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

该奖项资助了纽约州立大学斯托尼布鲁克西蒙斯几何与物理中心的佐哈尔·科马戈斯基教授的研究活动。 它们可以是单个原子，也可以是单个基本粒子。 涌现现象是由许多这样的简单成分相互作用而产生的现象。 然而，最有趣的涌现现象不能简单地用这些基本成分的性质来解释。 因此，重要的是要开发新的方法，可以弥合概念之间的差距的性质的基本积木在自然界中和由此产生的奇妙的紧急现象。这些新方法将影响现代物理学的几个领域，包括凝聚态物理学系统和基本粒子系统。此外，与纯数学的进步有着有趣的联系。 作为他的研究的一部分，Komargodski教授将涉及研究生和博士后，从而为初级物理学家开始在这一领域的研究提供关键的培训。Komargodski教授还将就他的研究成果进行公开讲座，并根据他的研究成果开发新的课程。从技术上讲，Komargodski教授的目标是使用从拓扑学到重整化群的不可逆性的新方法来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。最近在对称性的理解和零温度熵的概念的缺陷和边界的进展，使我们能够在该领域的新老问题上取得进展，并开辟了道路，将探讨各种问题。这类新的理论工具被证明是解决强相互作用问题的几个物理学领域不可或缺的工具。该奖项反映了NSF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.