Colloquium

Einstein is well known for his rejection of quantum mechanics in the form it emerged from the work of Heisenberg, Born and Schrodinger in 1926. Much less appreciated are the many seminal contributions he made to quantum theory prior to his final scientific verdict: that the theory was at best incomplete. In this talk I present an overview of Einstein’s many conceptual breakthroughs and place them in historical context. I argue that Einstein, much more than Planck, introduced the concept of quantization of energy in atomic mechanics. Einstein proposed the photon, the first force-carrying particle discovered for a fundamental interaction, and put forward the notion of wave-particle duality, based on sound statistical arguments 14 years before De Broglie’s work. He was the first to recognize the intrinsic randomness in atomic processes, and introduced the notion of transition probabilities, embodied in the A and B coefficients for atomic emission and absorption. He also preceded Born in suggesting the interpretation of wave fields as probability densities for particles, photons, in the case of the electromagnetic field. Finally, stimulated by Bose, he introduced the notion of indistinguishable particles in the quantum sense and derived the condensed phase of bosons, which is one of the fundamental states of matter at low temperatures. His work on quantum statistics in turn directly stimulated Schrodinger towards his discovery of the wave equation of quantum mechanics. It was only due to his rejection of the final theory that he is not generally recognized as the most central figure in this historic achievement of human civilization.   

Gauge theories are fundamental to our understanding of interactions between the elementary constituents of matter as mediated by gauge bosons. However, computing the real-time dynamics in gauge theories is a notorious challenge for classical computational methods. In the spirit of Feynman's vision of a quantum simulator, this has recently stimulated theoretical effort to devise schemes for simulating such theories on engineered quantum-mechanical devices, with the difficulty that gauge invariance and the associated local conservation laws (Gauss laws) need to be implemented. Here we report the first digital quantum simulation of a lattice gauge theory, by realising 1+1-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (Schwinger model) on a few-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer. We are interested in the real-time evolution of the Schwinger mechanism, describing the instability of the bare vacuum due to quantum fluctuations, which manifests itself in the spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs. Our work represents a first step towards quantum simulating high-energy theories with atomic physics experiments, the long-term vision being the extension to real-time quantum simulations of non-Abelian lattice gauge theories. 

The study of strongly  interacting quantum matter has been at the forefront of condensed matter research in the last several decades. An independent development is the discovery of topological band insulators.  In this talk I will  describe phenomena that occur at the confluence of topology and strong interactions. I will first discuss  how insights from the study of the relatively simple topological insulators are revolutionizing our theoretical understanding of more complex quantum many body systems.  Next I will describe some experimental situations in which both band topology and strong correlations are present, the resulting novel phenomena, and the theoretical challenges they present.

Over the years, many rich ideas have been exchanged between particle theory and condensed matter theory, such as particle/hole theory, superconductivity and dynamical symmetry breaking, universality and critical phenomena. Here I discuss the interesting case of how the two fields converged independently along different paths on the physics of symmetry-protected topological order: condensed matter physicists motivated by the quantum Hall effect and superconductivity, the particle physicists driven by the desire to understand anomalies and chirality, and to compute QCD and supersymmetry on a lattice -- where the Quantum Hall effect, the Quantum Spin Hall effect and Majorana surface modes have all played a role in practical computations since the 1990s.  

In some of the planet's most extreme environments scientists are constructing enormous detectors to study the very rare interactions produced by neutrinos. In particular, at South Pole Station Antarctica more than a cubic kilometer of the deep glacial ice has been instrumented to construct the world's largest neutrino detector to date: the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.  Designed to detect the highest energy neutrinos expected to be produced in astrophysical processes, IceCube has established a vibrant scientific program that has begun to revolutionize the fields of particle and astro-physics. In this talk I will present some of the most recent results from this new window to the Universe, and will discuss the plans underway to significantly enhance its long-term future reach. 

