Quantum Field Theory and String Theory

该奖项为普林斯顿大学教授Silviu Pufu的研究活动提供资金。理论物理学中的一个重要问题是寻找支配由大量相互作用非常强烈的组分组成的系统的行为的普遍模式。 这类系统的例子从高压沸水到重离子碰撞形成的等离子体，或者到目前只存在的量子物质的新相。 因此，这一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：发现和理解新的物理定律。 作为他资助的研究的一部分，普夫教授将开发理论工具，以了解短距离物理学如何影响和限制此类系统中的长距离物理学。这些工具部分是基于弦理论的思想，人们可以在高维空间中通过引力描述强相互作用的量子系统。 该项目也有一个重要的教育和指导组成部分，包括从事研究的本科生，研究生和博士后，从而为他们成功的科学生涯做好准备。在更技术的层面上，这个项目旨在提高我们对量子系统如何被更高维的引力理论描述的理解。 这将通过构造这种对应的更简单的例子来完成。 构建这样的例子的出发点将涉及最近在具有超对称性的强相互作用量子场论中的各种精确结果。 本项目的另一个目标是了解边界项在规范/重力对偶性中的作用，特别是在其精度测试中的作用。 最后，第三个目标是通过探索F定理及其与纠缠熵的联系来加深我们对重整化群的理解。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而被认为值得支持。

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 consisting of large numbers of constituents that interact very strongly. Examples of such systems range from boiling water at high pressure to the plasma that forms from the collision of heavy ions, or to new phases of quantum matter that are currently only conjectured to exist. As a result, 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. As part of his funded research, Professor Pufu will develop theoretical tools for understanding how the short-distance physics affects and constrains the long-distance physics in such systems. These tools are partly based on ideas from string theory, whereby one can describe strongly-interacting quantum systems by gravity in a higher-dimensional space. This project also has an important educational and mentoring component that includes engaging undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs in research, and thereby preparing them for successful scientific careers. At a more technical level, this project seeks to enhance our understanding of how a quantum system can be described by a higher-dimensional theory of gravity. This will be done by constructing simpler examples of this correspondence. The starting point for constructing such examples will involve various recent exact results in strongly-interacting quantum field theories that possess supersymmetry. Another goal of this project is to understand the roles that boundary terms play in the gauge/gravity duality, and in particular in precision tests thereof. Lastly, a third objective is to deepen our understanding of the renormalization group by exploring the F-theorem and its connection with entanglement entropy.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.