Research
Problems, not labels
My research moves between quantum gravity, field theory, and statistical physics. The recurring aim is to identify structures that make strongly coupled or gravitating systems calculable.
01
Quantum gravity and cosmology
I study how to formulate quantum mechanics when spacetime itself fluctuates. Current work concerns de Sitter space, the no-boundary state, gravitational observables, and the role of observers in closed universes.
02
Wormholes and low-dimensional gravity
Low-dimensional models make difficult questions in gravity unusually concrete. I use them to study wormholes, black-hole microstates, random-matrix structure, soft physics, and the relation between gravitational path integrals and quantum systems.
03
Effective field theory and quantum dynamics
Effective field theory isolates the universal behavior that survives at long distances and late times. My work in this direction includes hydrodynamics, Schwinger–Keldysh theory, fluctuations, chaos, systems with dipole conservation, and memory in superfluids.
04
Symmetry, duality, and quantum matter
I use anomalies and dualities to organize strongly coupled field theories. Applications have included three-dimensional bosonization, boundaries and defects, non-relativistic symmetry, quantum Hall states, and systems with unconventional conservation laws.