Curriculum Vitae
Location
| E-mail: | james (at) phas.ubc.ca | ||
| Office: | 364 Irving K. Barber (Oliver Room) | ||
| Phone: | 604-822-0911 |
Education
Ph.D. Physics, University of British Columbia. (2011)
M.Sc. Physics, University of British Columbia. (2007)
B.Sc. Physics/Mathematics, University College of the Cariboo. (2004)
Research
Quantum field theory is the framework that allows us to design theories that describe quantum systems with many degrees of freedom. Famous examples include the relativistic Electroweak and Quantum Chromodynamic (QCD) theories that make up the standard model of particle physics and the non-relativistic BCS theory of superconductivity. I am interested nonperturbative field theory, in particular, topological defects, such as vortices, domain walls, and kinks. These defects are ubiquitous in physics and provide a link between condensed matter physics, cosmology, and particle physics.
Neutron stars provide an ideal testbed for this research. Primarily composed of degenerate nuclear matter, they are extremely dense, generate enormous magnetic fields, and yet are very cold. Though neutron stars are not directly accessible, modeling their behaviour and testing these models against observations lets us study nuclear matter at regimes that cannot be reproduced terrestrially allowing us to advance our understanding of QCD, superconductivity, and the early universe.
Recently string theory has given us a new tool, known as the AdS/CFT correspondence, to study quantum field theories such as QCD. QCD is an especially difficult field of study because many of the standard techniques we use to study field theories, such as perturbation theory, have limited use. The AdS/CFT correspondence tells us that many quantum field theories have a dual theory in string theory. Moreso, it says that the quantum field theory is mapped to a string theory in a regime where where our standard techniques for calculations work. In more technical terms, the coupling constants of the dual theories are inversely proportional to each other. Regardless of your disposition towards string theory, the AdS/CFT correpondence can be used like a giant Laplace transform to take a hard QCD problem, rewrite it interms of a gravity theory where we can solve it, then write it back in terms of QCD and get an answer.