Neil Lambert


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Research Interests

 

My research is primarily concerned with supersymmetry, string theory and M-theory. 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 understood that there is a single underlying eleven-dimensional theory, known only as M-theory, that unifies these various perturbative descriptions and will, once it is better understood, provide a complete definition of what string theory and quantum gravity 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. The dynamics of such branes is described by a quantum field theory that ‘lives’ on them. As a result the study of branes provides a beautiful and powerful connection between geometry and quantum field theory.

In recent years, via the AdS/CFT correspondence, the study of gravitational theories such as M-theory has become synonymous with studying strongly coupled quantum field theories without gravity. Thus String theory has turned full circle: beginning as an explanation for the strong interacting in between quarks, lifting itself up to a fully-fledged quantum gravity theory in ten or eleven dimensions, it now returns to the study of strongly coupled field theories in a variety of dimensions, but most notably three and six dimensions, corresponding to the M2-branes and M5-branes of M-Theory. Furthermore cousins of these field theories have also proven to be of interest in recent advances in condensed matter physics. So it seems to be that quantum gravity, higher dimensions and table top physics all play in the same playground.

Research Papers

 

A list of all my papers can be found here

 

Teaching

 

Here are some pdf files of lecture notes from some of my courses at King’s.

Advanced General Relativity

Advanced Quantum Mechanics

Classical Dynamics

Foundations of Mathematical Physics

Introductory Quantum Theory

LonTI Lectures on Supergravity

Manifolds 

Strings Branes and Quantum Gravity 

Supersymmetry and Gauge Theory

 

Other

 

I am the chair of the Fundamental Physics UK Virtual Theory Centre and have a Wikipedia page.