Young Researchers School 2026

The Young Researchers School 2026 on Integrability and 2D CFT

One of the great challenges of theoretical physics today is to understand quantum systems (and in particular quantum field theory) beyond perturbation theory. This may seem like a daunting task but, over the last several years, an amazing amount of progress has been achieved for two-dimensional quantum systems and QFTs. Certain lattice systems can be solved exactly thanks to the presence of an infinite number of underlying symmetries — integrability. What is more, these systems may admit a critical continuum limit in which they are described by conformal QFTs — CFTs. They possess infinite-dimensional Virasoro symmetry which strongly constrains them, and in some case allows us to solve them exactly. Even more remarkably, when deforming these CFTs it is sometimes possible to preserve some of this infinite-dimensional symmetry to obtain QFTs which are not conformal but are integrable, and can still be solved exactly!

The aim of this school is to overview the different types of exact solvability and explain the meaning and purpose of often-encountered but sometimes mysterious terms such as minimal models, bootstrap, thermodynamic Bethe ansatz, and more. While some impressive results in this field date back a few decades, we will take a modern view, exploring the role of non-invertible symmetries and presenting the latest advances in this field.

As usual, students will be provided with advance notice of the school pre-requisites and lecture notes. The lecture and tutorials will be presented by emerging talents in this field: Lea Bottini (IHES), Sascha Gehrmann (Oxford), Enrico Marchetto (DESY), Alessio Miscioscia (U. Stony Brook), Davide Polvara (U. Hamburg).

More information can be found on the program page.