School of Natural Sciences

The conformal bootstrap equations in general dimension are an infinite set of coupled non-linear equations in infinitely many variables. According to the lore, the solutions of the full set of equations correspond to physical CFTs. At the same time...

Data from ESA’s Gaia mission is already revolutionizing Galactic astronomy, providing an unprecedented view of the Solar neighborhood and beyond. However, while it provides us a great opportunity to transform our understanding of the Milky Way, it...

Higher symmetries in quantum field theory are novel concepts of symmetry that involve extended operators such as Wilson lines in gauge theory. We briefly review this formalism and then discuss recent applications to particle physics, including an...

Based on joint work with Meng Cheng (arXiv:2211.12543), we will discuss some aspects of global symmetries and their ‘t Hooft anomalies.

We will define a notion of an emanant global symmetry. It is not a symmetry of the UV theory, but unlike...

Weak gravitational lensing imprints a coherent distortion onto the observed shapes of distant galaxies. At the image level, this gravitational shear is degenerate with the intrinsic shape of galaxies, and the weak lensing signal-to-noise from an...

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) provide an exciting opportunity to study supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in quiescent galaxies and the stellar populations and dynamics in galactic nuclei. They test the limits of black hole accretion by regularly...

Black holes are expected to exhibit universal 'random matrix' behavior at late times, indicative of quantum chaos. The approach to a late-time plateau in the spectral form factor (SFF) is a probe of this behavior. In this talk we study the SFF in...

I will explore the "Elusive Universe," where dark matter, neutrinos, and gravity sculpt our observed nature, leaving many open questions.
My work focuses on opening up new directions to answer these puzzles. I will present two approaches:
1) Using...