Charles Wang

Me

As of April 2024, I am a third-year physics graduate student at Harvard University. My advisor is Xi Yin and I am interested in string theory and quantum gravity more generally. I seem to mainly be working on ‘string theory worldsheet miscellaneous’.

Spends a suspicious amount of time in the math department.

Research

(In reverse chronological order.)

Conformal Perturbation Theory and Tachyon-Dilaton Eschatology via String Fields
[arXiv:2403.14544]

Supermoduli and PCOs at Genus Two
[arXiv:2205.10377]

On the Equivalence between SRS and PCO Formulations of Superstring Perturbation Theory
[arXiv:2205.01106]

Silly Things

Video

I made a video and will probably make no more videos.

Useless Notes

Rantings and ravings about physics.

USE OF THE LINKED WRITEUPS IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE MAXIMAL EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE LINKED WRITEUPS AND ANY SERVICES PERFORMED OR PROVIDED BY THE LINKED WRITEUPS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

[Submitted on 11 Oct 2021]
Useless Notes #0: "The Joke Paper" (An Useless Method to Measure the von Neumann Entropy) [pdf]
After getting nowhere with a calculation, I decided to type it up in as silly a manner as possible. I then managed to get it rejected from arXiv.
[Submitted on 24 Apr 2024]
Useless Notes #1: Fun with Orbifolds and the Barnes-Wall Lattice [pdf]
An attempt to wring out as much as possible out of a 2D CFT originating from the Barnes-Wall lattice. Props to Noam Elkies.
[Submitted on 29 Apr 2024, Revised 11 May 2024]
Useless Notes #2: Sign-B-Gone [pdf]
In which two pieces of notation, abstract index notation and sign indicators, set out to vanquish the evil anticommutation signs of Grassmann. Also enclosed are a stealth introduction to the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism and fermionic commas.
[Submitted on 20 Sept 2024]
Useless Notes #3: How to Čech Your Actions [pdf]
In which I write down the true form of the Chern-Simons action because I keep on forgetting how to do it. There is also patches and boundaries between patches and boundaries between boundaries of patches, franken-manifolds, the distinction between truth and Lie, and shouts of LOCALITY.

Adventures in Recreational Mathematics

In the works.