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The Theoretical Physics Group in the Department of Mathematics is at the international forefront of research in string and M-theory, black holes, conformal field theory, supersymmetry, integrability, and other fundamental branches of modern theoretical physics. The group has a highly interactive research culture with multiple weekly activities including seminars, journal clubs, and lecture series. It regularly organises and hosts conferences and workshops with leading researchers from around the world.

The group is in close contact with the other theoretical physicists at King's, including the Disordered Systems Group and the Theoretical Particle Physics & Cosmology Group in the Department of Physics. Together they make King's a powerhouse in all branches of theoretical physics.

Master's and PhD programme

The group nourishes the next generation of theoretical physicists by running the MSc Theoretical Physics. It also has a vibrant cohort of PhD students. For PhD positions within the Theoretical Physics group, please submit an application for Applied Mathematics Research: Theoretical Physics.

Seminar series

Seminars are normally held on Wednesdays at 13:15. Details of upcoming seminars can be found on Triangle Seminars. The current organisers are Andreas Stergiou (andreas.stergiou@kcl.ac.uk) and Jeremy Mann (jeremy.mann@kcl.ac.uk).

The KCL String Theory Journal Club is held every Friday, starting at 13:15. The current organisers are Alan Rios Fukelman (alan.rios_fukelman@kcl.ac.uk) and Ritam Sinha (ritam.sinha@kcl.ac.uk)

 

People

Jeremy A. Mann

Research Associate

Dionysios Anninos

Professor of Theoretical Physics

PhD Student

Jake  Belton

PhD Student

Themes

Wispy blue graphic on a black background
String Theory and M-Theory

String/superstring theory is an immensely rich framework and the most studied and well-established approach to quantum gravity. Its central thesis is that the basic constituents of matter are strings rather than point-like particles. The mathematical consistency of this simple premise has profound consequences — for example that space-time has six hidden dimensions and that in addition to strings it contains higher dimensional objects, known as branes. There are several string theories all of which are avatars of a strongly interacting theory called M-theory, where the strings are replaced by membranes. In its 50-year history, the theory has had a profound influence on varied fields in mathematics and physics, giving rise to mirror symmetry, the AdS/CFT correspondence, higher dimensional field theories and insights on the microstates of black holes. As string theory includes both gauge and gravitational interactions, it provides a natural framework for the unification of all of fundamental physics, which awaits experimental confirmation. As one of the most extensive theories ever constructed, much of the research in the group relies on string theory and/or develops it and its applications further.

    Black hole
    Gravity & Black Holes

    Einstein's theory of General Relativity posits the curvature of space-time to explain planetary motion and the evolution of the entire cosmos, and predicts the existence of black-holes and gravitational waves. Black holes were recently observed in a variety of ways, most dramatically via the gravitational waves emitted when they merge. The study of black holes mixes aspects of gravity, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics and serves as an ideal laboratory for thought experiments on the intersections of these profound ideas. Black holes are expected to have the most entropy (disorder) of any possible system and their radiation, predicted by Hawking, leads to the information paradox. Group members explore a variety of questions related to these topics, including solutions with supersymmetry (within supergravity), the interplay between classical and quantum phenomena, how to enumerate the very large number of states that make up the entropy of black holes, as well as their cosmological analogues.

      Conformal field theory
      Quantum Field Theory

      Quantum mechanics, as developed by Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrödinger in the early 20th century, describes the peculiar nature of subatomic particles like electrons and protons. It is however insufficient to describe one of the most remarkable features of the microscopic world, namely the creation and annihilation of particles, which requires the formalism of Quantum Field Theory (QFT). All experiments conducted at particle accelerators at CERN and elsewhere are described remarkably well by a QFT, namely the Standard Model of Particle Physics. In special cases where both calculations and experiments can be performed to high accuracy, they agree to over 10 digits of precision, so a deviation of less than one in a billion. More broadly, QFT is used to study varied forms of matter including crystals, metals, superconductors and many more. It is the bedrock of many branches of modern theoretical physics.

        Blank

        Three highly constrained classes of QFTs are Conformal Field Theories (CFT), Supersymmetric Field Theories (SQFT) and integrable QFTs. These types of theories have further symmetries beyond those we typically encounter in nature. CFTs are theories with no dependence on size. This is very counter intuitive, as atoms behave very differently from tennis balls or stars. Yet one can construct systems in the lab that exhibit such behaviour, which in turn are modeled by CFTs. Numerous members of the group are at the forefront of global efforts to find new CFTs including using the novel self-consistency conditions known as the bootstrap equations. Others focus on properties of extended operators, all sharing the goal of charting the space of theories and their dynamics.

          Blank

          Supersymmetry relates different particle types: bosons (like photons and the Higgs boson) and fermions (like the electron and quarks). Treating these disparate particles as pairs simplifies calculations and often allows exact results to be obtained. Gravitational theories can also be supersymmetric and supersymmetry lies at the heart of string theory and M-theory. King's has long played a central role in the development of supersymmetry with a current focus on applications to the counting of degrees of freedom of black holes and constructing and classifying new gravity solutions and interacting field theories. These studies reveal rich connections to abstract algebra, complex geometries and number theory. It is not known whether nature exhibits supersymmetry at high energy, but this is a real possibility that makes this research even more relevant.

