Skip to main content
School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
  1. School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
  2. Staff
  3. Academics
  4. Profiles

Dr Costis Papageorgakis

Costis

Royal Society University Research Fellow | Reader in Theoretical Physics

Email: c.papageorgakis@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7882 5806
Room Number: G. O. Jones Building, Room 608

Profile

I am a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in String Theory, School of Physics and Astronomy. My work has focussed on various aspects of supersymmetric gauge theories and their relation to String/M-theory.

I hold an undergraduate diploma from the University of Patras (Greece), an MSc from Durham University and a PhD from Queen Mary University of London. I have previously held postdoctoral positions at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (India), King's College London and Rutgers University (USA). 

Teaching

I teach the MSc/MSci course "Differential Geometry in Theoretical Physics" (DGTP) over the first semester of the 2021-2022 academic year.

I am a Fellow of Advance HE.

Research

Research Interests:

I am broadly interested in the study of D-brane and M-brane dynamics, in string and M-theory respectively, as well as the structure of their associated supersymmetric/superconformal gauge theories. In the past I have worked towards understanding multiple M2-branes in terms of superconformal Chern-Simons-matter theory in three dimensions, and multiple M5-branes through the superconformal (2,0) theory in six dimensions.

My current research focusses on various aspects of superconformal field theories in diverse dimensions. A broad toolkit of approaches and techniques can be used to that effect, including the study of anomalies, superconformal indices and exact methods such as supersymmetric localisation. More recently, I have become interested in the application of Machine Learning techniques in conforma field theories. I am also interested in the dynamics of solitons undergoing acceleration.

Examples of research funding:

  • STFC Consolidated Grant, Amplitudes, Strings and Duality, A Brandhuber (PI), DS Berman, M Buican, MB Green, R Monteiro, C Papageorgakis, S Ramgoolam, R Russo, W Spence, G Travaglini, D Vegh and C White 2020-2023 (£890,210)
  • Royal Society Research Fellows Enhancement Awards 2018-2021 (£202,394)
  • Royal Society University Research Fellowship Renewal 2018-2021 (£333,946)
  • Royal Society Research Fellows Enhancement Awards 2017-2021 (£96,838)
  • STFC Consolidated Grant, String Theory, Gauge Theory and Duality, A Brandhuber (PI), DS Berman, C Papageorgakis, S Ramgoolam, R Russo, M Shigemori, G Travaglini and C White 2017-2020 (£693,833)
  • Royal Society University Research Fellowship 2013 - 2018 (£451,098)

Publications

(A complete and up to date list of publications with an accurate citation count can also be found at this link)

Supervision

PhD students:

I am also interested in taking on new students for the following project:

Project Title
Conformal Field Theories and Artificial Intelligence

Conformal Field Theories are mathematical descriptions of natural phenomena that look the same at all length scales. They find fundamental applications over a large spectrum of topics ranging from condensed-matter physics, particle physics, string theory and quantum gravity. They are, however, incredibly hard to solve with the exception of a handful of examples.

This project aims to exploit the tremendous recent progress in Artificial Intelligence to solve arbitrary conformal field theories. This will be achieved by utilising machine-learning techniques similar to those used by Google’s DeepMind Technologies when building the AlphaGo programme, which spectacularly beat professional Go champions.

Requirements:

A very good grasp of graduate Quantum Field Theory and supersymmetry, as well as some basic conformal field theory and string theory. Coding experience is desireable.