Research

Holographic defect conformal field theories

According to the AdS/CFT paradigm, the strongly coupled (i.e., highly quantum) dynamics of certain supersymmetric field theories admit an emergent description in terms of weakly coupled theories of gravity in higher dimensions. This insight allows once-intractable computations in a gauge theory to be recast into relatively straightforward supergravity and string theory questions. I am particularly interested in exploring defect superconformal field theories of various (co)dimensions by engineering intersections of black branes, generalisations of black holes to superstring theory and M-theory.

Peer-reviewed publications:

• Holographic Weyl Anomalies for 4d Defects in 6d SCFTs, with John Estes, Brandon Robinson, and Benjamin Suzzoni. Published in Journal of High Energy Physics. DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2024)120.

• From Large to Small N = (4, 4) Superconformal Surface Defects in Holographic 6d SCFTs, with John Estes, Brandon Robinson, and Benjamin Suzzoni. Published in Journal of High Energy Physics. DOI: 10.1007/JHEP08(2024)094.

Pre-prints:

• Supersymmetric Holomorphic Masses in AdS/CFT with Flavour with Jack Holden, Andy O'Bannon, James Ratcliffe, Ronnie Rodgers, and Benjamin Suzzoni. Available as pre-print arXiv:2512.19688.

Machine learning in theoretical physics

The expressivity and predictive power of deep neural networks can be leveraged to construct and classify vast classes of quantum field theories. We are developing ML/AI algorithms capable of characterising the rich and multifaceted spaces of supersymmetric gauge theories arising through string-theoretic constructions on singular spacetimes, and recasting computations in quantum field theory into statistical questions over ensembles of neural networks.

Peer-reviewed publications:

• Machine learning toric duality in brane tilings, with Tancredi Schettini Gherardini and Benjamin Suzzoni. Available as pre-print arXiv:2409.15251. To appear in Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.

• Conformal Defects in Neural Network Field Theories, with Brandon Robinson and Benjamin Suzzoni. Available as pre-print arXiv:2512.07946.  To appear in Journal of High Energy Physics.

Supersymmetric quantum field theories

Work in progress with Elisa Iris Marieni, Benjamin Suzzoni, and Itamar Yaakov.

Geometry and topology for superstring theory and M-theory

I have a broad interest in utilising topological and algebro-geometric formalisms to elegantly describe the objects, structures, and spaces which arise in theoretical physics, and in particular in supersymmetry and string theory. In my MSc dissertation, I explored the framework of complex and exceptional generalised geometry and its use in superstring theories and M-theory.

MSc dissertation:

• (Exceptional) Generalised Geometry for Superstring Theory and M-Theory, written under the supervision of Prof. Chris Hull FRS. Hosted on the Imperial College webpages here.

Financial market modelling

I am interested in understanding and modelling the stochastic nature of financial markets. For instance, the problem of option pricing is equivalent to modelling the Schrödinger evolution of a quantum state in imaginary time; my collaborators and I used this duality to develop a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method based on a path integral formulation of option pricing.

Peer-reviewed publication:

• Path integral Monte Carlo method for option pricing, with Emanuele Panella, Tancredi Schettini Gherardini, and Dimitri D. Vvedensky. Published in Phys. A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 581 (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2021.126231.