Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Individual

Gauge theories lie at the heart of our understanding of three of the four known forces in nature: the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces. Moreover, our best candidate for uniting quantum theory and gravity - string theory - is itself best defined through a gauge theory by means of the so-called gauge/string dualities. (These are remarkable correspondences stating the precise equivalence between certain gauge theories and string theories in curved space-times with one extra spatial dimension.) Despite their absolutely central role in physics, gauge theories are very far from being tamed with our current theoretical tools. A mathematically sound analytic description of physical phenomena such as confinement, chiral symmetric breaking and the existence of a mass gap is simply not available and the precise field theory mechanism by which gauge/string dualities come about is still elusive. To address these fascinating questions, one needs control over gauge theories in the strongly coupled regime, where standard perturbative techniques fall short. New conceptual approaches and tools are urgently needed.***My main research thus far has been precisely focused on developing such tools and, in particular, has aimed at providing the first non-perturbative solution to a four dimensional gauge theory. My research program for the next five years will be focused on studying dynamical quantities known as Correlation Functions, Wilson loops and Scattering Amplitudes at finite coupling in non-abelian gauge theories. We shall use N=4 super Yang-Mills theory - a supersymmetric cousin of quantum chromodynamics - as the main subject of our explorations. We also hope to draw lessons from this analysis that will apply to gauge theories in general. Holography and Integrability are two modern tools which we shall use intensively. With them we shall tame the chromodynamic flux tube of this remarkable theory and put it to use in the computation of the dynamical observables mentioned above. ***As far as applications go, it is very hard to estimate the broader impact a theoretical research program in quantum field theory and string theory. Of course, if history serves us well, we can be certain that today's developments in fundamental physics, theoretical as they might sound, will lie at the very heart of tomorrow's technology.**