Dr Congkao Wen
Royal Society University Research Fellow | Lecturer in Theoretical Physics
Email: c.wen@qmul.ac.ukTelephone: 0207 882 5923Room Number: G. O. Jones Building, Room 123
Profile
I joined the Centre for Centre for Theoretical Physics in 2018. Previously, I held research positions at Caltech, at University of Rome, Tor Vergata, and at CTP in QMUL. I recieved my PhD at Brown University, and I did my my undergraduate and graduate studies at Zhejiang University.
Teaching
I currently teach a postgraduate course `Introduction to strings and branes`. The course is a basic introduction to String theory and Branes.
I also supervise undergraduate and master projects.
Research
Research Interests:
My recent research interest focuses on perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theory, quantum gravity and string theory.
One of my main areas of activity has been developing and exploiting modern powerful techniques of scattering amplitudes, which includes two main research directions: 1. new formulations of scattering amplitudes in terms of twistor theory and Grassmannian geometry; 2. applying modern techniques of scattering amplitudes to other research areas.
Over the past few years, new twistor-like formulas have been discovered for scattering amplitudes in a wide range of interesting theories, including the world-volume theory of single probe brane in M-theory and string theory. These new mathematical formulas not only provide concrete formulas for the amplitudes in these theories, but also reveal new structures. This research direction is to discover such new formulations for more theories and explore the implications.
My other major line of work is to study the applications of scattering amplitude techniques in other research areas. In particular, I am interested in understanding the symmetry constraints on effective actions in the language of scattering amplitudes. Scattering amplitudes provide extremely efficient ways of imposing the constraints, in the form of, for instance, soft theorems, unitarity and superamplitude consistency.
Recently, I have also been interested in exploring deep connections between flat-space amplitudes and holographic correlation functions in AdS space. Holographic correlators resemble many properties of flat-space scattering amplitudes, especially when formulated in Mellin space. This allows us to apply "amplitude-inspired methods" to study these correlators at the level of supergravity limit and beyond.
Examples of research funding:
Grants held at QMUL:
Royal Society University Research Fellowship, 2018 - 2022 (£430,693)
Royal Society Grant supporting a PhD Studentship, 2018 - 2022 (£92,148)
Royal Society Grant supporting a PhD Studentship, 2022-2024 (£52,218)
Publications
My list of publications:
Complete list of publications on INSPIRE-HEP.
- Dorigoni D, Green MB, Wen C (2021), Exact expressions for n-point maximal U(1)Y-violating integrated correlators in SU(N) N = 4 SYM $nameOfConference
- Brandhuber A, Chen G, Travaglini G et al. (2021), Classical gravitational scattering from a gauge-invariant double copy $nameOfConference
- Wen C, Zhang SQ (2021), Notes on gravity multiplet correlators in AdS
3 × S 3 $nameOfConference
- Brandhuber A, Chen G, Travaglini G et al. (2021), A new gauge-invariant double copy for heavy-mass effective theory $nameOfConference
- Dorigoni D, Green MB, Wen C (2021), Exact properties of an integrated correlator in N = 4 SU(N) SYM $nameOfConference
- Dorigoni D, Green MB, Wen C (2021), Novel Representation of an Integrated Correlator in N=4 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory $nameOfConference
- Chester SM, Green MB, Pufu SS et al. (2021), New modular invariants in N = 4 Super-Yang-Mills theory $nameOfConference
- Green MB, Wen C (2021), Maximal U(1)Y-violating n-point correlators in N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory $nameOfConference
