Dr Costis Papageorgakis

Profile

I am a Reader in Theoretical Physics at the Centre for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy. My work has focussed on various aspects of supersymmetric/superconformal field 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) and the undergraduate course "Quantum Mechanics and Symmetry", over the first and second semesters respectively of the 2023-2024 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.

More recently I have investigated various aspects of superconformal field theories in diverse dimensions. A broad toolkit of approaches and techniques can be used to that effect, including the conformal bootstrap, the study of anomalies, superconformal indices and exact methods such as supersymmetric localisation. I have also researched the dynamics of solitons undergoing acceleration.

My current research focuses on the application of Machine Learning to conformal field theories. A summary of this work can be found on this page.

Examples of research funding:

• Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (UKRI GF): “Holography and Quantum Black Holes”, C. Papageorgakis (PI), M. Hosseini (PDRA) 2024-2026 (£200,512) 
• STFC Consolidated Grant: "Amplitudes, Strings and Duality", A Brandhuber (PI), D Berman, M Buican, R Monteiro, C Papageorgakis, M Perry, S Ramgoolam, R Russo, B Spence, G Travaglini, D Vegh, C Wen, C White 2023-2026 (£1,477,965)
• 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 (£372,630)
• 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)

• Kántor G, Niarchos V, Papageorgakis C et al. (2023). 6D (2,0) bootstrap with the soft-actor-critic algorithm. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.025005

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/84509
• Andriolo E, Niarchos V, Papageorgakis C et al. (2023). Covariantly Constant Anomalies on Conformal Manifolds. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.025006

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/83843
• Andriolo E, Lambert N, Orchard T et al. (2022). A path integral for the chiral-form partition function. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2022)115

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/78093
• Kántor G, Niarchos V, Papageorgakis C (2022). Solving Conformal Field Theories with Artificial Intelligence. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.041601

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/75343
• Kántor G, Niarchos V, Papageorgakis C (2022). Conformal bootstrap with reinforcement learning. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.105.025018

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/75663
• Agarwal P, Andriolo E, Kántor G et al. (2021). Macdonald indices for four-dimensional N=3 theories. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.103.L121701

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/71898
• Niarchos V, Papageorgakis C, Pini A et al. (2021). (Mis-)matching type-B anomalies on the Higgs branch. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP01(2021)106

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/69236
• Melnikov IV, Papageorgakis C, Royston AB (2020). Accelerating solitons. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.102.125002

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/67302
• Melnikov IV, Papageorgakis C, Royston AB (2020). Forced Soliton Equation and Semiclassical Soliton Form Factors. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.231601

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/67999
• Andriolo E, Lambert N, Papageorgakis C (2020). Geometrical aspects of an Abelian (2,0) action. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2020)200

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/63966
• Niarchos V, Papageorgakis C, Pomoni E (2020). Type-B anomaly matching and the 6D (2,0) theory. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2020)048

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/63538
• Kántor G, Papageorgakis C, Richmond P (2020). AdS7 black-hole entropy and 5D N = 2 Yang-Mills. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP01(2020)017

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/62098
• Hayling J, Niarchos V, Papageorgakis C (2019). Deconstructing defects. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP02(2019)067

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/55443
• Hayling J, Panerai R, Papageorgakis C (2018). Deconstructing little strings with N = 1 gauge theories on ellipsoids. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.21468/SciPostPhys.4.6.042

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/42005
• Hayling J, Papageorgakis C, Pomoni E et al. (2017). Exact deconstruction of the 6D (2,0) theory. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP06(2017)072

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/24775
• Buican M, Hayling J, Papageorgakis C (2016). Aspects of superconformal multiplets in D > 4. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP11(2016)091

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/18192
• Papageorgakis C, Pini A, Rodríguez-Gómez D (2016). Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit of the 5D superconformal index. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.94.045007

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/15427
• Lambert N, Papageorgakis C, Schmidt-Sommerfeld M (2015). Instanton operators in five-dimensional gauge theories. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP03(2015)019

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/10804
• Buican M, Giacomelli S, Nishinaka T et al. (2015). Argyres-Douglas theories and S-duality. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP02(2015)185

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/8516
• Buican M, Nishinaka T, Papageorgakis C (2014). Constraints on chiral operators in N=2 SCFTs. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP12(2014)095

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/7541
• Papageorgakis C, Royston AB (2014). Instanton-soliton loops in 5D super-Yang-Mills. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1090/pspum/088/01467

