Professor Guido Festuccia
University of Uppsala
From Quantum to Classical Fields and Back
Location: 1080 Physics Research Building
Faculty Host: Samir Mathur
Abstract: Quantum Field Theory provides a quantitative description of many physical phenomena at a variety of scales. The dynamics of quantum field theories are extremely rich but also difficult to study, especially at strong coupling. In this talk I will discuss two instances where we can use classical limits in QFT to study interesting dynamical systems.
On one hand perturbative quantum field theory techniques can be useful to analyze classical systems. For instance they allow to determine the gravitational wave signal from the early inspiral phase of black hole mergers in general relativity. This is a principal observable at earth based interferometers which are opening a new observational window on the cosmos.
Conversely in certain systems with supersymmetry semi-classical methods can be used to elucidate their quantum dynamics even at strong coupling when perturbative methods fail. These techniques have led to many exact results for supersymmetric field theories defined on curved spaces. I will introduce a general framework to determine how supersymmetric observables depend on the geometry of space-time. This framework leads to the definition of novel observables that can be used to explore the dynamics of quantum field theory at strong coupling.
Bio: Guido Festuccia completed his undergraduate studies at the Scuola Normale and the University of Pisa. He obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT in 2007 and was a postdoc at the University of California Santa Cruz and the Institute for Advanced Study. He held positions at the Niels Bohr Institute and the University of Uppsala where he is currently part of the faculty. His research on the interplay of geometry and supersymmetry was awarded an ERC starting grant.