            Blank

            Conservation of energy and momentum are powerful principles of classical and quantum mechanics. Integrable systems have an infinite number of further conserved quantities and consequently very ordered dynamics. Rather counterintuitively, such systems may still be immensely rich and complex. Such models are studied for their own right — to find more theories that are rich, yet under good control. They are also used as models for calculations that cannot be done in non-integrable systems. Lastly, they arise naturally in special examples of string theory, supersymmetric theories and the AdS/CFT correspondence. In all these disciplines, the integrable examples are the closest to being completely solved and give a window into phenomena and regimes that cannot be probed by other methods.

              De Sitter
              The AdS/CFT Correspondence

              The most elegant unification of quantum physics and gravity occurs within the AdS/CFT correspondence, where rather than being two irreconcilable theories, they are alternative descriptions of the same physics. Anti de Sitter (AdS) is a curved spacetime with a gravitational theory describing interactions among perturbations of its boundary. An alternative description is via a conformal field theory restricted to the boundary. Where the gravitational calculation is classical, the field theory is very quantum, and as one makes the gravitational theory more interacting and quantum, the field theory description becomes less interacting. This duality has been used to describe models of condensed matter physics and of the strong nuclear interactions (QCD) in gravity. The group continues to explore both sides of the correspondence, to refine it, and to use it. One example involves the embedding of black holes into AdS and relating their physics to CFT computations. Another is the extension of those ideas to a cosmological spacetime quite like our own universe, known as de Sitter.

                Publications

                  Activities

                  Maxime Trepanier 13

                  Congratulations to Maxime Trepanier whose recent paper scooped two groups from Princeton and Stony Brook. Maxime has shared the story of his success with us below: "How does one deal with the pressure of research: trying to work at the highest international level while keeping up with the literature, and avoid getting scooped? You may have a hundred different tricks to mitigate some of your stress and keep your cool. None however work as well as the serene tranquility of plain ignorance. This is how I leisurely scooped two highly regarded groups in my last project -- in a remarkable coincidence and with no prior knowledge, I submitted a paper to the arXiv which overlapped significantly with the results obtained by groups in Stony Brook and Princeton, the very day before their intended and agreed date of submission. Although this is a pretty incredible timing (I for one was stunned), that the content of the papers overlaps is perhaps not so surprising. The paper itself deals with a topic that has become modestly fashionable in the recent years, that of studying instances of extended objects in quantum field theory. In particular it deals with a simple model (the O(N) model) known to describe properties of vast classes of materials (e.g. water) where pressure and temperature have been adjusted to their critical point. At this special point in the phase diagram, materials are well-described by a special strongly-interacting quantum field theory that has been the focus of intense research for many years. My paper is an attempt to describe the effects of introducing a wall or interface in these critical materials by studying the properties of two-dimensional objects in these theories."

                  IMG_8504
                  Prof. Elli Pomoni visits Department of Mathematics

                  Nadav Drukker was awarded funding to sponsor Prof. Elli Pomoni to visit from 23 April 2023 to 4 May 2023 as part of the new departmental visiting programme. Professor Elli Pomoni, a Professor at Hamburg University and DESY, holder of a prestigious Emmy Noether fellowship and expert on supersymmetric field theories and integrability, visited the department in spring 2024 as part of a new departmental visiting programme. Prof Nadav Drukker, who secured the funding necessary to sponsor her visit, said of Prof Pomoni's contributions, "We were delighted that Elli could visit the College, and valued her contributions to the department, including the series of LonTI lectures that she delivered on Seiberg-Witten Theory."

                    Stack of academic journals
                    Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal Executive Editorial Board

                    Congratulations to Dr Dionysios Anninos, who has been appointed to the executive editorial board of prominent academic journal, 'Classical and Quantum Gravity'.

                    ARTICLE Black Hole
                    Mathematics and Physics Event

                    On 12 December 2022, a joint event took place with speakers from the Theoretical Physics Group from the Department of Mathematics and speakers from the Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology Group from the Department of Physics. https://indico.kcl.ac.uk/event/363/

                    The Fundamental Physics UK Virtual Centre Event for PhD Students

                    On 2 December 2022, The Fundamental Physics UK Virtual Centre (funded by the Theoretical Physics Group's STFC grant and headed by Neil Lambert) organised an event for PhD students. The event comprised a number of talks, including 'Bootstrapping string dynamics in the 6d N = (2, 0) theories' delivered by King's College London's Maxime Trépanier and 'Bootstrability for 1d defect CFT' by Julius Julius.

