Research

Junior Paper 2: Generalized String Theory Amplitudes

In this junior paper, advised by Giulio Salvatori, I worked on the new field of 'Surfaceology'. This recent development is a radical reformulation in computing scattering amplitudes in both the field-theoretic and stringy regimes. Surfaceology eliminates the use of a Lagrangian and instead, scattering amplitudes can be computed using entirely geometrical or combinatorial ideas.

Junior Paper 1: Momentum Space Techniques in the AdS/CFT Correspondence

In this junior paper, advised by Professor Simone Giombi, I worked on calculating correlation functions via the AdS/CFT correspondence using new techniques that utilize working in momentum space. Specifically, I computed results for a specific AdS2/CFT1 model motivated by deformations of a straight line (or circular) Wilson loop in N = 4 super Yang-Mills.

Transmission of Quantum Information in Curved Spacetimes

During a summer internship at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, my advisor, Erickson Tjoa, and I generalized a quantum communication protocol between two Unruh-DeWitt detectors in flat spacetime to arbitrary curved spacetimes using the techniques of algebraic quantum field theory. 

Understanding the Mechanisms of Quantum Optimal Control Pulses

In ongoing research, working in the Rabitz Lab in Princeton's Chemistry Department, I have worked on several projects pertaining to better understanding or calculating the mechanisms behind quantum optimal control pulses. These types of controls are often generated via computer algorithms, and there is very little human insight into how they work.

In this paper, using ideas from algebraic topology, we discovered a new, much more efficient algorithm for computing and performing a certain type of mechanistic analysis of controlled quantum systems---splitting the time evolution in many 'pathways' between quantum states that all constructively and destructively interfere to form the dynamics. In a following paper, we use these techniques to analyze the time-dependent dynamics of how qubit gates are implemented in NMR-based systems.  Another project that I am working on involves a new form of understanding mechanism in terms of a network of probability flow between states, similar to how water may flow through a series of pipes.