Research on String Theory and Gauge Theory

University Of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington KY

Investigators

Abstract

This grant funds the research activities of Professor Sumit Das at the University of Kentucky. Over the past 150 years we have attained a fairly good understanding of physical systems which are already in equilibrium, but we have rather limited understanding of processes out of equilibrium. This project aims at understanding some aspects of non-equilibrium systems. Remarkably, it turns out that concepts and techniques developed in String Theory can be used to attack this fundamental problem. This project will use these new tools to understand universal features of this process, i.e., features which are common to a wide class of systems. As such, research in this area advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the understanding of universal physical phenomena. The broader impacts resulting from this project will be to enhance the quality of undergraduate and graduate physics education, and to support frontier physics research in the Kentucky region. At a more technical level, Das will study non-equilibrium phenomena in strongly coupled quantum field theories using gauge-gravity duality. In addition, gauge-gravity duality will be used to understand the meaning of yet another non-equilibrium system: the expanding universe. More specifically, holographic techniques will be used to understand the nature and possible resolutions of cosmological singularities.