                    NMES - Faculty promo
                    London Latin American Community Public Engagement and Diversity Project

                    Damian Galante is taking part in a public engagement and diversity project oriented to the Latin American community in London, in collaboration with the Latin American House. We hope this will become a long-term effort to engage and promote under-represented minorities into STEM subjects. As a starting action, Damian wrote monthly articles for the Express News UK (the largest Spanish newspaper in the UK) on topics related to his research, but oriented to the general public.

                    universe galaxy
                    Workshop on Features of a Quantum de Sitter Universe

                    A Workshop on Features of a Quantum de Sitter Universe was held in Corfu, Greece between 29 August 2022 - 4 September 2022, co-organised by Dionysios Anninos. The workshop aimed to bring together a diverse group of around thirty researchers, in an informal setting. The workshop was discussion-oriented, with talks spanning a wide range of topics regarding quantum features in a de Sitter universe.

                    Crossing Horizons Poster
                    Crossing Horizons 2022

                    Colleagues from the Theoretical Physics group held a large, international 10-day workshop between 23 May 2022 - 1 June 2022 at King's College London. More than 80 participants attended, with the programme spanning topics including 'Low-dimensional holography', 'Infrared aspects of gravity' and much more.

                    String theory and m-theory
                    Strings 2022

                    Congratulations to Dionysios Anninos, who was invited to deliver a plenary talk at the largest and most prestigious conference in the field of Theoretical Physics, Strings 2022. The conference was held in the city-centre of Vienna, Austria, and ran from 18 July 2022 - 22 July 2022. On 20 July 2022, Dionysios delivered his plenary on 'Concrete Calculables in Quantum de Sitter.'

                    Timelike Boundaries in Gravity

                    Damian Galante is organising a one-day workshop on 'Timelike Boundaries in Gravity' on 21 October 2022 at the Royal Institution, London.

                    ARTICLE Black Hole
                    Physics Sessions Initiative 2022

                    Twenty-five participants met in Crete, Greece, between 5th-12th June 2022 for the Physics Sessions Initiative 2022 organised by Dionysios Anninos (King's College London) and Diego Hofman (University of Amsterdam). During the week, discussions were held on a set of five questions. Each topic of discussion was led by one of the participants, and accompanied by relevant papers for participants to study. The sessions focused on future ideas for a current problem.

                    Defects and Symmetry Meeting Poster
                    Defects and Symmetry Meeting

                    There is a deep connection between the topological defects that arise in diverse models of mathematical physics and recent generalisations of symmetry. In this meeting on 23 and 24 June 2022, we want to bring together researchers working with higher categorical structures and those whose research involves defects and generalised symmetries in quantum field theories or lattice models, in order to present new results and explore new connections.

                    Crossing Horizons Poster
                    Crossing Horizons Workshop

                    The Theoretical Physics group's 'Crossing Horizons' workshop will be held from 23 May to 1 June 2022. The workshop will include a broad range of topics related to black holes and horizons, such as low-dimensional gravity, de Sitter gravity, supersymmetric microstate counting, AdS/CFT, and IR aspects of gravity. The event will be open to researchers in the UK. You can find more details via the link below.

                    Damian Galante
                    Dr Damián Galante's interview on Express NewsTV

                    Dr Damián Galante, Research Associate in the Theoretical Physics group, was announced as a recipient of UKRI's Stephen Hawking Fellowship in 2021. Damián took part in an interview for Express NewsTV, where he discusses the fellowship, his research interests, and his public engagement plans. The interview is conducted in Spanish and can be watched via the link below.

                    FPUK Conference
                    Fundamental Physics Meeting

                    The first in-person meeting of the Fundamental Physics UK Virtual Theory Centre, funded by STFC and organised by Professor Neil Lambert, was held on 13 November 2021. The event included nine talks by postdoctoral fellows and a poster display by PhD students, and was attended by over 75 participants from across the UK.

                    Graphic of particles crashing into each other
                    Physics Sessions Initiative 2021

                    Physics Sessions Initiative meeting, 6-12 September 2021, co-organised by Dionysios Anninos.

                    De Sitter
                    Quantum Features in a de Sitter Universe

                    Quantum Features in a de Sitter Universe workshop (13-19 September 2021), co-organised by Dionysios Anninos, on topics including quantum fields in fixed de Sitter backgrounds and their infrared properties, holography and quantum gravity in de Sitter spacetimes, and lower dimensional solvable models.

                    Random Matrix
                    Matrix Models & String Theory

                    Matrix Models & String Theory (17-21 August, 2020) workshop, co-organised by Dionysios Anninos, on non-critical string theory, low dimensional black holes, and new techniques in solving matrix models.

                    Conformal field theory diagram - figure of 8 with one loop smaller than the other
                    Defects in topological and conformal field theory 2019

                    Defects in topological and conformal field theory (27-28 June, 2019) an international workshop with speakers from seven countries meeting to recent developments in the theory of defects in conformal and topological field theories, sponsored by the London Mathematical Society and the Mathematical and Theoretical Physics group of the institute of Physics.

                    SEMPS 13
                    13th South East Mathematical Physics Seminar

                    The department is a member of the South East Mathematical Physics Seminar network and hosts regular one-day meetings bringing together members from universities across the South East of the UK. The most recent held in King's was on 21 Feb, 2019, following on from previous meetings in 2017 and 2014.

