
Asymptotic Symmetries and Detectors - Part 2
Sabrina Pasterski, a theoretical physicist known for work on celestial holography, continues a two-part lecture on asymptotic symmetries and their detection, delivered as part of the Institute for Advanced Study's Prospects in Theoretical Physics program. This second session builds on prior groundwork to examine how symmetries at the boundary of spacetime connect to observable detector responses, a line of inquiry tied to soft theorems, memory effects, and the broader celestial holography program linking flat-space physics to conformal field theory on the sky. The talk is pitched at a research level, assuming familiarity with gauge theory and gravitational radiation, and works through the formal structure connecting asymptotic charges to measurable signals. Pasterski threads together recent technical developments with open questions the field is still chasing, giving researchers a sense of where this corner of theoretical physics stands and what detectors might eventually confirm.