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Weizmann
Institute of Science |
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Contact Information Tel : 972-8-9342652 Secretariat: |
Current
Research Interests 1. Strongly coupled field theories
and confinement, Supersymmetric field theories,
Large N field theories 2. Non-perturbative
aspects of string/M theory 3. The AdS/CFT
correspondence and its generalizations to other field theory/gravity
dualities, and its applications for studying field theory and string/M
theory
The standard model of particle physics provides an excellent
description of most particle physics processes observed
experimentally. Theoretically, there are two main problems with this model : the
strong nuclear interactions (QCD) are strongly coupled at low energies so it is difficult to use
the standard model gauge theory to obtain predictions for properties like meson and
baryon masses, and the model does not contain quantum gravity.
One main research direction I am interested in is the understanding of
the strong coupling behavior of field theories
like QCD, in order to understand issues like confinement and chiral
symmetry breaking. One method which is useful is to study supersymmetric field theories. These theories are
similar in many ways to QCD, and exhibit (in some cases) the same qualitative
behavior, but due to the power of supersymmetry
many of their properties may be computed
exactly (even at strong coupling) so one has some control over issues like confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. Another useful method is the large N expansion (pioneered
by 't Hooft), where again some exact results may be obtained concerning the strong
coupling behavior in the limit of a large number of colors, which perhaps could be extended to the
case of the strong interactions (for which N=3).
My other main interest is in quantum gravity, which is believed to be
well-described by string theory. The non-perturbative formulation of this theory is not yet
completely understood, though it is understood in some
gravitational backgrounds. Some particularly interesting problems in quantum
gravity, which can hopefully be studied using string theory (though they cannot be studied in
string perturbation theory), are the general understanding of the black hole entropy/area
relation and the fate of cosmological singularities like the big-bang singularity.
Recently it has been realized that there is a direct relation between
quantum field theories and quantum theories of gravity (in
some backgrounds), known as the AdS/CFT
correspondence (and its
generalizations). In many cases this correspondence is related to 't Hooft's large N expansion, which leads one to
expect that large N field theories should be related to string theories (and, thus, to theories of quantum
gravity). The correspondence is a manifestation of holography, which is expected to
be a general property of quantum gravity. By studying this correspondence one hopes to shed
light both on properties of strongly coupled field theories (which, in some cases, are mapped to weakly coupled theories of gravity) and on properties of quantum gravity (which are mapped to properties of
field theories).
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