                    Black hole
                    23rd European String Workshop: Strings, Geometry and Black Holes

                    The Mathematics department hosted the 23rd European String Workshop in April 2018, entitled Strings, Geometry, and Black Holes. This was an international conference with about 190 participants, and was supported by Imperial College London, King's College London, and the University of Oxford. It focussed on various aspects of string theory, gauge-gravity duality, black holes, quantum field theory, supersymmetry and the diverse connections with geometry.

                    String theory
                    String Theory in London 2016

                    The Mathematics department hosted a conference in the period 29 August - 3 September 2016, entitled String Theory in London 2016: Supersymmetry, Geometry, and Holography. This was an international conference with about 90 participants which focussed on latest developments in various aspects of string theory.

                      ICFT 2016 Poster
                      ICFT 2016 - UK Meeting on Integrable and Conformal Field Theory

                      The UK Meeting on Integrable and Conformal Field Theory is an annual event, started at King's in 1997 and held around the UK every year since then, returning to King's in 2001, 2007 and most recently in 2016. This brings together the UK community in integrable and conformal field theory with international speakers to discuss the recent developments in this field. In 2016, it was sponsored by the London Mathematical Society and the Mathematical and Theoretical Physics group of the institute of Physics.

                      Blue graph and equation
                      Mathematical Physics of Non-Equilibrium Quantum Systems

                      Mathematical Physics of Non-Equilibrium Quantum Systems (18-19 December 2014): an international conference on the techniques and ideas underlying non-equilibrium quantum systems, co-hosted with the Department of Physics. This was a group event of the Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Group of the Institute of Physics, a Focus Workshop of the EPSRC Network Plus on Emergence and Physics far from Equilibrium, and was co-sponsored by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Non-Equilibrium Systems (CANES).

                        Graphic of atom
                        Entanglement Entropy in Many Body Quantum Systems

                        "Entanglement Entropy in Many Body Quantum Systems" (2-4 June 2014): an international conference on entanglement entropy and related aspects in many body quantum systems, co-hosted with City University.

                          Galaxy
                          One day meeting in honour of Peter West FRS

                          11 June 2013, a one day meeting of pedagogical talks in honour of Peter West FRS.

                            Equations on chalkboard
                            Maths of String and Gauge Theory

                            Maths of String and Gauge Theory - 3 - 5 May 2012, an international conference on the mathematics of string and gauge theory hosting over 70 researchers. This event was co-hosted with City University.

                              Variety of graphs in graphics form
                              LMS pre-meeting

                              LMS pre-meeting - Friday, 21 November 2008, a meeting for graduate students in advance of the main meeting in the late afternoon.

                                Telescope
                                FPUK 2

                                FPUK 2, a two day workshop on fundamental physics, 7-8 November 2008

                                  Telescope
                                  FPUK 1.0

                                  FPUK 1.0, a two day workshop on fundamental physics, 8-9 November 2007

                                    11th Annual UK meeting on Integrable Models Poster
                                    11th Annual UK meeting on Integrable Models, Conformal Field Theory and Related Topics

                                    ICFT07, the 11th Annual UK meeting on Integrable Models, Conformal Field Theory and Related Topics, 11-12 May 2007.

                                      Gravitational waves graphic
                                      Modern Developments in General Relativity and their Historical Roots

                                        Intersections of String Theory and QFT
                                        Intersections of String Theory and QFT

                                        This one day workshop, held on April 8th 2022, featured four 1.5 hours talks on topics ranging from how symmetries of QFTs are geometrically encoded in string theory to new mathematical structures in superconformal field theories in four and five dimensions. Attended by nearly 100 faculty members, postdocs and PhD students, the goal is to make this the first of a series of itinerant events bringing together experts in the London area and surrounding universities.

                                        News

                                        “The black hole horizon is a mirror…of another universe” says Nobel Laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft at Higgs Lecture

                                        The theoretical physicist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics discussed the physics of black holes

                                        Gerard 't Hooft presenting on stage

                                        New model advances our understanding of quantum black holes

                                        Scientists have found strong evidence that when quantum effects are taken into account, singularities inside black holes will always be hidden

                                        black hole singularity

                                        Physics Without Frontiers takes King's physicist to Pakistan

                                        Dr Damián Galante taught a week-long workshop on Black Holes for budding Pakistani physicists.

                                        Physics without frontiers 4

                                        “When theorists ask something you don't know, try something new” - Nobel laureate inspires at annual Higgs Lecture

                                        Professor David Gross was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2004 for seminal contributions to theoretical and particle physics

                                        Professor Malcolm Fairbairn (L) and Professor David Gross (R) at the Annual Higgs Lecture 2023

                                        King's mathematicians awarded competitive European Research Council grants

                                        Dr Petr Kravchuk and Dr Benjamin Krause received the funding to further their cutting-edge research

                                        Petr Kravchuk and Benjamin Krause

                                        Events

                                        30Apr

                                        Higgs Lecture 2025: Nobel Laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft

                                        Join us in our Annual Higgs Lecture with Nobel Laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft.

                                        Please note: this event has passed.

                                        05Jun

                                        Higgs Lecture 2024: Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell

                                        Join us in our Annual Higgs Lecture with Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

                                        Please note: this event has passed.

