Research on String Theory and Gauge Theory

该基金资助肯塔基大学Sumit Das教授的研究活动。在过去的150年里，我们对已经处于平衡状态的物理系统已经有了相当好的了解，但我们对非平衡状态的过程的了解相当有限。本项目旨在了解非平衡系统的某些方面。值得注意的是，弦理论中发展的概念和技术可以用来解决这个基本问题。这个项目将使用这些新工具来理解这个过程的通用特性，也就是说，对于一个广泛的系统类别来说，这些特性是通用的。因此，该领域的研究通过促进科学在其最基本的方向之一的进步来促进国家利益：对普遍物理现象的理解。该项目产生的更广泛的影响将是提高本科和研究生物理教育的质量，并支持肯塔基州地区的前沿物理研究。在更技术性的层面上，Das将使用量规-重力对偶研究强耦合量子场论中的非平衡现象。此外，标准引力二象性将被用来理解另一个非平衡系统的含义：膨胀的宇宙。更具体地说，全息技术将用于理解宇宙奇点的本质和可能的分辨率。

This grant funds the research activities of Professor Sumit Das at the University of Kentucky.Over the past 150 years we have attained a fairly good understanding of physical systems which are already in equilibrium, but we have rather limited understanding of processes out of equilibrium. This project aims at understanding some aspects of non-equilibrium systems. Remarkably, it turns out that concepts and techniques developed in String Theory can be used to attack this fundamental problem. This project will use these new tools to understand universal features of this process, i.e., features which are common to a wide class of systems. As such, research in this area advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the understanding of universal physical phenomena. The broader impacts resulting from this project will be to enhance the quality of undergraduate and graduate physics education, and to support frontier physics research in the Kentucky region. At a more technical level, Das will study non-equilibrium phenomena in strongly coupled quantum field theories using gauge-gravity duality. In addition, gauge-gravity duality will be used to understand the meaning of yet another non-equilibrium system: the expanding universe. More specifically, holographic techniques will be used to understand the nature and possible resolutions of cosmological singularities.