With 21 faculty members conducting research in Theroetical Physics, our department offers a tremendous variety of research opportunities that span the gamut from Theoretical Astrophysics and Cosmology, Gravity and Relativity, String Theory, High Energy Physics, and Condensed Matter Theory, to Quantum Information and Biophysics. Research techniques include exact methods, field theoretic and perturbative approaches as well as numerical methods and computer simulations that make extensive use of Canada's High Performance Computing networks. The "Theory Centre" offers an ideal venue for group meetings and frequent interaction between faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows.

The Condensed Matter Theory group is pursuing research at the forefront of many of the most exciting current developments: high-temperature superconductivity, quantum dots, polaron physics, spintronics, topological insulators, transition metal oxides, large scale quantum phenomena, quantum magnetism, superfluidity and cold atomic gases, geometrical phases of strongly correlated particles, quantum information, nonequilibrium statistical physics of disordered solids, and protein folding.

The Pacific Institute of Theoretical Physics is an international research institute located in the department. It facilitates interactions between theorists all over the world and operates a visitor center for scientific exchanges.

Faculty Engaged: Theoretical Physics

Name Position Research
Mona Berciu Professor, Condensed Matter Research Website
Research Field: Strongly correlated systems
Topics Include: polarons, bipolarons, correlated electrons, spintronics, magnetic and transport properties
Matthew Choptuik Professor, Theoretical Physics Research Website
Research Field: Relativity/Computational Physics
Marcel Franz Professor, Condensed Matter Research Website
Jeremy Heyl Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Group Website
Research Field: Stellar and High-Energy Astrophysics
Topics Include: Compact Objects, Stellar Evolution, Cosmology, Dynamics, Strong-field QED
Joanna Karczmarek Associate Professor, Theoretical Physics Research Website
Research Field: String theory
Topics Include: Matrix models, emergent spacetime, noncommutative geometry, time dependence
Julio Parra-Martinez Assistant Professor, Theoretical Physics Personal Website
Research Field: Scattering Amplitudes, Effective Field Theory, General Relativity
Steven Plotkin Professor, Biophysics Research Website
Research Field: Theory, Computation, and Experiment
Topics Include: Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Protein Misfolding & Aggregation, Molecular origins of neurodegenerative disease, Genetic networks, Coarse-graining in biomolecular modelling
Joerg Rottler Professor, Condensed Matter Research Website
Research Field: Condensed Matter/Computational Physics, Soft Condensed Matter
Topics Include: Nonequilibrium statistical physics, polymer science, deformation and flow of disordered solids, nanoscale transport phenomena, computational materials physics
Moshe Rozali Professor, Particle & Nuclear Physics Research Website
Research Field: Particle Theory, String Theory
George Sawatzky Professor, Condensed Matter Research Website
Kristin Schleich Associate Professor, Theoretical Physics Research Field: General Relativity
Douglas Scott Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Website
Research Field: Cosmology
Topics Include: Structure formation, Cosmic Microwave Background, Early Universe, High redshift galaxies, Sub-mm Observations, Astro-statistics
Gordon Semenoff Professor, Theoretical Physics Research Field: Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics
Topics Include: String Theory, quantum field theory, quantum gravity, statistical mechanics, theoretical condensed matter physics, MOEDAL experiment at CERN
Kris Sigurdson Associate Professor, Theoretical Physics Research Website
Research Field: Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
Topics Include: Particle Dark Matter, Early Universe Cosmology, Particle Cosmology, Cosmological Perturbation Theory, Dark Energy, Inflation, Cosmic Microwave Background, Cosmic 21-cm Fluctuations
Philip Stamp Professor, Condensed Matter Research Website
William Unruh Professor, Theoretical Physics Research Website
Research Field: Gravity, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Foundations, Quantum Computing, Cosmology
Mark Van Raamsdonk Professor, Particle & Nuclear Physics Research Website
Research Field: String Theory, Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Gravity
Ariel Zhitnitsky Professor, Theoretical Physics Research Website
Research Field: Particle Theory/Astrophysics/Cosmology
Topics Include: Axions, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Vacuum energy in gauge theories
Fei Zhou Professor, Condensed Matter Research Website
Research Field: Quantum Magnetism/Quantum Many-body Physics/Applications of QFT/CFT
Topics Include: Ultra-Cold Quantum Matter, Strong-Coupling physics, Far Away From Equilibrium Quantum Dynamics, Quantum entanglement and quantum transport/dynamic phenomena, Emergent quantum symmetries and correlations.

Postdoctoral Fellows & Research Associates Engaged in Theoretical Physics Research

Name Position Research
Aidan Chatwin-Davies Postdoctoral Fellow, Theoretical Physics https://phas.ubc.ca/~achatwin/
Research Field: Quantum Gravity and Quantum Information
Arjun Kar Postdoctoral Fellow, Theoretical Physics Topics Include: Holography, string theory, quantum field theory, quantum information theory