                                        18May

                                        Higgs Lecture: 50 years of Quantum Chromodynamic by Professor David Gross

                                        Join us in our Annual Higgs Lecture with Nobel Laureate Professor David Gross.

                                        Please note: this event has passed.

                                        Seminars

                                        People

                                        Jeremy A. Mann

                                        Research Associate

                                        Dionysios Anninos

                                        Professor of Theoretical Physics

                                        PhD Student

                                        Jake  Belton

                                        PhD Student

                                        Themes

                                        Wispy blue graphic on a black background
                                        String Theory and M-Theory

                                        String/superstring theory is an immensely rich framework and the most studied and well-established approach to quantum gravity. Its central thesis is that the basic constituents of matter are strings rather than point-like particles. The mathematical consistency of this simple premise has profound consequences — for example that space-time has six hidden dimensions and that in addition to strings it contains higher dimensional objects, known as branes. There are several string theories all of which are avatars of a strongly interacting theory called M-theory, where the strings are replaced by membranes. In its 50-year history, the theory has had a profound influence on varied fields in mathematics and physics, giving rise to mirror symmetry, the AdS/CFT correspondence, higher dimensional field theories and insights on the microstates of black holes. As string theory includes both gauge and gravitational interactions, it provides a natural framework for the unification of all of fundamental physics, which awaits experimental confirmation. As one of the most extensive theories ever constructed, much of the research in the group relies on string theory and/or develops it and its applications further.

                                          Black hole
                                          Gravity & Black Holes

                                          Einstein's theory of General Relativity posits the curvature of space-time to explain planetary motion and the evolution of the entire cosmos, and predicts the existence of black-holes and gravitational waves. Black holes were recently observed in a variety of ways, most dramatically via the gravitational waves emitted when they merge. The study of black holes mixes aspects of gravity, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics and serves as an ideal laboratory for thought experiments on the intersections of these profound ideas. Black holes are expected to have the most entropy (disorder) of any possible system and their radiation, predicted by Hawking, leads to the information paradox. Group members explore a variety of questions related to these topics, including solutions with supersymmetry (within supergravity), the interplay between classical and quantum phenomena, how to enumerate the very large number of states that make up the entropy of black holes, as well as their cosmological analogues.

                                            Conformal field theory
                                            Quantum Field Theory

                                            Quantum mechanics, as developed by Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrödinger in the early 20th century, describes the peculiar nature of subatomic particles like electrons and protons. It is however insufficient to describe one of the most remarkable features of the microscopic world, namely the creation and annihilation of particles, which requires the formalism of Quantum Field Theory (QFT). All experiments conducted at particle accelerators at CERN and elsewhere are described remarkably well by a QFT, namely the Standard Model of Particle Physics. In special cases where both calculations and experiments can be performed to high accuracy, they agree to over 10 digits of precision, so a deviation of less than one in a billion. More broadly, QFT is used to study varied forms of matter including crystals, metals, superconductors and many more. It is the bedrock of many branches of modern theoretical physics.

                                              Blank

                                              Three highly constrained classes of QFTs are Conformal Field Theories (CFT), Supersymmetric Field Theories (SQFT) and integrable QFTs. These types of theories have further symmetries beyond those we typically encounter in nature. CFTs are theories with no dependence on size. This is very counter intuitive, as atoms behave very differently from tennis balls or stars. Yet one can construct systems in the lab that exhibit such behaviour, which in turn are modeled by CFTs. Numerous members of the group are at the forefront of global efforts to find new CFTs including using the novel self-consistency conditions known as the bootstrap equations. Others focus on properties of extended operators, all sharing the goal of charting the space of theories and their dynamics.

                                                Blank

                                                Supersymmetry relates different particle types: bosons (like photons and the Higgs boson) and fermions (like the electron and quarks). Treating these disparate particles as pairs simplifies calculations and often allows exact results to be obtained. Gravitational theories can also be supersymmetric and supersymmetry lies at the heart of string theory and M-theory. King's has long played a central role in the development of supersymmetry with a current focus on applications to the counting of degrees of freedom of black holes and constructing and classifying new gravity solutions and interacting field theories. These studies reveal rich connections to abstract algebra, complex geometries and number theory. It is not known whether nature exhibits supersymmetry at high energy, but this is a real possibility that makes this research even more relevant.

                                                  Blank

                                                  Conservation of energy and momentum are powerful principles of classical and quantum mechanics. Integrable systems have an infinite number of further conserved quantities and consequently very ordered dynamics. Rather counterintuitively, such systems may still be immensely rich and complex. Such models are studied for their own right — to find more theories that are rich, yet under good control. They are also used as models for calculations that cannot be done in non-integrable systems. Lastly, they arise naturally in special examples of string theory, supersymmetric theories and the AdS/CFT correspondence. In all these disciplines, the integrable examples are the closest to being completely solved and give a window into phenomena and regimes that cannot be probed by other methods.

