We study some of the thorniest outstanding issues in quantum theories including strong interactions beyond perturbation theory  (such as occur in QCD) and quantum gravity.  

We work on dualities between  gauge theories and string theories, including holography. Our group has developed the method of holographic renormalization, which is the gravitational counterpart of renormalization in QFT. The method is essential for obtaining well-defined rules for computations in gravity/gauge  duality and moreover it explicitly shows how spacetime is reconstructed from gauge theory data.  Further interests cover black holes, applications of holographic methods to condensed matter systems and extending the holographic methods to cosmology.  Recently we have used the AdS/CFT correspondence and its deformations to understand new descriptions of confinement and mass generation in QCD-like theories.

We also study other approaches to quantum gravity, including recent work on asymptotically UV safety using exact renormlization group methods. 

If you are interested in a PhD degree with us, there is more information about our PhD programme (and how to apply), plus more general information about physics research at Southampton.