Phymaths podcast # 65 || Dr. Jacob McNamara

Description

Jacob McNamara is a theoretical physicist at Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, who has worked on swampland (quite notably on the cobordism conjecture), holography, and non invertible symmetries. The list of his works can be found at the link provided below.

Some links

1) His works: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1804692?ui-citation-summary=true

2) Link to the high energy physics resources page on my website: https://hassaansaleem.com/graduate-level-theoretical-physics-resources-in-progress/

Contact Info

My website: hassaansaleem.com

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hassaan.3142/

Join the Whatsapp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va9DkjmAzNbs7IlGuv1X

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hassaan_PHY

Email Queries: [email protected]

Time Stamps

(0:00) Coming Up

(0:45) Introduction of the guest

(1:01) His current projects

(4:40) Swampland and no global symmetries

(16:30) Cobordism conjecture

(35:34) R7 branes

(51:26) Stringy Non-Invertible Symmetries

(59:39) What does gauging mean?

(1:08:34) Weak Gravity Conjecture

(1:13:36) Use of the word "conjecture"

(1:17:42) Consciousness and Swampland

(1:27:27) Weak Gravity Conjecture (contd.)

(1:30:16) Distance conjecture(s)

(1:35:45) Dark dimension

(1:40:45) Emergent String & generalized distance conjectures

(1:53:15) No scale separation conjecture

(1:59:30) Gravity being classical

(2:09:26) Why study JT gravity?

(2:13:21) Baby universes

(2:16:05) Cobordism conjecture and Wheeler Dewitt equation

(2:21:40) Building collaborations and doing research

(2:32:45) Imposter syndrome

(2:38:16) Learning Geometry and Topology

(2:38:55) Using different platforms

(2:42:07) Pure Math rabbit hole

(2:45:10) Physics vs. Math perspectives and attitudes

(2:25:36) Book recommendations

(2:54:40) Interpretational issues

(3:03:58) What problems do you want to be solved