Oliver Schlotterer

Research Interests

My research is centered on the rich physical implications and mathematical structures of string scattering amplitudes. First, I am studying the point-particle limit and low-energy expansion of string amplitudes to reveal striking connections between gauge theories, gravity and effective field theories. Second, I am using string amplitudes as a mathematical laboratory for integration on Riemann surfaces of different genera. In this way, string theory greatly facilitates the construction and organization of iterated integrals and modular forms which find applications in particle physics and inspire new mathematical research in number theory and algebraic geometry.

Oliver Schlotterer

ERC Synergy Grant project MaScAmp 2025-2030

Together with Ruth Britto (Trinity College Dublin), Francis Brown (University of Oxford) and Axel Kleinschmidt (MPI for gravitational physics), we were awarded an ERC Synergy Grant in fall 2024 for the project MaScAmp – Mathematics of Scattering Amplitudes. During the funding period spring 2025 to spring 2030, we will work in a multidisciplinary team involving a total of approx. 20 scientists at the four nodes in Dublin, Oxford, Potsdam and Uppsala.

MaScAmp proposes a new paradigm for fundamental interactions in physics in the form of a unified mathematical approach to scattering amplitudes. The project brings together a multidisciplinary team with expertise in pure mathematics and theoretical physics who will develop a set of novel and efficient algorithmic methods with applications in mathematics, particle physics and gravity.

Discoveries in many areas of fundamental physics depend upon a detailed understanding of the scattering of particles. Modern experiments, such as particle colliders and gravitational-wave detectors, demand high-precision theoretical computations to make new discoveries. These are deduced from physical models by a highly labour-intensive process relying on the calculation of scattering amplitudes, which assign probabilities to particle interactions. Despite a tremendous worldwide effort over many decades, the methods used to compute increasingly complex scattering amplitudes remain disparate and fragmented. The work of the PIs in distinct domains suggests unexpected symmetries and universal rules obeyed by scattering amplitudes in different-looking areas of physics. This calls for a radically new way of studying scattering amplitudes.

MaScAmp will create a unified framework for the calculation of general scattering amplitudes by building upon the latest research in mathematics, notably in algebraic geometry and number theory. As a result, MaScAmp will overcome longstanding computational bottlenecks, push the boundaries of numerous areas of theoretical physics, such as quantum field theory, gravity and string theory, and inspire new mathematical research. A widely applicable computer software implementation will enable physicists to make previously inaccessible predictions for present and future experiments. A project of MaScAmp's scope and ambition is only achievable by combining the unique expertise of the PIs in complementary areas of mathematics and physics.

ERC-Starting Grant Project Uniscamp 2019-2023

My research during the period January 2019 to December 2023 was funded through the ERC Starting Grant project UNISCAMP – The unity of scattering amplitudes: gauge theory, gravity, strings and number theory. During this 60-month funding period, up to 5 simultaneous team members produced a total of 45 research papers that can be found on INSPIRE HEP, including the following research highlights:

Reviews

My group coauthored three White Papers within the Snowmass community planning exercise:

Moreover, I recently published a comprehensive review together with C. Mafra, Tree-level amplitudes from the pure spinor superstring, Phys. Rept. 1020 (2023), arXiv:2210.14241. We review the supersymmetric computation of multiparticle tree-level amplitudes of massless superstring excitations as well as their interplay with the gravitational double copy and multiple zeta values.

Review Material that you cannot find on the arXiv

Teaching

I am teaching a doublet of master courses on string theory from fall 2023 to spring 2024, the lecture notes including homework problems can be found in the file String Theory I and II Pdf, 14 MB..

Moreover, you can find the notes of Max Guillen's extra lectures on Advanced Topics in String Theory (March 2021) Pdf, 418 kB..

Kontakt

FÖLJ UPPSALA UNIVERSITET PÅ

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