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The Memory of Solitons

Project description

Powerful quantum field theory framework based on the memory of solitons

Quantum field theory (QFT) is undoubtedly one of the most important achievements of modern theoretical physics with broad applications ranging from condensed matter to elementary particle physics. Despite its success, the current formulation of QFT is incomplete. Scientists also lack tools to address from first principles a wide variety of interesting physical systems including the dynamics of quarks within protons and in high-temperature superconductors. The EU-funded MEMO project will provide a powerful method for computing QFT terms without relying on perturbation theory. In particular, it will compute the exact values of several observables relying solely on the spectrum of solitons for the given QFT. This ‘soliton memory’ will provide a paradigm shift in modelling interactions of sub-atomic particles and quasiparticles.

Objective

Quantum field theory (QFT) is undoubtedly one of the most important achievements of modern theoretical physics, with broad applications ranging from condensed matter systems to elementary particle physics. Despite its successes, the current formulation of QFT is incomplete and we lack tools to address from first principles a wide variety of interesting physical systems, including the dynamics of quarks within protons, phase transitions, and high temperature superconductors. The present project aims at addressing this issue by establishing a novel, powerful and unconventional paradigm for QFT without relying upon the existence of a perturbative expansion. The cornerstone for such a paradigm is the following remark: in a wide variety of simple examples it is possible to compute exactly the values of several observables relying solely upon the knowledge of the spectrum of solitons of the given QFT. I call this effect the memory of solitons. My goal is to establish a research group that will develop and exploit the memory of solitons to study non-perturbative aspects of QFTs. The proposed strategy to approach this problem is twofold. On the one hand I focus on the simplest QFTs to develop my intuition on concrete and explicit examples: my laboratory consists of theories having supersymmetry and/or conformal symmetry where a plethora of exact results are available in the literature. On the other I exploit geometric engineering techniques in string theory, which gives access to the non-perturbative spectrum of QFTs from a completely different angle that allows exact computations to be performed, providing new insights into the mathematical structure of the theories involved. The combination of these techniques is so powerful that I have already obtained a wide variety of results that could not be derived by any other known method.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG

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Host institution

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 491 275,00
Address
VON KRAEMERS ALLE 4
751 05 Uppsala
Sweden

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Region
Östra Sverige Östra Mellansverige Uppsala län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 491 275,00

Beneficiaries (2)

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