- Chester SM, Green MB, Pufu SS et al. (2020), Modular invariance in superstring theory from N = 4 super-Yang-Mills $nameOfConference
- Giusto S, Russo R, Tyukov A et al. (2020), The CFT6 origin of all tree-level 4-point correlators in AdS3 x S3 $nameOfConference
- Wen C, Zhang SQ (2020), D3-brane loop amplitudes from M5-brane tree amplitudes $nameOfConference
- Green MB, Wen C (2019), Superstring amplitudes, unitarily, and Hankel determinants of multiple zeta values $nameOfConference
- Giusto S, Russo R, Tyukov A et al. (2019), Holographic correlators in AdS3 without Witten diagrams $nameOfConference
- Schwarz JH, Wen C (2019), Unified formalism for 6D superamplitudes based on a symplectic Grassmannian $nameOfConference
- Chen W-M, Huang Y-T, Noumi T et al. (2019), Unitarity bounds on charged/neutral state mass ratios $nameOfConference
- Green MB, Wen C (2019), Modular forms and SL(2, ℤ)-covariance of type IIB superstring theory $nameOfConference
- WEN C, Heydeman M, Schwarz JH et al. (2019), All Tree Amplitudes of 6D (2,0) Supergravity: Interacting Tensor Multiplets and the K3 Moduli Space $nameOfConference
- WEN C, Giusto S, RUSSO R (2019), Holographic correlators in AdS3 $nameOfConference
- WEN C, Huang Y-T, Kuo C-K (2018), Dualities for Ising networks $nameOfConference
- WEN C, Cachazo F, Guevara A et al. (2018), The S Matrix of 6D Super Yang-Mills and Maximal Supergravity from Rational Maps $nameOfConference
- Cheung C, Kampf K, Novotny J et al. (2018), Vector Effective Field Theories from Soft Limits $nameOfConference
- Cheung C, Remmen GN, Shen C-H et al. (2018), Pions as gluons in higher dimensions $nameOfConference
- Cheung C, Shen C-H, Wen C (2019), Unifying relations for scattering amplitudes $nameOfConference
- WEN C, Schwarz J, Heydeman M (2017), M5-brane and D-brane scattering amplitudes $nameOfConference
- Gliozzi F, Guerrieri AL, Petkou AC et al. (2017), Generalized Wilson-Fisher Critical Points from the Conformal Operator Product Expansion $nameOfConference
- Nandan D, Plefka J, Schlotterer O et al. (2016), Einstein-Yang-Mills from pure Yang-Mills amplitudes $nameOfConference
- Bianchi M, He S, Huang YT et al. (2015), More on soft theorems: Trees, loops, and strings $nameOfConference
- Volovich A, Wen C, Zlotnikov M (2015), Double soft theorems in gauge and string theories $nameOfConference
- Chen W-M, Huang Y-T, Wen C (2015), New Fermionic Soft Theorems for Supergravity Amplitudes $nameOfConference
- Franco S, Galloni D, Penante B et al. (2015), Non-planar on-shell diagrams $nameOfConference
- He S, Huang YT, Wen C (2014), Loop corrections to soft theorems in gauge theories and gravity $nameOfConference
- Huang YT, Wen C, Xie D (2014), The positive orthogonal Grassmannian and loop amplitudes of ABJM $nameOfConference
- Garner D, Ramgoolam S, Wen C (publicationYear), Thresholds of Large N Factorization in CFT4 : Exploring bulk spacetime in AdS5 $nameOfConference
- Brandhuber A, Penante B, Travaglini G et al. (2014), The last of the simple remainders $nameOfConference
- Bianchi M, Brandhuber A, Travaglini G et al. (2014), Simplifying instanton corrections to N=4 SYM correlators $nameOfConference
- Penante B, Spence B, Travaglini G et al. (2014), On super form factors of half-BPS operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills $nameOfConference
- Huang YT, Wen C (2014), ABJM amplitudes and the positive orthogonal Grassmannian $nameOfConference
- de Mello Koch R, Ramgoolam S, Wen C (2013), On the refined counting of graphs on surfaces $nameOfConference
- Brandhuber A, Travaglini G, Wen C (2012), All one-loop amplitudes in N=6 superconformal Chern-Simons theory $nameOfConference
- Brandhuber A, Travaglini G, Wen C (2012), A note on amplitudes in N=6 superconformal Chern-Simons theory $nameOfConference
- Nandan D, Volovich A, Wen C (2012), On Feynman rules for Mellin amplitudes in AdS/CFT $nameOfConference
Supervision
Requirements: knowledge of Quantum Field Theory, String Theory and Supersymmetry at the level of a Master course.