2026 Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings Workshop

18 May 2026, 09:00 → 20 May 2026, 14:00 America/New_York

Pappalardo Room 4-349 (MIT)

Igor Klebanov (member@princeton.edu;alum@princeton.edu;employee@princeton.edu;affiliate@princeton.edu;faculty@princeton.edu), Phiala Shanahan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Ross Dempsey (MIT), Shu-Heng Shao (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Silviu Pufu (Princeton)

The 2026 Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings Workshop will be hosted at MIT from May 18-20, 2026. The workshop will focus on recent advances in our understanding of non-perturbative quantum field theory and confinement, bringing together a broad range of perspectives.

Registration is currently open. Helpful tips on travel and accomodations can be found here.

The invited speakers for the workshop are:

• Jan Albert
• Minjae Cho
• Giulia Fardelli
• Matthias Gaberdiel
• Johan Henriksson
• Robin Karlsson
• Zohar Komargodski
• Wei Li
• Henry Lin
• Jackson Mickley
• Joe Minahan
• Bendeguz Offertaler
• Sal Pace
• Krishna Rajagopal
• Sahand Seifnashri
• Scott Sheffield
• Iain Stewart
• Chong Wang

Please find the schedule here.

Monday, 18 May

1 Introduction

Talks

2 A worldsheet for 2d YM

Speaker: Matthias Gaberdiel (ETH Zurich)

SimonsMIT26.pdf

10:00 Coffee

Talks

3 Low-twist Z2-odd spectrum of 3d Ising CFT from AdS EFT

Speaker: Wei Li (Boston University)

MIT.pdf

4 Hagedorn with a twist in N=4 SYM

Speaker: Joe Minahan (Uppsala University)

twist_qcd_2026_nb.pdf

12:00 Lunch

Talks

5 The 3d Ising Field Theory from the Fuzzy Sphere

Speaker: Giulia Fardelli (Boston University)

talkFuzzySphereConfinement.pdf

6 Regge trajectories from the adjoint sector of Matrix Quantum Mechanics

We reexamine the large N limit of SU(N) symmetric matrix quantum mechanics, whose singlet sector is well known to be exactly solvable via free fermions. When the Fermi level approaches a maximum of the potential, there is critical behavior corresponding to string theory in two dimensions. We uncover new phenomena in the adjoint sector by solving the Marchesini-Onofri equation both numerically and analytically using semiclassical approximations: at criticality, the spectrum is governed by Regge trajectories. In the dual 2D string theory, we interpret these states as oscillatory excitations of a “short” folded open string. Up to sub-leading corrections, this Regge behavior is essentially universal and is insensitive to the particular potential we choose to approach criticality. Slightly away from criticality, the highly excited states transition into “long strings” that extend far into the Liouville direction.

Speaker: Henry Lin (MIT)

MO_talk_handout_MIT_simons_QCD.pdf

7 Predictions of Matrix String Theory Duality for 2D SYM

Speaker: Minjae Cho (University of Chicago)

mst.pdf

15:30 Coffee

Talks

8 The Confining String in Hyperbolic Space

Speaker: Bendeguz Offertaler (EPFL)

ConfiningStringInHyperbolicSpace copy.pdf

9 Taming Diffractive Scattering with Effective Field Theory

Speaker: Iain Stewart (MIT)

Tuesday, 19 May

Talks

10 Regge’s Inferno

Speaker: Zohar Komargodski (Stony Brook University)

10:00 Coffee

Talks

11 Positivity in energy correlators

Speaker: Johan Henriksson (CERN)

Henriksson-EEC-MIT.pdf

12 Imprints of Asymptotic Freedom on Confining Strings

Speaker: Jan Albert (Princeton University)

Imprints of asymptotic freedom on confining strings - MIT final.pdf

12:00 Lunch

Talks

13 Chiral Lattice Gauge Theories

Speaker: Sahand Seifnashri (IAS)

MIT2026 (1).pdf

14 Infinite-order lattice anomalies from CPT

A massless Dirac fermion in 1+1d has axial and vector symmetries whose lattice realization is constrained by the chiral anomaly. In this talk, we will discuss lattice realizations of these symmetries governed by the Onsager algebra. The resulting Onsager symmetry has a lattice anomaly that becomes the chiral anomaly in the continuum limit. We will show that the lattice anomaly of the Onsager symmetry is order 2, which is consistent with, but distinct from, the infinite-order chiral anomaly in the continuum. This mismatch is resolved, however, by imposing a lattice CPT symmetry. With the lattice CPT symmetry enforced, the lattice anomaly is enhanced from order two to infinite order, yielding a lattice symmetry structure that more faithfully captures the continuum anomaly. (This talk is based on upcoming work with Elijah Lew-Smith and Shu-Heng Shao).

Speaker: Sal Pace (MIT)

MITConfinementTalk.pdf

15 Self-dual Higgs transitions: Toric code and beyond

The toric code, when deformed in a way that preserves the self-duality Z_2 symmetry exchanging the electric and magnetic excitations, admits a transition to a topologically trivial state that spontaneously breaks the Z_2 symmetry. Numerically, this transition was found to be continuous, which makes it particularly enigmatic given the longstanding absence of a continuum field-theoretic description. We propose an SO(4) Chern-Simons-Higgs (CSH) theory at level k=2 and argue that it serves as a natural field theory description of the self-dual transition. Moreover, it can be generalized to an entire series of theories labeled by an integer k. For each k>2, the theory describes an analogous transition involving different non-Abelian topological orders, such as the double Fibonacci order (k=3) and the S_3 quantum double (k=4). For k=1, we conjecture that the corresponding CSH transition is in fact infrared-dual to the 3d Ising transition, in close analogy with the particle-vortex duality of a complex scalar.

Speaker: Chong Wang

SelfDual.pdf

15:30 Coffee

Talks: Flash talks

16 Vaccum structure in gapped QCD2 theories from the infinite Hamiltonian lattice

Speaker: Anna-Maria Glueck (Princeton)

MIT2026 (2).pdf

17 Aspects of Confining Strings

Speaker: Amey Gaikwad (UCLA)

MIT talk final.pdf

18 Two-flavor Schwinger model at θ = π: solution of Coleman's puzzle

Speaker: Ilia Kochergin (Princeton)

Kochergin_slides_2026.pdf

19 Quantum models with the Yang-Lee phase transition

Speaker: Erick Arguello-Cruz (CMU)

MIT_workshop.pdf

20 Lattice Fermion Anomalies and CPT

Speaker: Wucheng Zhang (Princeton University)

WuchengZhang.pdf

18:30 Workshop dinner

Wednesday, 20 May

Talks

21 Conformal collider bootstrap in N=4 SYM

Speaker: Robin Karlsson (Oxford University)

22 Understanding the finite-temperature phase structure of QCD with center vortices

Speaker: Jackson Mickley (Adelaide University)

Slides.pptx

23 Looking at Protons Through a Quark-Gluon Plasma Lens

Speaker: Krishna Rajagopal (MIT)

Simons-Confinement-2026-MIT.pdf

11:00 Coffee

Talks

24 Gauge theory and random surfaces

Speaker: Scott Sheffield (MIT)

MIT_workshop.pdf

12:10 Lunch