                                                    De Sitter
                                                    The AdS/CFT Correspondence

                                                    The most elegant unification of quantum physics and gravity occurs within the AdS/CFT correspondence, where rather than being two irreconcilable theories, they are alternative descriptions of the same physics. Anti de Sitter (AdS) is a curved spacetime with a gravitational theory describing interactions among perturbations of its boundary. An alternative description is via a conformal field theory restricted to the boundary. Where the gravitational calculation is classical, the field theory is very quantum, and as one makes the gravitational theory more interacting and quantum, the field theory description becomes less interacting. This duality has been used to describe models of condensed matter physics and of the strong nuclear interactions (QCD) in gravity. The group continues to explore both sides of the correspondence, to refine it, and to use it. One example involves the embedding of black holes into AdS and relating their physics to CFT computations. Another is the extension of those ideas to a cosmological spacetime quite like our own universe, known as de Sitter.

                                                      Publications

                                                        Activities

                                                        Maxime Trepanier 13

                                                        Congratulations to Maxime Trepanier whose recent paper scooped two groups from Princeton and Stony Brook. Maxime has shared the story of his success with us below: "How does one deal with the pressure of research: trying to work at the highest international level while keeping up with the literature, and avoid getting scooped? You may have a hundred different tricks to mitigate some of your stress and keep your cool. None however work as well as the serene tranquility of plain ignorance. This is how I leisurely scooped two highly regarded groups in my last project -- in a remarkable coincidence and with no prior knowledge, I submitted a paper to the arXiv which overlapped significantly with the results obtained by groups in Stony Brook and Princeton, the very day before their intended and agreed date of submission. Although this is a pretty incredible timing (I for one was stunned), that the content of the papers overlaps is perhaps not so surprising. The paper itself deals with a topic that has become modestly fashionable in the recent years, that of studying instances of extended objects in quantum field theory. In particular it deals with a simple model (the O(N) model) known to describe properties of vast classes of materials (e.g. water) where pressure and temperature have been adjusted to their critical point. At this special point in the phase diagram, materials are well-described by a special strongly-interacting quantum field theory that has been the focus of intense research for many years. My paper is an attempt to describe the effects of introducing a wall or interface in these critical materials by studying the properties of two-dimensional objects in these theories."

                                                        IMG_8504
                                                        Prof. Elli Pomoni visits Department of Mathematics

                                                        Nadav Drukker was awarded funding to sponsor Prof. Elli Pomoni to visit from 23 April 2023 to 4 May 2023 as part of the new departmental visiting programme. Professor Elli Pomoni, a Professor at Hamburg University and DESY, holder of a prestigious Emmy Noether fellowship and expert on supersymmetric field theories and integrability, visited the department in spring 2024 as part of a new departmental visiting programme. Prof Nadav Drukker, who secured the funding necessary to sponsor her visit, said of Prof Pomoni's contributions, "We were delighted that Elli could visit the College, and valued her contributions to the department, including the series of LonTI lectures that she delivered on Seiberg-Witten Theory."

                                                          Stack of academic journals
                                                          Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal Executive Editorial Board

                                                          Congratulations to Dr Dionysios Anninos, who has been appointed to the executive editorial board of prominent academic journal, 'Classical and Quantum Gravity'.

                                                          ARTICLE Black Hole
                                                          Mathematics and Physics Event

                                                          On 12 December 2022, a joint event took place with speakers from the Theoretical Physics Group from the Department of Mathematics and speakers from the Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology Group from the Department of Physics. https://indico.kcl.ac.uk/event/363/

                                                          The Fundamental Physics UK Virtual Centre Event for PhD Students

                                                          On 2 December 2022, The Fundamental Physics UK Virtual Centre (funded by the Theoretical Physics Group's STFC grant and headed by Neil Lambert) organised an event for PhD students. The event comprised a number of talks, including 'Bootstrapping string dynamics in the 6d N = (2, 0) theories' delivered by King's College London's Maxime Trépanier and 'Bootstrability for 1d defect CFT' by Julius Julius.

                                                          NMES - Faculty promo
                                                          London Latin American Community Public Engagement and Diversity Project

                                                          Damian Galante is taking part in a public engagement and diversity project oriented to the Latin American community in London, in collaboration with the Latin American House. We hope this will become a long-term effort to engage and promote under-represented minorities into STEM subjects. As a starting action, Damian wrote monthly articles for the Express News UK (the largest Spanish newspaper in the UK) on topics related to his research, but oriented to the general public.

                                                          universe galaxy
                                                          Workshop on Features of a Quantum de Sitter Universe

                                                          A Workshop on Features of a Quantum de Sitter Universe was held in Corfu, Greece between 29 August 2022 - 4 September 2022, co-organised by Dionysios Anninos. The workshop aimed to bring together a diverse group of around thirty researchers, in an informal setting. The workshop was discussion-oriented, with talks spanning a wide range of topics regarding quantum features in a de Sitter universe.

                                                          Crossing Horizons Poster
                                                          Crossing Horizons 2022

                                                          Colleagues from the Theoretical Physics group held a large, international 10-day workshop between 23 May 2022 - 1 June 2022 at King's College London. More than 80 participants attended, with the programme spanning topics including 'Low-dimensional holography', 'Infrared aspects of gravity' and much more.

