Sal Pace

5th-year physics PhD student at MIT
Advisor: Xiao-Gang Wen

Email: sdpace4 (at) gmail (dot) com

I am a theoretical physicist broadly interested in the quantum physics of many degrees of freedom, from quantum field theories to quantum lattice models and condensed matter systems. My research often revolves around two central themes. First is the characterization and classification of quantum phases of matter. Second is the relationship between quantum field theories and lattice models. I am currently exploring these and related questions using various aspects of (generalized) symmetries and anomalies. This interdisciplinary approach bridges the frontiers of quantum field theory, condensed matter theory, mathematical physics, and quantum information, providing a powerful and unifying principle for quantum phenomena.

You can see my CV, here, which includes a list of my papers and talks with links to slides and recordings.

You can also find all of my papers on Google Scholar, here.

• How interplays between crystalline and internal symmetries affect gaplessness, quantum criticality, and topological phases through UV/IR mixing.
• Symmetries of lattice fermion models and their connections to 't Hooft anomalies of Fermi surfaces in the continuum.
• The Symmetry Topological Field Theory (SymTFT) and its applications to classifying gapped and gapless quantum phases.

More broadly, I am interested in:

• All things topological phases of matter and topological quantum field theory.
• 't Hooft anomalies, Lieb-Schultz-Mattis theorems, and their relations.
• Non-invertible symmetries in quantum lattice models.
• Family-anomalies and generalized Thouless pumps in parametrized quantum systems.
• Foliated field theories, tensor gauge theories, and their applications to elasticity and quantum melting.
• Quantum spin liquids and frustrated magnets.
• Applications of category and homotopy theory to physics.
• Applications of quantum information theory to quantum many-body systems.