Mathematics Department
Theoretical Physics Group
Photograph

Professor Neil Lambert

Department of Mathematics
King's College London
Strand, London WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

Room nnn
Tel: +44-(0)20-7848 2217 (general office)
Fax: +44-(0)20-7848 2017
E-mail: neil.lambert.AT.kcl.ac.uk

Member of the Theoretical Physics Group

Research Interests

My reseach is primarily concerned with supersymmetry, string theory and M-theory. (Click here for a basic glossary of some of the terms used.) String theory is generally (but certainly not universally) considered to be the most promising route to a fundamental quantum theory of Nature that is capable of describing all of the known physics that we observe in our universe. However to date the fundamental principles that define string theory are not really known. Rather there exist five different perturbative descriptions, which are valid in ten dimensional spacetime; that is five sets of rules that tell us how to compute physical quantities order by order in some expansion parameter. It is now widely believed that there is a single underlying eleven dimensional theory, known as M-theory, that unifies these various perturbative descriptions and will, once it is better understood, provide a complete definition of what string theory is.

A major theme of my work has been the study of supersymmetric branes. These are extended objects that have radically changed our understanding of string theory and M-theory. In addition the study of branes provides a beautiful connection between geometry and quantum field theory.

I have also studied non-supersymmetric and sometimes unstable branes. The lack of supersymmetry makes the study of these branes more difficult however their dynamics are very interesting. The unstable branes will decay quite violently and lose all their energy into so-called closed-string modes such as the graviton but also its massive cousins found in string theory. In general there is a lack of understanding of such inherently time-dependent processes in string theory and progress here promises to teach us a great deal about the fundamental degrees of freedom in string theory.

Most recently I have been interested in the description of multiple M2-branes in M-theory. My work here led to dramatic change in our knowledge of M2-branes - see for example this article. In particular we now have infinitely many new examples of highly supersymmetric three-dimensional conformal gauge theories (so-called Chern-Simons theories) which can be identified with the low energy descriptions of multiple M2-branes. These theories provide the first glipses of microscopic states in M-theory that are not contained in the supergravity approximation. Going forward I am currently trying to see what we can learn of microscopic M-theory from M2-branes and in particular what could be said of multiple M5-branes - a notoriously difficult problem in M-theory.

Research Papers

A list of all my papers can be found here.

Teaching

I am currently lecturing Point Particles and String Theory , Advanced General Relativity and Supersymmetry and Gauge Theory.

Here are some pdf files of lecture notes from my courses.

Introductory Quantum Theory

Advanced General Relativity

Manifolds

Point Particles and String Theory

Supersymmetry

Supersymmetry and Gauge Theory

There are solutions to the problems listed in the notes. Comments are welcome, except perhaps those on the large number of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. You are welcome to use these notes, provided, of course, that you acknowledge me.
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Department of Mathematics - King's College London