String Theory & Mathematical Physics
The String Theory and Mathematical Physics group at TIFR explores foundational questions at the interface of quantum gravity, quantum field theory and mathematics. A key area of focus is the AdS/CFT correspondence, a conjectured duality between quantum gravity on asymptotically AdS spacetimes and strongly coupled conformal field theories. This duality has opened up new approaches to understanding aspects of black hole physics and the information paradox. The string theory group at TIFR has made important contributions to the AdS/CFT correspondence, including the formulation and development of the fluid/gravity correspondence, which establishes a deep connection between Einstein's equations of general relativity and the equations of fluid dynamics. The group is also actively working on the study of dualities in Chern-Simons matter theories, classification of consistent gravitational S-matrices, construction of novel supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric black hole solutions, lower-dimensional models of quantum gravity and their holographic duals, the holography of de Sitter spacetimes with applications to cosmology, and aspects of quantum information theory such as multi-party entanglement, quantum error correction and quantum complexity with applications to quantum gravity.
The group fosters a collaborative atmosphere, often intersecting with efforts in condensed matter theory, cosmology and high-energy phenomenology, while also maintaining close ties with the global research community through academic visits and joint projects.
Members
Abhijit Gadde
Shiraz Minwalla
Onkar Parrikar
Sandip P. Trivedi
Areas of Interests
Black holes and the information loss paradox
A major focus in the string theory group is on the quantum structure of black holes. Members of the group are actively working on aspects of the black hole information problem and construction of novel black hole solutions.
Conformal and S-matrix bootstrap
Duality in quantum field theory
Quantum Information aspects of quantum gravity
The confluence of ideas from string theory and quantum information theory has led to a paradigm shift, where spacetime and gravity are viewed not as fundamental, but as emergent descriptions of the dynamics of quantum information in an underlying, microscopic quantum system. The string theory group at TIFR uses various tools from quantum information theory such as quantum error correction, multi-party entanglement and the theory of stabilizer quantum computation to study the emergence of spacetime from quantum dynamics.