                                                          String theory and m-theory
                                                          Strings 2022

                                                          Congratulations to Dionysios Anninos, who was invited to deliver a plenary talk at the largest and most prestigious conference in the field of Theoretical Physics, Strings 2022. The conference was held in the city-centre of Vienna, Austria, and ran from 18 July 2022 - 22 July 2022. On 20 July 2022, Dionysios delivered his plenary on 'Concrete Calculables in Quantum de Sitter.'

                                                          Timelike Boundaries in Gravity

                                                          Damian Galante is organising a one-day workshop on 'Timelike Boundaries in Gravity' on 21 October 2022 at the Royal Institution, London.

                                                          ARTICLE Black Hole
                                                          Physics Sessions Initiative 2022

                                                          Twenty-five participants met in Crete, Greece, between 5th-12th June 2022 for the Physics Sessions Initiative 2022 organised by Dionysios Anninos (King's College London) and Diego Hofman (University of Amsterdam). During the week, discussions were held on a set of five questions. Each topic of discussion was led by one of the participants, and accompanied by relevant papers for participants to study. The sessions focused on future ideas for a current problem.

                                                          Defects and Symmetry Meeting Poster
                                                          Defects and Symmetry Meeting

                                                          There is a deep connection between the topological defects that arise in diverse models of mathematical physics and recent generalisations of symmetry. In this meeting on 23 and 24 June 2022, we want to bring together researchers working with higher categorical structures and those whose research involves defects and generalised symmetries in quantum field theories or lattice models, in order to present new results and explore new connections.

                                                          Crossing Horizons Poster
                                                          Crossing Horizons Workshop

                                                          The Theoretical Physics group's 'Crossing Horizons' workshop will be held from 23 May to 1 June 2022. The workshop will include a broad range of topics related to black holes and horizons, such as low-dimensional gravity, de Sitter gravity, supersymmetric microstate counting, AdS/CFT, and IR aspects of gravity. The event will be open to researchers in the UK. You can find more details via the link below.

                                                          Damian Galante
                                                          Dr Damián Galante's interview on Express NewsTV

                                                          Dr Damián Galante, Research Associate in the Theoretical Physics group, was announced as a recipient of UKRI's Stephen Hawking Fellowship in 2021. Damián took part in an interview for Express NewsTV, where he discusses the fellowship, his research interests, and his public engagement plans. The interview is conducted in Spanish and can be watched via the link below.

                                                          FPUK Conference
                                                          Fundamental Physics Meeting

                                                          The first in-person meeting of the Fundamental Physics UK Virtual Theory Centre, funded by STFC and organised by Professor Neil Lambert, was held on 13 November 2021. The event included nine talks by postdoctoral fellows and a poster display by PhD students, and was attended by over 75 participants from across the UK.

                                                          Graphic of particles crashing into each other
                                                          Physics Sessions Initiative 2021

                                                          Physics Sessions Initiative meeting, 6-12 September 2021, co-organised by Dionysios Anninos.

                                                          De Sitter
                                                          Quantum Features in a de Sitter Universe

                                                          Quantum Features in a de Sitter Universe workshop (13-19 September 2021), co-organised by Dionysios Anninos, on topics including quantum fields in fixed de Sitter backgrounds and their infrared properties, holography and quantum gravity in de Sitter spacetimes, and lower dimensional solvable models.

                                                          Random Matrix
                                                          Matrix Models & String Theory

                                                          Matrix Models & String Theory (17-21 August, 2020) workshop, co-organised by Dionysios Anninos, on non-critical string theory, low dimensional black holes, and new techniques in solving matrix models.

                                                          Conformal field theory diagram - figure of 8 with one loop smaller than the other
                                                          Defects in topological and conformal field theory 2019

                                                          Defects in topological and conformal field theory (27-28 June, 2019) an international workshop with speakers from seven countries meeting to recent developments in the theory of defects in conformal and topological field theories, sponsored by the London Mathematical Society and the Mathematical and Theoretical Physics group of the institute of Physics.

                                                          SEMPS 13
                                                          13th South East Mathematical Physics Seminar

                                                          The department is a member of the South East Mathematical Physics Seminar network and hosts regular one-day meetings bringing together members from universities across the South East of the UK. The most recent held in King's was on 21 Feb, 2019, following on from previous meetings in 2017 and 2014.

                                                          Black hole
                                                          23rd European String Workshop: Strings, Geometry and Black Holes

                                                          The Mathematics department hosted the 23rd European String Workshop in April 2018, entitled Strings, Geometry, and Black Holes. This was an international conference with about 190 participants, and was supported by Imperial College London, King's College London, and the University of Oxford. It focussed on various aspects of string theory, gauge-gravity duality, black holes, quantum field theory, supersymmetry and the diverse connections with geometry.

                                                          String theory
                                                          String Theory in London 2016

                                                          The Mathematics department hosted a conference in the period 29 August - 3 September 2016, entitled String Theory in London 2016: Supersymmetry, Geometry, and Holography. This was an international conference with about 90 participants which focussed on latest developments in various aspects of string theory.

