarnopolsky models as special…

We classify a large set of melonic theories with arbitrary $q$-fold interactions, demonstrating that the interaction vertices exhibit a range of symmetries, always of the form $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$ for some $n$, which may be $0$. The number of…

We exhibit simple lattice systems, motivated by recently proposed cold atom experiments, whose continuum limits interpolate between real and $p$-adic smoothness as a spectral exponent is varied. A real spatial dimension emerges in the…

Three related analyses of $\phi^4$ theory with $O(N)$ symmetry are presented. In the first, we review the $O(N)$ model over the $p$-adic numbers and the discrete renormalization group transformations which can be understood as spin blocking…

Geodesic bulk diagrams were recently shown to be the geometric objects which compute global conformal blocks. We show that this duality continues to hold in $p$-adic AdS/CFT, where the bulk is replaced by the Bruhat-Tits tree, an infinite…

I argue that string creation may have played a role in reheating the universe after inflation. For strings in four dimensions that arise from branes wrapping cycles in the extra dimensions, estimates from effective field theory show that…

We formulate a Euclidean theory of edge length dynamics based on a notion of Ricci curvature on graphs with variable edge lengths. In order to write an explicit form for the discrete analog of the Einstein-Hilbert action, we require that…

In this summary of my talk at Strings 2016, I explain how classical dynamics on an infinite tree graph can be dual to a conformal field theory defined over the $p$-adic numbers. An informal introduction to $p$-adic numbers is followed by a…

We use holography to compute spectral functions of certain fermionic operators in three different finite-density, zero-temperature states of ABJM theory with a broken U(1) symmetry. In each of the three states, dual to previously studied…

We construct a $p$-adic analog to AdS/CFT, where an unramified extension of the $p$-adic numbers replaces Euclidean space as the boundary and a version of the Bruhat-Tits tree replaces the bulk. Correlation functions are computed in the…

We review methods developed in the gauge-string duality to treat energy loss by energetic probes of a strongly coupled thermal medium. After introducing the black hole description of the thermal medium, we discuss the trailing string behind…

I explain how to evolve segmented strings in de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spaces of any dimension in terms of forward-directed null displacements. The evolution is described entirely in terms of discrete hops which do not require a…

We calculate fermionic response in domain wall backgrounds of four-dimensional gauged supergravity interpolating between distinct stable AdS vacua. The backgrounds, found by Bobev et al., are holographically dual to zero-temperature states…

We study how coincident Dirichlet 3-branes absorb incident gravitons polarized along their world volume. We show that the absorption cross-section is determined by the central term in the correlator of two stress-energy tensors. The…

Recently Das and Mathur found that the leading order Hawking emission rate of neutral scalars by near-extremal $D=5$ black holes is exactly reproduced by a string theoretic model involving intersecting D-branes. We show that the agreement…

Coincident D3-branes placed at a conical singularity are related to string theory on $AdS_5\times X_5$, for a suitable five-dimensional Einstein manifold $X_5$. For the example of the conifold, which leads to $X_5=T^{1,1}=(SU(2)\times…