Overview

Description of the present research

Our division accommodates many research areas:

For many years major research interest of prof. Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman was quantum gravity. In recent years he has been working on kappa deformation of Poincare symmetry, quantum gravity phenomenology, BMS symmetry, applications of Wheeler-De Witt equation, and metastring theory.

Fields of interest of prof. Zbigniew Haba concern: cosmology, quantum field theory in an expanding universe, decoherence by gravitational waves, detection of gravitons, methods of functional integration in quantum field theory.

Prof. Andrzej Borowiec is focused on various branches of theoretical and mathematical physics including differential geometric methods in relation to gravity, gauge theories, as well as algebraic methods in relation to noncommutative geometry and new symmetries in physics. Currently, there are two main fields of interest:

  1. Extended theories of gravity, as e.g. Palatini or hybrid f(R)-gravity, scalar-tensor theories and their applications to the construction of viable cosmological models in the context of dark energy and dark matter problems.
  2.  Quantum deformations, quantum groups and supergroups with special emphasis on kappa-Poincare type algebras, Drinfeld twist quantization scheme, corresponding quantum spaces, differential calculi, noncommutative field theories and their applications for studying possible quantum gravity effects.

Dr Remigiusz Durka focuses on gravity and supergravity models in a variety of generalizations (Lovelock theory, MacDowell-Mansouri formulation, BF theory, resonant/Maxwell/S-expanded algebras) as well as black holes thermodynamics, and Taub-Nut spacetime (supposedly representing gravitational analog of the magnetic monopole). In recent years, he increases shares of research related to symbolic computing within framework of General Relativity.

Direct detection of gravitational waves gives the unique opportunity to study relativistic astrophysical phenomena predicted by the general theory of relativity and to improve our understanding of the Universe. The multiple detectors are currently operating on Earth (LIGO, VIRGO, TAMA, GEO) and the development of next generation interferometers is underway; planned space born detectors, LISA, DECIGO, TianQin, Taiji, BBO, working in the lower frequency bands (below 1 Hz) will complement the high-frequency observations on Earth (10–1000 Hz). Studies of dr Arkadiusz Błaut involve data analysis and parameters estimation of the future space detectors, like LISA, for nearly monochromatic gravitational waves in the low and high frequency regimes. The sources include populations of Galactic compact binaries with white dwarf, neutron star, black hole components; a special role is played by the so called verification binaries – known systems which are bright enough to be detected by the space gravitational wave detectors. Despite the possibility of extending our knowledge of astrophysical phenomena confronting them with models based on general relativity gravitational waves are used to test the theory itself, potentially discriminating among various competing alternatives. Recent studies of dr Błaut have aimed at this direction: involving an analysis of the frequency responses, in low and high frequency domains, of gravitational wave detectors excited by gravitational waves predicted in a class of metric theories of gravity, both for deterministic (astrophysical) and stochastic (cosmological) signals. In a broader perspective he is interested in cosmology, quantum gravity, neutrino physics and, recently, the dark matter searches, especially in the context of gravitational wave detectors. Recent papers: 1. “Parameter estimation accuracies of Galactic binaries with eLISA“, Astroparticle Physics 101 (2018) 17–26 // 2. “Gauge independent response of a laser interferometer to gravitational waves“, Class. Quantum Grav. 36 (2019) 055004 //3. “Neutrino elastic scattering on polarized electrons as a tool for probing the neutrino nature“, Eur. Phys. J. C (2020) 80:261

Research area of dr Wiesław Sobków concerns the nonstandard (beyond the standard model) interactions of neutrinos and dark matter particles with the use of (un)polarized targets (electrons,  nucleons, nulei). The experimental accuracy of the present  tests still allows for the participation of non-standard couplings.  There is clear evidence for the existence  of  dark matter in the Universe, but it is  only indirect and it is  essentially based upon gravitational effects on stars, galaxy clusters, the cosmic microwave background radiation.  The nature of dark matter is still unknown. The two main points are particularly important here:

  1. The question of time reversal symmetry violation (equivalent to CP breaking when CPT symmetry is maintained)
  2.  The  issue of nature of neutrinos and dark matter.

The studies are carried out on the basis of effective field theory. The main goal is to find the appropriate observables sensitive to new effects using elastic scattering of neutrinos and dark matter on various targets.  Preliminary considerations show that the azimuthal asymmetries of scattered particles can be suitable candidates. It is worth pointing out that there are many works indicating the advantages of direct detection experiments using polarized targets. 

History

The present shape of the Division of Theory of Gravity and Fundamental Interactions is a result of the evolution spanned over many decades, with the main research lines influenced by many past and present members of our group. In the Institute of Theoretical Physics for a very long time existed super-division gathering researchers working on fundamental physics. It was split in the ’90s giving rise to three Divisions: Theory of Particles (from which Neutrino Division later emerged), Mathematical Methods, and Fundamental Interactions and Gravity. The Head of the latter division became prof. Jerzy Lukierski, whose interests started from the mathematical theory of fundamental interactions, supersymmetry and evolved towards quantum deformations of symmetry, non-trivial geometries, and theoretical models of quantum gravity. He set the tone for the research in the next decades. Interest in quantum groups inspired many works within classical and quantum gravity, which had a huge impact on the present form of the division.

Quite a strong fundament of the division for many years to come was prof. Andrzej Borowiec, who started around the ’70s in the Division of the Mathematical Methods run by prof. Jadczyk with the focus on differential geometry. The 70/80 that’s the time of many Ph.D. students who stayed in science and marked strongly their place outside University of Wrocław (B. Milewski, A. Ogielski).

From the early 1990s, the central theme of the Division was the kappa-deformations, mastered by prof. Lukierski and his collaborators. After prof. Jerzy Lukierski in 2006 the head of the division became prof. Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman, which even more marked a general course towards classical and quantum gravity. Back then the Division was completed by the new researchers: Arkadiusz Błaut and later Marcin Daszkiewicz.

It is worthwhile to mention the time after 2000 with Zbigniew Jaskólski, whose work concerned string theory, conformal theory, and Liouville theory. Along with him in the similar field worked Marcin Piątek, Paulina Suchanek.

In 2011, due to reorganization and closing other divisions in Institute, we acquired people from other divisions: Andrzej Frydryszak, Ziemowit Popowicz, Wiesław Sobków, along with Zbigniew Haba, who was starting in the subject of Quantum Field Theory and classical gravity and recent years focused more and more on mathematical methods related to dark matter and energy.

It is worth mentioning JKG’s postdocs like Francesco Ciamfrani, and Giacomo Rosati (later in 2018 was hired at the regular basis). Recent employees of the Division concern: Remigiusz Durka (returning after few years of abroad postdoc in 2017), being a former master and Ph.D. student of Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman, Tomasz Pawłowski (2019) and Jakub Jankowski (2020). New hires in 2021 are Tomasz Trześniewski, who has already been working at Wroclaw’s Iinstitute during some past grant, and Falk Hassler.

Present division staff with Ph.D. students can be found here: http://www.ift.uni.wroc.pl/divisions/TOFiGK

Keywords

  • Classical gravity
  • Quantum gravity
  • Relativistic and quantum cosmology
  • Space-time symmetries deformations
  • Quantum groups and supergroups
  • Gravitational waves
  • Neutrino Physics
  • Conformal field theories
  • Geometrical and algebraical methods in field theory
  • Theory of twistors and supertwistors
  • Symbolic calculations