ERC grant for research on quantum fields

“The ERC grant is a fantastic opportunity for my research,” says Del Zotto.

He leads an interdisciplinary research group devoted to formal aspects of quantum field theory, based at the Department of Mathematics and the Division of Theoretical Physics of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The project is a continuation of previous research that has also been funded by the ERC. Now they are receiving a new grant, the ERC Consilidator Grant, of EUR 2 million.

“I started this group in 2020 thanks to an ERC Starting Grant. Since then, my group has grown thanks to support from the Simons Foundation and the Swedish Research Council, and also through our VR Centre of Excellence in Geometry and Physics. During these years, we have identified a novel research direction to pursue, and this new ERC funding is a strong signal that we are on the right track,” says Del Zotto.

Based on quantum field theory

The research is based on quantum field theory, one of the most powerful tools of modern theoretical physics. The theory was developed to study elementary particles but has had numerous applications in other contexts, from condensed matter to statistical physics and mathematics.

“Quantum fields have lots of interesting symmetries that can be used to better understand their dynamics and to organise their phases. To understand this, think for example about water. In the liquid phase, water is very symmetrical, while when we freeze it, the symmetries are broken down into the discrete symmetries of ice crystals. In quantum fields, the symmetries are richer and the classification of phases also becomes richer. In particular, we have recently realised that quantum fields have more symmetries than we originally thought, and that these generalised symmetries have a more interesting mathematics, encoded in a so-called higher structure,” Del Zotto explains.

The higher structure of symmetries

In the ERC project, he and his team will study the higher structure of generalised symmetries for different quantum fields of physical interest in various space-time dimensions and with different features.

The main goal of the project is to develop and exploit these structures and their mathematics to address several fundamental open questions about the physics of quantum fields.

“I look forward to hiring new students and postdocs to work with me to develop these ideas and unveil the mysteries of higher symmetries in different directions. In particular, our research will focus on applications in quantum information, phases of matter and quantum field dynamics,” says Del Zotto.

Annica Hulth