Sal Pace

3rd-year physics PhD student at MIT
Advisor: Xiao-Gang Wen

Email: sdpace4 (at) gmail (dot) com

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

You can see my CV, here.

I'm a theoretical physicist interested in formal and non-perturbative aspects of quantum many-body systems/quantum field theories with applications to condensed matter, mathematical, and high-energy physics. The primary goals of my research are to understand better (1) what possible universal phenomena, phases, and phase transitions can emerge in quantum many-body systems and (2) how such emergent, macroscopic phenomena can depend on microscopic details. I am approaching these questions using various aspects of (generalized) symmetries and topology, and am currently working on:

(1) higher-categorical symmetries arising from topologically protected excitations (e.g., vortices, disclinations, hedgehogs) and their applications to quantum disordering transitions,
(2) spontaneously broken modulated 0-form and higher-form symmetries in various dimensions with applications ranging from elasticity to gravity,
(3) non-invertible and higher-categorical symmetries in Hamiltonian lattice models with a tensor product Hilbert space,

More broadly, I am interested in

(1) all things topological phases of matter, from topological orders to SETs to SPTs. Anything whose low energy effective theory is described by something without rulers and clocks - a topological (quantum) field theory,
(2) UV/IR mixing, both with and without fractons,
(3) tensor gauge theories and their application to emergent gravity, elasticity and quantum melting, and symmetry enriched topological orders,
(4) quantum spin liquids and frustrated magnets,
(5) applications of higher category and homotopy theory to physics,
(6) I am starting to get interested in applying formal methods familiar to the study of topological phases to quantum dynamics, but I haven't done anything yet.

When I am not dreaming about physics and math, you can find me at the closest source of coffee, at the climbing gym dangling from a rope, or in the mosh pit of your nearest punk show (you should totally check out my favorite paper arXiv:1302.1886!).