                                                            ICFT 2016 Poster
                                                            ICFT 2016 - UK Meeting on Integrable and Conformal Field Theory

                                                            The UK Meeting on Integrable and Conformal Field Theory is an annual event, started at King's in 1997 and held around the UK every year since then, returning to King's in 2001, 2007 and most recently in 2016. This brings together the UK community in integrable and conformal field theory with international speakers to discuss the recent developments in this field. In 2016, it was sponsored by the London Mathematical Society and the Mathematical and Theoretical Physics group of the institute of Physics.

                                                            Blue graph and equation
                                                            Mathematical Physics of Non-Equilibrium Quantum Systems

                                                            Mathematical Physics of Non-Equilibrium Quantum Systems (18-19 December 2014): an international conference on the techniques and ideas underlying non-equilibrium quantum systems, co-hosted with the Department of Physics. This was a group event of the Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Group of the Institute of Physics, a Focus Workshop of the EPSRC Network Plus on Emergence and Physics far from Equilibrium, and was co-sponsored by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Non-Equilibrium Systems (CANES).

                                                              Graphic of atom
                                                              Entanglement Entropy in Many Body Quantum Systems

                                                              "Entanglement Entropy in Many Body Quantum Systems" (2-4 June 2014): an international conference on entanglement entropy and related aspects in many body quantum systems, co-hosted with City University.

                                                                Galaxy
                                                                One day meeting in honour of Peter West FRS

                                                                11 June 2013, a one day meeting of pedagogical talks in honour of Peter West FRS.

                                                                  Equations on chalkboard
                                                                  Maths of String and Gauge Theory

                                                                  Maths of String and Gauge Theory - 3 - 5 May 2012, an international conference on the mathematics of string and gauge theory hosting over 70 researchers. This event was co-hosted with City University.

                                                                    Variety of graphs in graphics form
                                                                    LMS pre-meeting

                                                                    LMS pre-meeting - Friday, 21 November 2008, a meeting for graduate students in advance of the main meeting in the late afternoon.

                                                                      Telescope
                                                                      FPUK 2

                                                                      FPUK 2, a two day workshop on fundamental physics, 7-8 November 2008

                                                                        Telescope
                                                                        FPUK 1.0

                                                                        FPUK 1.0, a two day workshop on fundamental physics, 8-9 November 2007

                                                                          11th Annual UK meeting on Integrable Models Poster
                                                                          11th Annual UK meeting on Integrable Models, Conformal Field Theory and Related Topics

                                                                          ICFT07, the 11th Annual UK meeting on Integrable Models, Conformal Field Theory and Related Topics, 11-12 May 2007.

                                                                            Gravitational waves graphic
                                                                            Modern Developments in General Relativity and their Historical Roots

                                                                              Intersections of String Theory and QFT
                                                                              Intersections of String Theory and QFT

                                                                              This one day workshop, held on April 8th 2022, featured four 1.5 hours talks on topics ranging from how symmetries of QFTs are geometrically encoded in string theory to new mathematical structures in superconformal field theories in four and five dimensions. Attended by nearly 100 faculty members, postdocs and PhD students, the goal is to make this the first of a series of itinerant events bringing together experts in the London area and surrounding universities.

                                                                              News

                                                                              “The black hole horizon is a mirror…of another universe” says Nobel Laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft at Higgs Lecture

                                                                              The theoretical physicist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics discussed the physics of black holes

                                                                              Gerard 't Hooft presenting on stage

                                                                              New model advances our understanding of quantum black holes

                                                                              Scientists have found strong evidence that when quantum effects are taken into account, singularities inside black holes will always be hidden

                                                                              black hole singularity

                                                                              Physics Without Frontiers takes King's physicist to Pakistan

                                                                              Dr Damián Galante taught a week-long workshop on Black Holes for budding Pakistani physicists.

                                                                              Physics without frontiers 4

                                                                              “When theorists ask something you don't know, try something new” - Nobel laureate inspires at annual Higgs Lecture

                                                                              Professor David Gross was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2004 for seminal contributions to theoretical and particle physics

                                                                              Professor Malcolm Fairbairn (L) and Professor David Gross (R) at the Annual Higgs Lecture 2023

                                                                              King's mathematicians awarded competitive European Research Council grants

                                                                              Dr Petr Kravchuk and Dr Benjamin Krause received the funding to further their cutting-edge research

                                                                              Petr Kravchuk and Benjamin Krause

                                                                              Events

                                                                              30Apr

                                                                              Higgs Lecture 2025: Nobel Laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft

                                                                              Join us in our Annual Higgs Lecture with Nobel Laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft.

                                                                              Please note: this event has passed.

                                                                              05Jun

                                                                              Higgs Lecture 2024: Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell

                                                                              Join us in our Annual Higgs Lecture with Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

                                                                              Please note: this event has passed.

                                                                              18May

                                                                              Higgs Lecture: 50 years of Quantum Chromodynamic by Professor David Gross

                                                                              Join us in our Annual Higgs Lecture with Nobel Laureate Professor David Gross.

                                                                              Please note: this event has passed.

                                                                              Seminars

                                                                              Group lead

                                                                              Contact us

                                                                              The group can be found on Instagram at KCLStrings and contributions are also made to the London Integrability YouTube channel.