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/54208
• Papageorgakis C, Royston AB (2014). Revisiting soliton contributions to perturbative amplitudes. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP09(2014)128

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/10802
• Papageorgakis C, Royston AB (2014). Scalar soliton quantization with generic moduli. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP06(2014)003

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/10803
• Lambert N, Papageorgakis C, Schmidt-Sommerfeld M (2013). Deconstructing (2,0) proposals. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.88.026007

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/9714
• Bagger J, Lambert N, Mukhi S et al. (2013). Multiple membranes in M-theory. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2013.01.006

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/9718
• Lambert N, Nastase H, Papageorgakis C (2012). 5D Yang-Mills instantons from Aharony-Bergman-Jafferis-Maldacena monopoles. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.85.066002

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49400
• Nastase H, Papageorgakis C (2011). Dimensional reduction of the ABJM model. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP03(2011)094

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49395
• Chu X, Nastase H, Nilsson BEW et al. (2011). Higgsing M2 to D2 with gravity: N = 6 chiral supergravity from topologically gauged ABJM theory. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2011)040

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49393
• Lambert N, Papageorgakis C, Schmidt-Sommerfeld M (2011). M5-Branes, D4-Branes and quantum 5D super-Yang-Mills. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP01(2011)083

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49394
• Papageorgakis C, Sämann C (2011). The 3-Lie algebra (2,0) tensor multiplet and equations of motion on loop space. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP05(2011)099

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49399
• Nastase H, Papageorgakis C (2010). Bifundamental fuzzy 2-Sphere and fuzzy killing spinors. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.3842/SIGMA.2010.058

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49390
• Lambert N, Papageorgakis C (2010). Relating U(N) × U(N) to SU(N) × SU(N) Chern-Simons membrane theories. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2010)104

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49391
• Lambert N, Papageorgakis C (2010). Nonabelian (2,0) tensor multiplets and 3-algebras. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/JHEP08(2010)083

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49392
• Nastase H, Papageorgakis C (2009). Fuzzy killing spinors and supersymmetric d4 action on the fuzzy 2-sphere from the ABJM model. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2009/12/049

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49389
• Nastase H, Papageorgakis C, Ramgoolam S (2009). The fuzzy S ² structure of M2-M5 systems in ABJM membrane theories. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2009/05/123

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/48784
• Ezhuthachan B, Mukhi S, Papageorgakis C (2009). The power of the Higgs mechanism: Higher-derivative BLG theories. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2009/04/101

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49388
• Ezhuthachan B, Mukhi S, Papageorgakis C (2008). D2 to D2. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2008/07/041

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49387
• Bedford J, Papageorgakis C, Zoubos K (2008). Adding flavour to twistor strings. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/110/10/102001

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49383
• Distler J, Mukhi S, Papageorgakis C et al. (2008). M2-branes on M-folds. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2008/05/038

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49385
• Bedford J, Papageorgakis C, Zoubos K (2008). Adding flavour to twistor strings. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/110/0/102001

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref
• Mukhi S, Papageorgakis C (2008). M2 to D2. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2008/05/085

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/49384
• Bedford J, Papageorgakis C, Zoubos K (2007). Twistor strings with flavour. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2007/11/088

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/48864
• Bedford J, Papageorgakis C, Rodríguez-Gómez D et al. (2007). Big bang and big crunch in matrix string theory. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.75.085014

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/48843
• Papageorgakis C, Ramgoolam S (2006). On time-dependent collapsing branes and fuzzy odd-dimensional spheres. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1142/S0217751X06034161

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/48804
• PAPAGEORGAKIS C (2006). On matrix D-brane dynamics and fuzzy spheres. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: doi

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/10795
• McNamara S, Papageorgakis C, Ramgoolam S et al. (2006). Finite N effects on the collapse of fuzzy spheres. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2006/05/060

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/15714
• Papageorgakis C, Ramgoolam S, Toumbas N (2006). Noncommutative geometry, quantum effects and DBI-scaling in the collapse of D0-D2 bound states. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1088/1126-6708/2006/01/030

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/48824
• Papageorgakis C, Ramgoolam S (2005). Large-small dualities between periodic collapsing/expanding branes and brane funnels. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2005.09.044

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/48764

Supervision

PhD students:

• Alexander Stapleton (jointly with D. Berman-PhD expected 2026)
• Mitchell Woolley (PhD expected 2026)
• Enrico Andriolo (PhD 2023)
• Gergely Kántor (PhD 2022)
• Joseph Hayling (PhD 2019)

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

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 desirable.