On November 26 we will have a seminar by
Paul Townsend (Cambridge U., DAMTP)
Title: Interacting alternatives to Maxwell’s equations preserving
conformal and duality invariance
Abstract:
The source-free Maxwell’s equations are both conformal invariant and
invariant under an SO(2) electromagnetic duality group. It is commonly
thought that these conditions imply their uniqueness. However, there are
two interacting electrodynamics theories with the same field content and
all the symmetries of Maxwell’s equations. One was found in 1983 by
Bialynicki-Birula from a strong-field limit of Born-Infeld theory; it has
an enhanced Sl(2;R)-duality invariance. The other, dubbed “ModMax”, was
found very recently from a weak-field limit of a ‘generalized’ Born-Infeld
theory; it has a dimensionless coupling constant and reduces to Maxwell
for zero coupling. This talk will review the main features of both
Bialynicki-Birula and ModMax electrodynamics.
Meeting information:
26th of November at 14:30 Italian Time
Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/198435430
Slides are available at
https://pandora.infn.it/public/cf0ae7
You can watch the recording at
https://pandora.infn.it/public/35895c