ASB | Amplitudes, String and Branes

Summary
My research focuses on the interrelated areas of scattering amplitudes, string theory, and M-theory. Following Witten’s development of twistor string theory, many powerful methods have been developed for computing amplitudes in both gauge and gravity theories. I plan to further develop these methods in order to obtain new insights into the mathematical structure of quantum field theory and string theory. For example, I will extend recent 1-loop calculations using the twistor Wilson loop of N=4 super-Yang-Mills (SYM) to higher loops in order to search for new mathematical structures like cluster polylogarithms. I also plan to make contact with integrability by analyzing the multi-Regge limit of the twistor Wilson loop and searching for integrable deformations which allow one to compute amplitudes using Bethe Ansatz techniques. It may be possible to extend these ideas beyond N=4 SYM using ambitwistor string theory, which was recently shown to give rise to tree-level formulae for 4d gauge and gravity amplitudes with any amount of supersymmetry (including the case of no supersymmetry), and provide new insight into the relation between BMS symmetry and soft limits. I plan to generalize ambitwistor string calculations to loop level, curved backgrounds, and massive particles. Finally, another important direction is to understand the basic objects of M-theory, known as M2-branes and M5-branes. Although a great deal of progress has been made for M2-branes, formulating the M5-brane theory remains very challenging. Progress has recently been made in formulating non-abelian 2-form gauge fields on a Euclidean spacetime lattice. I plan to incorporate supersymmetry and self-duality into this construction, and compare it with supergravity in AdS4 x S7.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/657176
Start date: 01-10-2015
End date: 30-09-2017
Total budget - Public funding: 159 460,80 Euro - 159 460,00 Euro
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Original description

My research focuses on the interrelated areas of scattering amplitudes, string theory, and M-theory. Following Witten’s development of twistor string theory, many powerful methods have been developed for computing amplitudes in both gauge and gravity theories. I plan to further develop these methods in order to obtain new insights into the mathematical structure of quantum field theory and string theory. For example, I will extend recent 1-loop calculations using the twistor Wilson loop of N=4 super-Yang-Mills (SYM) to higher loops in order to search for new mathematical structures like cluster polylogarithms. I also plan to make contact with integrability by analyzing the multi-Regge limit of the twistor Wilson loop and searching for integrable deformations which allow one to compute amplitudes using Bethe Ansatz techniques. It may be possible to extend these ideas beyond N=4 SYM using ambitwistor string theory, which was recently shown to give rise to tree-level formulae for 4d gauge and gravity amplitudes with any amount of supersymmetry (including the case of no supersymmetry), and provide new insight into the relation between BMS symmetry and soft limits. I plan to generalize ambitwistor string calculations to loop level, curved backgrounds, and massive particles. Finally, another important direction is to understand the basic objects of M-theory, known as M2-branes and M5-branes. Although a great deal of progress has been made for M2-branes, formulating the M5-brane theory remains very challenging. Progress has recently been made in formulating non-abelian 2-form gauge fields on a Euclidean spacetime lattice. I plan to incorporate supersymmetry and self-duality into this construction, and compare it with supergravity in AdS4 x S7.

Status

CLOSED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2014-EF

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2014
MSCA-IF-2014-EF Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF)