Technical research overview
Technical research overview
Embedded Files
My research utilizes a synergistic combination of analytic, computational, and phenomenological approaches to understand the nature of matter.
My research seeks to advance our understanding of fundamental questions about nature, including the behavior of strongly interacting matter, confinement, and nonperturbative dynamics.
To probe these questions, I develop new theoretical frameworks and synergize different techniques, including in:
Effective field theory (EFT)
Non-Hermitian and PT-symmetric physics
Perturbative methods
Lattice gauge theory
Artificial intelligence
And more
Highlights
Highlights
First-principles framework for diffraction
First-principles framework for diffraction
Motivation: In a diffractive process, two colliding particles forward-scatter off of one another at high energy, producing a spray of new particles but mysteriously leaving large “rapidity gaps” of the detector empty. Diffraction plays a key role in many phenomena across nuclear, particle, and astrophysics -- ranging from the nature of forward (Regge) physics, to the behavior of cosmic ray showers, to the saturation of nuclear matter.
Challenge: Even though diffraction comprises nearly 50% of the LHC and a projected 20% of the EIC cross section, it had long defied a systematic first-principles description.
Contributions and impact: We have developed a rigorous field theoretic framework to decipher diffraction from first principles, utilizing the technique of effective field theory. Our framework makes new predictions and opens up novel frontiers for exploration at the dawn of the EIC, High-Luminosity LHC, and FAIR accelerators.
Links:
Article on factorization of electron-proton diffraction
Article on factorization of proton-proton diffraction
Article on gapped hard scattering backgrounds to diffraction
Seminar slides for high-energy theorists, May 2025
Predicting new phases of QCD at high density
Predicting new phases of QCD at high density
Motivation: In the coming years, the FAIR accelerator will come online, opening up a new window into the phases of quarks and gluons at high density. Now is the time to develop a better understanding of what FAIR may find, with particular attention to new phenomena and their experimental signatures.
Challenge: At high density, the equation describing QCD loses features that make low-density QCD tractable. Specifically, the Dirac operator loses Hermiticity, inducing a sign problem, a major barrier to lattice (numerical) simulation.
Contributions and impact: Non-Hermitian systems are widely studied in optics and condensed matter. Building on work in these fields, we have studied the structural consequences of non-Hermiticity in quantum field theory. This has enabled us to develop new analytic and numerical tools for studying QCD at nonzero density. Using these tools, we showed that non-Hermiticity can give rise to an exotic phenomenon called a "moat" regime (a term from condensed matter physics) near a critical point. We have proposed experimental signatures for this new "moatonic" phase of nuclear matter at FAIR.
Links:
Article on experimental moat signatures
Article on exotic phases in Z3 models
Article on 𝒫𝒯-type symmetries and QCD
Article on moat formation
Recorded talk for non-Hermitian theorists, February 2024
Seminar slides for high-energy theorists, September 2025
Nonperturbative structure of the energy-energy correlator
Nonperturbative structure of the energy-energy correlator
Motivation: Energy-energy correlators (EECs) are a class of collider observables that are of wide interest due to their compelling theoretical properties, novel features for experimental studies, and the breadth of physical information they encode, ranging from the value of the QCD coupling αs to TMDs.
Challenge: Extracting high-precision physical information requires high-precision theoretical knowledge of EECs.
Contributions and impact: We showed that the two-point EEC exhibits renormalons, singularities that cause poor perturbative convergence. We removed the leading renormalon, significantly improving the precision of predictions. Our results also provided information on nonperturbative corrections and the broader trans-series structure of energy correlators. This opens a path to extracting higher-precision physics from EECs, and improving predictions of related observables.
Links
Article on renormalons in the EEC
Enabling the lattice calculation of TMDs
Enabling the lattice calculation of TMDs
Motivation: Transverse momentum distributions (TMDs) encode the 3D momentum structure of quarks and gluons inside hadrons. Extractions of TMDs from experimental data exhibit large uncertainties for non-perturbative quark/gluon momenta, a kinematic region which lattice QCD is typically well-positioned to probe.
Challenge: TMDs are defined in terms of Wilson lines that carry time dependence. We cannot calculate time-dependent objects with lattice QCD (numerics) because of an obstacle called a sign problem. To circumvent this issue, one can define a new lattice-calculable "quasi-TMD" by making a time-independent projection of the Wilson lines. However, it is not a priori clear that quasi-TMDs encode the same physics as TMDs.
Contributions and impact: We have derived a factorization formula connecting quasi-TMDs to physical TMDs, establishing that lattice and physical TMDs share the same underlying physics. Our formula also opens up a path to computing gluon TMDs.
Links
Extending the reach of spatially nonuniform Floquet engineering
Extending the reach of spatially nonuniform Floquet engineering
Motivation: In Floquet engineering, we apply a time-periodic modulation to change the effective behavior of a wave system.
Contributions: We expanded the scope of Floquet engineering to more fully exploit spatial degrees of freedom. By utilizing time-periodic but spatially non-uniform driving fields, we showed that we could approximately transform broad classes of tight-binding systems into one another, using a perturbative procedure.
Impact: We have proposed several optics applications, including removing disorder, undoing Anderson localization, and enhancing localization to an extreme in waveguides. This approach is applicable in broader contexts, and we foresee its use in a range of atomic, optical, and condensed matter systems.
Links
Article on Floquet engineering
Publication databases
Publication databases
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse