Search Talks

Causal set quantum gravity is based on the marriage between the concept of causality as an organising principle more basic even than space or time and fundamental atomicity. Causal sets suggest novel possibilities for "dynamical laws" in which spacetime grows by the accumulation of new spacetime atoms, potentially realising within physics C.D. Broad's concept of a growing block universe
in which the past is real and the future is not. To do justice to relativity and general covariance, the atoms must accumulate in a partial order, exactly the order that the atoms have physically amongst themselves. That this is possible is demonstrated by the Rideout-Sorkin Classical Stochastic Growth models. This proof of concept -- of the compatibility of relativity and ``becoming'' -- is, however, classical and is challenged by the global character of the physical world within a path integral framework for quantum theory. Out of the struggle to reconcile the global and local natures of the physical world may arise a quantal dynamics for causal sets.

In this talk I will focus on two topics concerning compact binaries that involve a neutron star companion: a) the fate of and observable signatures from merging white dwarf-neutron star (WDNS) binaries, and b) electromagnetic signals from black hole - neutron star (BHNS) binaries.WDNS systems - the neglected child among compact binaries - generate detectable gravitational waves (GWs) and may also generate observable electromagnetic (EM) signals. One of the most fascinating aspects about these systems is that they are known to exist, but the final fate of massive, merged WDNSs remnants is currently work in progress. Determining the fate of WDNS remnants will be important for interpreting observations from future transient surveys. I will review recent work that provides insight into the physics of WDNSs remnants. Black hole - neutron star systems are among the most promising sources for gravitational waves, and at the same time also possible sources of detectable precursor and aftermath EM signals. I will present recent the results from general relativistic force-free simulations of binary BHNSs and a type of EM precursor signatures expected from these systems.

One of the main challenges that we face both as individual persons and as a species concerns the distribution and use of resources, such as water, time, capital, computing power or negatively valued
resources like nuclear waste. Also within theoretical physics, one frequently deals with resources like free energy or quantum entanglement. I will describe a mathematical theory of resources which makes quantitative predictions about how many resources are required for producing a certain commodity and outline some applications to information theory.
Joint work with Bob Coecke and Rob Spekkens.

The existence of three generations of neutrinos and their mass mixing is a deep mystery of our universe. Majorana's elegant work on the real solution of Dirac equation predicted the existence of Majorana particles in our nature, unfortunately, these Majorana particles have never been observed. In this talk, I will begin with a simple 1D condensed matter model which realizes a T^2=-1time reversal symmetry protected superconductors and then discuss the physical property of its boundary Majorana zero modes. It is shown that these Majorana zero modes realize a T^4=-1 time reversal doubelets and carry 1/4 spin. Such a simple observation motivates us to revisit the CPT symmetry of those ghost particles--neutrinos by assuming that they are topological Majorana particles made by four
Majorana zero modes. Interestingly, we find that Majorana zero modes will realize a P^4=-1 parity symmetry as well. It can even realize a nontrivial C^4=-1 charge conjugation symmetry, which is a big surprise from a usual perspective that the charge conjugation symmetry for a Majorana particle is trivial. Indeed, such a C^4=-1 charge conjugation symmetry can be promoted to a Z_2 gauge symmetry and its spontaneously breaking leads to the origin of neutrino mass. We further attribute
the origin of three generations of neutrinos to three distinguishable ways of defining two complex fermions from four Majorana zero modes.
The above assumptions lead to a D2 symmetry in the generation space and uniquely determine the mass mixing matrix with no adjustable parameters! In the absence of CP violation, we derive
\theta_12=32degree, \theta_23=45degree and \theta_13=0degree, which is intrinsically closed to
the current experimental results. We further predict an exact mass ratio of the three mass eigenstate with m_1/m_3=m_2/m_3=3/\sqrt{5}.

We discuss how bipartite graphs on Riemann surfaces encapture a wealth of information about the physics of large classes of supersymmetric gauge theories, especially those with quiver structure and arising from the AdS/CFT context. The correspondence between the gauge theory, the underlying algebraic geometry of it space of vacua, the combinatorics of dimers and toric varieties, as well as the number theory of dessin d'enfants becomes particular intricate under this light.

Screened Scalar-Tensor gravity such as chameleon and symmetron theories allow order one deviations from General Relativity on large scales whilst satisfying all local solar-system constraints. A lot of recent work has therefore focused on searching for observational signatures of these
models and constraining them. If these models are to be viable then our own solar system is necessarily screened, however, this may not be the case for stars in Dwarf Galaxies, which can exhibit novel and unique phenomena. These new effects can be exploited to produce constraints that are far more competitive than laboratory and cosmological tests and in this talk, I will describe some recent and ongoing work using these phenomena to place new constraints.