Quantum Field Theory and String Theory

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This award funds the research activities of Professor Silviu Pufu at Princeton University.One of the important problems in theoretical physics is that of finding universal patterns governing the behavior of systems composed of large numbers of constituents that interact very strongly. Examples of such systems range from boiling water at high pressure, or the plasma that forms as a result of a collision between heavy ions, to new phases of quantum matter that currently are only conjectured to exist. Professor Pufu will develop theoretical tools for understanding how the physics that describes the short-distance behavior of such systems constrains the physics that describes the behavior of these systems at longer length scales. These tools are partly based on ideas from string theory, whereby one can study such strongly-interacting systems by instead studying gravity in a higher-dimensional space. Research in this area advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of new physical laws. This project also has an important educational and mentoring component which includes engaging undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs in research, and thereby preparing them for successful scientific careers.At a more technical level, one of the goals of this project is to enhance our understanding of how a quantum system can be described holographically as a higher-dimensional theory of Quantum Gravity. Towards this goal, Professor Pufu will explore the relation between conformal field theory correlators of operators with spin, and flat-space scattering amplitudes in one dimension higher. He will also use an effective field theory approach to investigate what information about Quantum Gravity is encoded in quantities such as the sphere free energy of conformal field theories with holographic duals. Lastly, Professor Pufu will study toy models of the gauge/gravity duality that are based on exact results in strongly-interacting quantum field theories that possess supersymmetry. Another goal of this project is to study analogs of Quantum Chromodynamics in two dimensions that can be used to extract lessons about color confinement and screening of probe quarks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.