Non-Perturbative Methods in Field Theory and Many-Body Physics

该奖项资助了纽约州立大学石溪分校西蒙斯几何与物理中心的Zohar Komargodski教授的研究活动。自然界的基本构件非常简单。它们可以是单个原子，或者单个基本粒子。涌现现象是由许多这样简单的组成部分相互作用产生的现象。然而，最有趣的突现现象不能简单地用这些基本成分的性质来解释。因此，重要的是要发展新的方法，以弥合自然界基本组成部分的性质与由此产生的奇妙的突发现象之间的概念差距。这些新方法将影响现代物理学的几个领域，包括凝聚态物理系统和基本粒子系统。此外，它还与纯数学的发展有着有趣的联系。作为他研究的一部分，Komargodski教授将涉及研究生和博士后，从而为开始在该领域研究的初级物理学家提供关键培训。Komargodski教授还将对自己的研究成果进行公开演讲，并开发以研究成果为基础的新课程。从技术上讲，Komargodski教授的目标是使用从拓扑到重整化群的不可逆性的新方法研究强相互作用量子系统的相位。一个特别有趣的问题是具有缺陷（杂质）和边界的强相互作用系统的基态。对对称性的理解以及缺陷和边界的零温度熵概念的最新进展使我们能够在该领域的新旧问题上取得进展，并为将要探索的各种问题开辟了道路。事实证明，这些新的理论工具在解决强相互作用问题的几个物理领域是不可或缺的。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award funds the research activities of Professor Zohar Komargodski at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at SUNY Stony Brook.The elementary building blocks of nature are quite simple. These could be single atoms, or single elementary particles. Emergent phenomena are phenomena that arise from the interactions of many such simple components. However, the most interesting emergent phenomena cannot be easily explained by the properties of those elementary components alone. It is therefore important to develop new methodologies which can bridge the conceptual gap between the properties of the elementary building blocks in nature and the resulting marvelous emergent phenomena. Such new methodologies will influence several areas in modern physics, including systems in condensed matter physics and also systems of elementary particles. In addition, there are interesting connections with advances in pure mathematics. As part of his research, Professor Komargodski will involve graduate students and postdocs and thereby provide critical training for junior physicists beginning research in this field. Professor Komargodski will also give public lectures on his research results and develop new course curricula based on his research results. More technically, Professor Komargodski aims to study the phases of strongly interacting quantum systems using novel methods ranging from topology to the irreversibility of the renormalization group. A particularly interesting problem is that of the ground state of strongly interacting systems with defects (impurities) and boundaries. Recent advances in the understanding of symmetries and the notion of zero-temperature entropy of defects and boundaries allow us to make progress on old and new problems in the field and open the way to various questions that will be explored. Such new theoretical tools are proving indispensable across several fields of physics that are grappling with the problem of strong interactions.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.