Research

Overview of our research

Quantum field theory is a framework that combines the laws of quantum mechanics and special relativity in a self-consistent manner and underpins most of theoretical physics today.

General relativity is a highly successful theory describing gravity at large scales such as the solar system. So far, however, it has remained incompatible with the laws of quantum mechanics.

String theory has emerged as the leading candidate for a theory describing all the fundamental forces of nature, including gravity, in a single unified self-consistent quantum mechanical framework. It assumes that all particles are different harmonics of small vibrating strings, much in the way the different harmonics of a guitar string correspond to different musical notes. Surprisingly, even though it started as a theory of just strings, it also accommodates consistently in a non-perturbative manner higher-dimensional extended objects called branes.

There is a rich and fruitful interplay between quantum field theory and string theory, and mathematics. New and sophisticated mathematical techniques have rendered many problems in string theory and quantum field theory tractable and, in certain cases, even exactly soluble.

Conversely, string theory has also led to striking advances and conjectures in mathematics. It is this synthesis between theoretical physics and mathematics that forms the foundation of the group's research.

Selected PhD theses

• Romeo Delmasso, Killing spinors, extensions and metric diagonalization in pseudo-Riemannian geometry, supervisors: Diego Conti and James Grant
• Daniele Farotti, Supergravity, supersymmetry, and black holes, supervisor: Jan Gutowski
• Daniele Bielli, Non-Abelian T-duality in superspace, supervisors: Silvia Penati and Martin Wolf
• Leander Wyss, Strings and spins in deformed AdS/CFT, supervisor: Alessandro Torrielli
• Lorenzo Raspolini, Higher gauge theory, BV formalism, and self-dual theories from twistor space, supervisor Martin Wolf
• Tommaso Macrelli, Homotopy algebras, gauge theory, and gravity, supervisor Martin Wolf
• Roberto Sisca, Heterotic vacua and their universal geometry, supervisor: Jock McOrist
• Andrea Fontanella, Black horizons and integrability in string theory, supervisor: Jan Gutowski
• Antonio Pittelli, Dualities and integrability in low dimensional AdS/CFT, supervisors: Alessandro Torrielli and Martin Wolf
• Fabrizio Nieri, Integrable structures in supersymmetric gauge theories, supervisor: Sara Pasquetti