Rutgers University Department of Physics and Astronomy

2008-09 Handbook for Physics and Astronomy Graduate Students

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Research Programs

Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics

Theoretical particle physics has advanced its frontiers enormously in recent years. The success of the Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak interactions, culminating in the discovery of the W and Zo, has led to efforts to find a unified theory including quantum chromodynamics and perhaps general relativity as well. A theory of all interactions and particles usually has far-reaching implications, for instance predicting proton decay, and affecting the development of the universe in the first few moments after the big bang. Thus particle physics now relates to problems in cosmology, such as galaxy formation and the observed predominance of matter over antimatter. The most ambitious of these unified theories - superstrings - is being intensively studied at Rutgers, which has one of the strongest particle theory groups in the world. Other problems, such as developing methods to study non-abelian gauge theories in nonperturbative regimes, electroweak baryogenesis, and computational methods, are also being studied. Advances in the understanding of field theory have yielded techniques and predicted phenomena which are relevant to mathematics, statistical mechanics, and condensed matter physics.

Professor Tom Banks

Since 1996 I have been primarily working on the nonperturbative formulation of superstring theory invented by Steve Shenker, myself and our collaborators. This defines string theory as the limit of quantum mechanical systems whose basic variables are matrices, and incorporates many of the results of string duality. I retain my interests in supersymmetric field theory, supersymmetry phenomenology, and cosmology.

Professor (Emeritus) John Bronzan

My current interest is in non-pertubative Hamiltonian QCD and related field theories.

Professor Diuliu-Emanuel Diaconescu

Professor Michael Douglas

My research is in string theory as a theory of fundamental interactions and quantum gravity, and in non-perturbative methods in field theory. I am currently studying large N field theories, to develop ideas for the non-perturbative definition of string theories, and for possible application to QCD physics. I also work on supersymmetric gauge theory and on conformal field theory, and I maintain an interest in computational techniques for theoretical physics.

Professor Daniel Friedan

I am interested in string theory as a fundamental description of elementary particles and forces and in quantum field theories and string theories as effective descriptions of elementary particles and critical phenomena. Recently, I have been trying to formulate non-perturbative string theory so as to make possible low-energy predictions and comparison with experiment.

Professor Claud Lovelace

I am working on string field theory. Long ago, when I discovered the critical dimension (Phys.Lett.B34,500(1971)), I showed that strings can lead to a composite graviton. Witten (Nucl.Phys. B268, 253, 1986) took this much further by proving that a field theory of open strings can generate the complete perturbation expansion. Unfortunately there are severe mathematical and computational difficulties, and further progress has been slow. If this approach could be fully realized, it would imply the astonishing conclusion that we actually live in 10 flat dimensions, and the world we see is an illusion created by the deformation of our measuring instruments by matter fields. There have been many related speculations that black holes require a form of holography, but this would go further. A paper I wrote with D.Belov (hep-th/0304158) solves one mathematical difficulty, but far more work is needed.

Professor Sergei Lukyanov

My research activities are in the areas of quantum field theory, mathematical physics and statistical mechanics. Currently I am mostly interested in exactly soluble low dimensional models.

Professor Gregory Moore

I work on mathematical physics related to quantum field theory and string theory. Specific topics include:
 
·               Rational conformal field theory, together with applications to the quantum Hall effect,
·               Matrix models of string theories, especially in low dimensions.
·               Quantization of Chern-Simons theories and self-dual fields.
·               The mathematics of D-branes, including relations to (differential) K-theory and the application of topology to supergravity.
·               The use of modular forms and automorphic functions in deriving low energy supergravity actions and in accounting for black hole entropy in terms of statistical counting of microstates.
·               Mathematical applications of physical ideas, such as:  Applications of Seiberg-Witten theory to the theory of 4-manifolds;  applications of string theory to number theory.

Professor Joel Shapiro

Prof. Shapiro's work in particle theory has been centered primarily on string theory. He was one of the early contributors to dual resonance models, identified the scattering amplitudes of the closed strings, and was one of the first to identify the role of modular invariance.

Professor Matthew Strassler

Matt Strassler works on quantum field theory and string theory, and on their applications to particle physics.  He is currently interested in (1) the physics of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which aims to probe the physics of the weak nuclear interactions (which powers the sun and the earth), and (2) the dynamics of the strong nuclear interaction (the force that affects quarks and gluons, and binds them into protons and neutrons) and its relation with string theory Currently he is studying the possibility that new sectors of particles and forces ("hidden valleys") might be uncovered at the LHC, and attempting to understand their experimental signatures, especially if they have strongly interacting particles of their own.  He is also interested in astrophysical implications of these sectors.  Meanwhile, he is working to ensure that new signals at the LHC can be distinguished from common physical phenomena which, although well-known, are difficult to estimate accurately.

Professor Scott Thomas

My area of research is in theoretical physics.  At present my main focus is in two areas.  The first is the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking which should be well probed at the Large Hadron Collider.  The second is the holographic properties of theories of quantum gravity.  I am also investigating the possibility of extracting testable cosmological and laboratory predictions from fundamental theories which possess a Landscape of solutions such as string theory.

Professor Alexander Zamolodchikov

I am working on quantum field theory in relation to both high-energy physics and statistical physics. More specifically, I am looking for exact solutions to model quantum field theories, and trying to elaborate mathematical structures of such solutions as well as applications to physics of criticality, strings and gravity. Presently I am interested in various aspects of the fascinating interplay between integrable field theories, conformal field theories, and string theory.

Lattice Field Theory

Professor Herbert Neuberger

My area of specialization is Field Theory and I am mostly interested in its non-perturbative aspects.

 

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