Despite intensive theoretical research for several decades, the theory of quantum gravity remains elusive. I will review the obstacles that prevent from reconciling the principles of general relativity with those of quantum mechanics. It is plausible that an eventual ultraviolet completion of general relativity will require sacrificing some of these principles. I will then focus on the class of theories where the abandoned property is local Lorentz invariance, replaced by an approximate anisotropic scaling symmetry in deep ultraviolet. At low energies these theories reduce to a special type of scalar — tensor gravity. I will show that this approach allows us to construct renormalizable gravitational theories in any number of spacetime dimensions. The study of a (2+1) dimensional model reveals its asymptotic freedom and suggests that this property may be generic for gravity with anisotropic scaling. Relevance of these results for gravity in the real world will be discussed.

Hidden sector particles, with masses and couplings below those of the weak interactions, can resolve many of the outstanding questions of the Standard Model, including the identity of dark matter, the origin of the baryon asymmetry, and the physics of neutrino masses. Existing searches at colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider are, however, often insensitive to signals of hidden sectors. Using the well-motivated example of low-scale leptogenesis and neutrino masses, I will demonstrate connections between the cosmology of hidden sectors and their signatures in experiments. I will then present new experimental ideas for how to uncover the existence of hidden sectors at the LHC, as well as my role in founding and leading a joint theory-experiment initiative working to greatly expand sensitivity to long-lived particles  Finally, I will discuss my theoretical and experimental work on low-energy colliders such as B factories, which have an immense and under-utilized potential for discovering hidden particles. Given the many connections between colliders, astrophysics, cosmology, and other terrestrial experiments emerging from the study of hidden sectors, the future is bright for expanding our knowledge of the hidden universe.

Current progress in quantum field theory is largely driven by the conformal bootstrap program, which aims to classify the space and properties of conformal field theories using symmetries and other fundamental constraints. In the context of the AdS/CFT Correspondence, this increasingly sophisticated endeavor doubles as a probe of foundations of quantum gravity. I will describe the current era in the holographic application of conformal field theory methods, with particular focus on the use of the conformal bootstrap to describe the spectrum and dynamics of quantum gravity and string theory beyond the classical regime.

3d quantum gravity is a beautiful toy-model for 4d quantum gravity: it is much simpler, it does not have local degrees of freedom, yet retains enough complexity and subtlety to provide a non-trivial example of dynamical quantum geometry and open new directions of research in physics and mathematics. I will present the Ponzano-Regge model, introduced in 1968, built from tetrahedra “quantized" as 6j-symbols from the theory of recoupling of spins. I will show how it provides a discrete path integral for 3d quantum gravity, related to topological invariants and loop quantum gravity and other approaches to quantum gravity. It is also a perfect arena to investigate boundary theories and holographic dualities, with a beautiful duality with the 2d Ising model realized through a supersymmetry, and more.

Strong gravitational lenses with measured time delays between the multiple images can be used to determine the Hubble-Lemaitre constant (H0) that sets the expansion rate of the Universe. An independent determination of H0 is important to ascertain the possible need of new physics beyond the standard cosmological model, given the tension in current H0 measurements. A program initiated to measure H0 to <3.5% in precision from strongly lensed quasars is in progress, and I will present the latest results and their implications. Search is underway to find new lenses in imaging surveys. An exciting discovery of the first strongly lensed supernova offered a rare opportunity to perform a true blind test of our modeling techniques. I will outline a new research program on lensed supernovae, showing their bright prospects as a competitive and unique probe of cosmology and stellar physics.

The discovery of a Higgs like boson at LHC in 2012 was a development of fundamental importance in particle physics. With this newly discovered state included in theoretical predictions of scattering events,  the Standard Model can be extrapolated  to much higher experimental energies. This implies that a degree of scale separation will be present between the discovered particles of the Standard Model, and any new particles required to address the outstanding mysteries that the Standard Model leaves unanswered. As a result, interest in treating the Standard Model as a consistent Effective Field Theory (the SMEFT) has dramatically increased. This powerful theory is the state of the art in studying experimental results model independently, up to energies that LHC probes in a robust fashion experimentally. Rather remarkably, as interest in this theory has increased in recent years, a number of subtleties has also been discovered in the physics of the SMEFT.  In this talk, I will review this rapidly advancing area.