Kasia Rejzner

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Kasia Rejzner is interested in mathematical structures relevant for quantum field theory (QFT) and quantum gravity. In particular, she works on problems involving QFT on curved spacetimes, using the locally covariant setting proposed by Brunetti, Fredenhagen and Verch (CMP 2003). This setting can also be extended to include effective quantum gravity models. Kasia is also interested in abstract algebraic and analytical structures appearing in renormalization. Possible project topics could focus on:
Mathematical structures in renormalization.
Renormalization is a powerful set of tools used in Quantum Field Theory to construct interacting models (perturbatively). Usually, it is associated with the idea of "removing the divergences," but there are also more rigorous formulations of the renormalization problem that allow to see renormalization as a mathematically well-defined procedure. One of such approaches is the Epstein-Glaser renormalization scheme, which recently has been successfully applied in QFT on curved spacetimes. Potential PhD projects would aim at investigating abstract mathematical structures appearing in this renormalization scheme, or at applying this scheme in interesting physical examples.

Quantum gravity and cosmology.
Quantizing gravity is one of the greatest challenges of modern theoretical physics. At the moment, the full theory is not known and there are several competing approaches to finding it. In a recent paper of R. Brunetti, K. Fredenhagen and K. Rejzner (2013) it was shown that a perturbative model of effective quantum gravity can be constructed using the framework of locally covariant QFT (formerly used only for QFT on curved spacetimes). This opens a way for applications in cosmology and black hole physics. Potential PhD projects would involve constructing models that allow to compute quantum gravity corrections to known physical processes.