2026 Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings Workshop

Name: 2026 Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings Workshop
Start: 2026-05-18T09:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-05-20T14:00:00-04:00
Location: MIT

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

Pappalardo Room 4-349 (MIT)

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)

Description

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.

Participants

62 View full list

Monday 18 May
- 1
  
  Introduction Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 2
    
    A worldsheet for 2d YM
    
    Speaker: Matthias Gaberdiel (ETH Zurich)
    
    SimonsMIT26.pdf
- 10:00
  
  Coffee Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 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 Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 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 Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 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 Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 10
    
    Regge’s Inferno
    
    Speaker: Zohar Komargodski (Stony Brook University)
- 10:00
  
  Coffee Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 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 Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 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 Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks: Flash talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 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 Mulan
  
  Mulan
  
  228 Broadway Cambridge, MA
Wednesday 20 May
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 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 Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
- Talks Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT
  - 24
    
    Gauge theory and random surfaces
    
    Speaker: Scott Sheffield (MIT)
    
    MIT_workshop.pdf
- 12:10
  
  Lunch Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  Pappalardo Room 4-349
  
  MIT

2026 Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings Workshop

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Mulan

Pappalardo Room 4-349

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