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Professor Gabriele Travaglini

Gabriele

Professor of Theoretical Physics

Email: g.travaglini@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7882 5768
Room Number: G.O. Jones Building, Room 605
Website: http://www.strings.ph.qmul.ac.uk/~gtr/

Profile

My work focuses on modern methods to compute relativistic scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity. Particular problems I am interested in are the study of hidden symmetries of the S-matrix of quantum field theories and the computation of the scattering amplitudes, particularly in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and in (super)gravity theories. More recently I have been working on applying scattering amplitude techniques to problems in classical gravitational physics, specifically to study the emission of gravitational waves in the merger of two black holes or neutron stars. A short summary of this research written for the general public can be found here (see page 9).

From 2018 to 2022 I was the Scientific Coordinator of SAGEX  ("Scattering Amplitudes: from Geometry to Experiment"), a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network funded by the European Commission. SAGEX was a unique consortium that brought together eight academic beneficiary institutions, eight academic partners as well as high-profile industry partners, in order to train 15 Early Stage Researchers in the rapidly evolving field of scattering amplitudes.

Research Awards

  1. Leverhulme Research Fellow 2024-2025, the Leverhulme Trust
  2. 2016 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
  3. Faculty of Science and Engineering Research Achievement Award 2011, Queen Mary, University of London (2012)
  4. Associateship to the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, Durham University, 2011-2012.
  5. Nuclear Physics B Most Cited Article 2006-2010 Award, with Andreas Brandhuber and Paul Heslop, for the paper MHV Amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills and Wilson Loops. The paper is also available through the arXiv.

Teaching

I am the module organiser for the fourth-year MSci/MSc course Relativistic Waves and Quantum Fields.

 

 

Research

Research Interests:

My research focusses on quantum field theory, string theory and their connections. More specifically, over the past years I have been studying scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity, particularly their secret structures and symmetries. I have been working in this rapidly moving area since its inception in 2004, contributing to a number of key developments which have triggered subsequent important results. These include: the application of MHV diagrams to loop amplitudes in gauge theory, recursion relations for tree-level amplitudes in General Relativity, the correspondence between scattering amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills and lighlike Wilson loops at weak coupling, the proof of dual superconformal covariance of the tree-level S-matrix of N=4 super Yang-Mills, and the application of on-shell methods to form factors.  More recently, I have studied applications of amplitude techniques to topical problems in gravitational physics, in particular related to the emission of gravitational radiation from the merger of two (spinning) black holes. 

In the past I worked on non-perturbative effects in supersymmetric theories, particularly instanton effects in Seiberg-Witten theory, on noncommutative theories, and on various aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence.

For a complete list of my publications please consult the SLAC search engine inSPIRE.

My home page contains further information on my research, and on teaching.

Examples of research funding:

Current Grants

  1. Leverhulme Research Fellowship, 2024-2025 
  2. Science and Technology Facilities Council: Amplitudes, string theory and duality, Brandhuber, Berman, Buican, Monteiro, Papageorgakis, Perry, Spence, Russo, Travaglini, Vegh, Wen, White, £1,477,965 (2023-2026)

Past Grants

  1. Scientific Coordinator of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network grant of the European Commission SAGEX "Scattering Amplitudes: from Geometry to Experiment" (2018-2022), € 3,983,215.68.
  2. Science and Technology Facilities Council: Amplitudes, string theory and duality, Brandhuber, Buican, Green, Monteiro, Papageorgakis, Perry, Ramgoolam, Russo, Travaglini, White, £890,210 (2020-2023)
  3. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship: Amplitudes and form factors via integrability, to host Dr Lorenzo Bianchi at QMUL (2018-2020), € 195,454.80.
  4. Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Berman, Brandhuber, Buican, Papageorgakis, Ramgoolam, Russo, Shigemori, White, £710,337 (2017-2020)
  5. Gauge Theory Amplitudes and String Theory in Twistor Space, Advanced Research Fellowship of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), 2005-2010, £258,197 (PI).
  6. Gauge Theory Amplitudes and String Theory in Twistor Space, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Standard Research Grant, 2006-2009, £198,653 (PI).
  7. P Heslop, H Gangl (Durham), G Travaglini, Workshop: London Mathematical Society/EPSRC Durham Symposium and School on Polylogarithms as a bridge between number theory and particle physics, Durham, July 2013, £51,380.
  8. G Travaglini (PI), A Brandhuber and B Spence, Workshop: Amplitudes 2010, (2010) Queen Mary, May 2010, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Small Grant, £6,363.
  9. I was the local coordinator for the European Commission Initial Training Network: Gauge theory as an integrable system (GATIS), associated partner, with DESY Hamburg, University of Hamburg, Humboldt University Berlin, Durham University, King's College, Saclay/CNRS, NORDITA, Universidade do Porto, Uppsala University, ENS Paris
  10. I was the contact person for the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action: The String Theory Universe.
  11. European Union, Framework 6, Marie Curie Training and Mobility of Researchers Grant, Superstrings, Theory Group, Department of Physics, Queen Mary, (2004-2008), Euro 259,980.
  12. Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Berman, Brandhuber, Ramgoolam, Russo, Spence, Thomas, Travaglini, Wecht, £726,605 (2014-2017).
  13. Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Berman, Brandhuber, Ramgoolam, Russo, Spence, Thomas, Travaglini, Wecht, £632,431 (2011-2014).
  14. Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Spence (PI), Berman, Brandhuber, Ramgoolam, Russo, Thomas, Travaglini, £1,431,413.
  15. A Brandhuber (QMUL), V Del Duca (INFN, Torino), N Glover (IPPP, Durham), D Kosower (CEA, Saclay), E Laenen (Nikhef, Amsterdam), G Passarino (University of Torino), B Spence (QMUL), G Travaglini (QMUL), D Zeppenfeld (University of Karlsruhe). Workshop: Advancing Collider Physics: from Twistors to Monte Carlos, The Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics, Arcetri, Florence, Italy, August 27-October 26 2007 (Euro 125,000).
  16. B Spence (PI), A Brandhuber and G Travaglini, Workshop: From Twistors to Amplitudes, (2005) Queen Mary, November 2005, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Small Grant, £4,550.

 

Publications

List of publications

A complete list of my publications can be found on the inSPIRE website here. 

Supervision

This is not an exhaustive list and I would be happy to discuss other project possibilities.

Project Title

Classical General Relativity and gravitational waves from scattering amplitudes

Scattering amplitudes and novel approaches to Quantum Field Theory

My past and present PhD students:

  • Adele Nasti (2006-2009)
  • Panos Katsaroumpas (2008-2011)
  • Dimitrios Korres (2009-2013)
  • Ömer Gürdogan (2010-2014)
  • Brenda Penante (2013-2016)
  • Martyna Kostacińska Jones (2014-2018)
  • Manuel Accettulli Huber (2018-2022)
  • Stefano De Angelis (2018-2022)
  • Graham Brown (2020-2024)
  • Josh Gowdy (2020-2024)
  • Pablo Vives Matasan (2023-)

 

 

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