Dr. Andrew Waldron

Biography

Professor Andrew Waldron's research is devoted to a broad range of problems in theoretical mathematical physics. He has made important contributions to the conjectured Banks-Fishler-Shenker-Susskind (BFSS) matrix model related to string theory and M-theory. String theory is a proposed perturbative theory aiming to unify the fundamental forces of physics; often termed 'the theory of everything'. The non-perturbative counterpart is a hypothetical theory known as M-theory. Part of the BFSS conjecture pertains to the scattering of bound states and the scattering of supergravitons, with eleven-dimensional supergravity being the known low-energy limit of M-theory. His work in this area has led to significant results, particularly concerning higher spin fields in a specific model of the universe called anti-de-Sitter space, which is relevant to the AdS/CFT conjecture asserting that supergravity in anti-de-Sitter space is equivalent to a conformal field theory on the boundary. Professor Waldron has also focused on the theory of spinors and operators acting on spinor fields and has computed the index of non-standard Dirac operators, yielding results consistent with the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, linking quantum field theory to geometric topology.

Research Interests