Professor Gabriele Travaglini

Professor of Theoretical Physics
Email: g.travaglini@qmul.ac.ukTelephone: 020 7882 5768Room Number: G.O. Jones Building, Room 605Website: http://www.strings.ph.qmul.ac.uk/~gtr/
Profile
My work focuses on modern methods to compute relativistic scattering ampltudes 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, calculations of amplitudes in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and, more recently, applications of amplitudes to problems in gravitational physics, including gravitational radiation from black hole inspiral.
I am the Scientific Coordinator of SAGEX ("Scattering Amplitudes: from Geometry to Experiment"), a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network funded by the European Commission. It is a unique consortium that brings 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
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Faculty of Science and Engineering Research Achievement Award 2011, Queen Mary, University of London (2012)
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Associateship to the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, Durham University, 2011-2012.
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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, including gravitational radiation from black hole inspiral.
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
- Scientific Coordinator of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network grant of the European Commission SAGEX, or "Scattering Amplitudes: from Geometry to Experiment" (2018-2022), € 3,983,215.68.
- Science and Technology Facilities Council: Amplitudes, string theory and duality, Brandhuber, Buican, Green, Monteiro, Papageorgakis, Perry, Ramgoolam, Russo, White, £890,210 (2020-2023)
Past Grants
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship: Amplitudes and form factors via integrability, to host Dr Lorenzo Bianchi at QMUL (2018-2020), € 195,454.80.
- Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Berman, Brandhuber, Buican, Papageorgakis, Ramgoolam, Russo, Shigemori, White, £710,337 (2017-2020)
- 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).
- Gauge Theory Amplitudes and String Theory in Twistor Space, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Standard Research Grant, 2006-2009, £198,653 (PI).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- I was the contact person for the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action: The String Theory Universe.
- 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.
- Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Berman, Brandhuber, Ramgoolam, Russo, Spence, Thomas, Travaglini, Wecht, £726,605 (2014-2017).
- Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Berman, Brandhuber, Ramgoolam, Russo, Spence, Thomas, Travaglini, Wecht, £632,431 (2011-2014).
- Science and Technology Facilities Council: String theory, gauge theory and duality, Spence (PI), Berman, Brandhuber, Ramgoolam, Russo, Thomas, Travaglini, £1,431,413.
- 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).
- 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.
My former PhD students:
- Adele Nasti (2006-2009)
- Panos Katsaroumpas (2008-2011)
- Dimitrios Korres (2009-2013)
- Ömer Gurdogan (2010-2014)
- Brenda Penante (2013-2016)
- Martyna Kostacińska (2014-2018)