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Zohar Komargodski (born 10 March 1983) is an Israeli theoretical physicist who works on quantum field theory, including conformal field theories, gauge theories and supersymmetry.

Komargodski received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute in 2008 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton afterwards. He currently holds a professor position at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University in New York.

Research

In 2011 he and Adam Schwimmer from the Weizmann Institute proved a long-standing conjecture in quantum field theory, the a-theorem, conjectured in 1988 by John Cardy. Cardy's conjecture was a generalization of the c-theorem by Alexander Zamolodchikov (1986) for two-dimensional quantum field theories on higher dimensions. The c-theorem ensures the existence of a function that decreases monotonically with the flow of the renormalization group (RG) (a function of the coupling constants and energy scale), which assumes constant values independent of the energy scale at the fixed points of the RG. This means that cycles in the flow of the RG are excluded; the flow is irreversible. The theorem also makes statements about the number of degrees of freedom in quantum field theory depending on the energy scale. In 1988 Cardy proposed the existence of an analog function (a-function, as an integral of the expected value of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor over the four-dimensional sphere) in four dimensions. The a-function in four dimensions was proven to exist to all orders in perturbation theory in 1989 by Hugh Osborn. Komargodski and Schwimmer proved the existence of the a-function for four dimensions beyond perturbation theory. The application of the a-theorem enables connections to be made between predictions of a quantum field theory at low (observable) energies and high energies in the four-dimensional case relevant for physics.

Additional contributions include:

• Together with Alexander Zhiboedov, the universal large-spin limit of operators in Conformal Field Theories
• Contributions to supersymmetric localization, including the geometry of supersymmetric partition functions the Cardy limit, and the metric on the space of theories
• Anomalies and their consequences for dynamics of strongly coupled systems, including Yang-Mills theory in 3+1 dimensions (with Davide Gaiotto, Anton Kapustin, and Nathan Seiberg).
• Dualities and new phases of 2+1 dimensional theories.

Honors and awards

In 2013 he received the New Horizons in Physics Prize and the Gribov Medal. In 2018 he was awarded the Sackler Prize in Physics. In 2021 he was awarded Tomassoni awards.

References

1. "Prof. Zohar Komargodski".
2. "New Horizons Solvay Lectures" (PDF).
3. "Conversation with Zohar Komargodski" (PDF).
4. "IAS Member". 9 December 2019.
5. "INSPIRE". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
6. "Zohar Komargodski | SCGP". Retrieved 29 August 2021.
7. Komargodski, Zohar; Schwimmer, Adam (20 July 2011). "On Renormalization Group Flows in Four Dimensions". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2011 (12): 99. arXiv:1107.3987v2. Bibcode:2011JHEP...12..099K. doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2011)099. S2CID 119231010.
8. ^ "2013 New Horizons in Physics Prize".
9. Zamolodchikov, A.; Zamolodchikov, Al. (1997), "Conformal Bootstrap in Liouville Field Theory", Low-Dimensional Applications of Quantum Field Theory, NATO ASI Series, vol. 361, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 319–334, doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-1919-9_17, ISBN 978-1-4899-1921-2, retrieved 16 March 2021
10. Cardy, John L. (December 1988). "Is there a c-theorem in four dimensions?". Physics Letters B. 215 (4): 749–752. Bibcode:1988PhLB..215..749C. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(88)90054-8. ISSN 0370-2693.
11. Osborn, Hugh (1989). "Derivation of a Four-Dimensional c Theorem". Physics Letters B. 222 (1): 97. Bibcode:1989PhLB..222...97O. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(89)90729-6. Ian, Jack; Osborn, Hugh (1990). "Analogs for the c Theorem for Four-Dimensional Renormalizable Field Theories". Nuclear Physics B. 343 (3): 647–688. Bibcode:1990NuPhB.343..647J. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(90)90584-Z.
12. Samuel Reich, Eugenie (14 November 2011). "Proof found for unifying quantum principle". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2011.9352. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 211729430.
13. Komargodski, Zohar; Zhiboedov, Alexander (November 2013). "Convexity and Liberation at Large Spin". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2013 (11): 140. arXiv:1212.4103. Bibcode:2013JHEP...11..140K. doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2013)140. ISSN 1029-8479. S2CID 119305593.
14. Closset, Cyril; Dumitrescu, Thomas T.; Festuccia, Guido; Komargodski, Zohar (January 2014). "The Geometry of Supersymmetric Partition Functions". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2014 (1): 124. arXiv:1309.5876. Bibcode:2014JHEP...01..124C. doi:10.1007/JHEP01(2014)124. ISSN 1029-8479. S2CID 119224380.
15. Di Pietro, Lorenzo; Komargodski, Zohar (December 2014). "Cardy Formulae for SUSY Theories in d=4 and d=6". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2014 (12): 31. arXiv:1407.6061. Bibcode:2014JHEP...12..031D. doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2014)031. ISSN 1029-8479. S2CID 52995161.
16. Gerchkovitz, Efrat; Gomis, Jaume; Komargodski, Zohar (November 2014). "Sphere Partition Functions and the Zamolodchikov Metric". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2014 (11): 1. arXiv:1405.7271. Bibcode:2014JHEP...11..001G. doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2014)001. ISSN 1029-8479. S2CID 53663195.
17. Gaiotto, Davide; Kapustin, Anton; Komargodski, Zohar; Seiberg, Nathan (May 2017). "Theta, Time Reversal, and Temperature". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2017 (5): 91. arXiv:1703.00501. Bibcode:2017JHEP...05..091G. doi:10.1007/JHEP05(2017)091. ISSN 1029-8479. S2CID 119528151.
18. "The Gribov Medal Prizes".
19. "Past Laureates of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Physics". Tel Aviv University. 5 September 2012.
20. "Caterina Tomassoni and Felice Pietro Chisesi Prize".

• Israeli physicists
• 1983 births
• Living people