Related papers: Lectures on twistor theory
Remarkably, the twistor $\mathbf P^1$ occurs as a fundamental object in both four-dimensional space-time geometry and in number theory. In Euclidean signature twistor theory it is how one describes space-time points. In recent work by…
Vasiliev equations facilitate globally defined formulations of higher-spin gravity in various correspondence spaces associated with different phases of the theory. In the four-dimensional case this induces a map from a generally covariant…
This essay presents a critical evaluation of the concepts of string theory and its impact on particle physics. The point of departure is a historical review of four decades of string theory within the broader context of six decades of…
We discuss chiral zero-rest-mass field equations on six-dimensional space-time from a twistorial point of view. Specifically, we present a detailed cohomological analysis, develop both Penrose and Penrose-Ward transforms, and analyse the…
These notes accompany an introductory lecture course on the twistor approach to supersymmetric gauge theories aimed at early-stage PhD students. It was held by the author at the University of Cambridge during the Michaelmas term in 2009.…
In previous work by two of the present authors, twistors were re-interpreted as 4-d spinors with a position dependence within the formalism of geometric (Clifford) algebra. Here we extend that approach and justify the nature of the position…
The AdS/CFT correspondence provides quantum theories of gravity in which spacetime and gravitational physics emerge from ordinary non-gravitational quantum systems with many degrees of freedom. Recent work in this context has uncovered…
Massless spinning correlators in cosmology are extremely complicated. In contrast, the scattering amplitudes of massless particles with spin are very simple. We propose that the reason for the unreasonable complexity of these correlators…
Four-dimensional twisted group lattices are used as models for space-time structure. Compared to other attempts at space-time deformation, they have two main advantages: They have a physical interpretation and there is no difficulty in…
In this expository note, I present some basic geometric and twistor theoretic facts about de Sitter space leading up to a discussion of Penrose's quasi-local mass construction for linear gravity theory in the de Sitter background. The…
It is seen that issues of unitarity raised by the evolution of the wave function in curved spacetime can be resolved by describing the evolution of quantum states in Minkowski tangent space. The treatment adheres closely to the orthodox…
This article gives a study of the higher-dimensional Penrose transform between conformally invariant massless fields on space-time and cohomology classes on twistor space, where twistor space is defined to be the space of projective pure…
We develop ambitwistor string theories for 4 dimensions to obtain new formulae for tree-level gauge and gravity amplitudes with arbitrary amounts of supersymmetry. Ambitwistor space is the space of complex null geodesics in complexified…
The search for a geometrical understanding of dualities in string theory, in particular T-duality, has led to the development of modern T-duality covariant frameworks such as Double Field Theory, whose mathematical structure can be…
Since the early days of the theory of electromagnetism and of gravity the idea of space, then space-time, as a sort of physical continuum hovered the scientific community. Actually general relativity shows the strong similarity that exists…
The special theory of relativity has fundamentally changed our views of space and time. The relativity of simultaneity in particular, and the theory of relativity as a whole, still presents significant difficulty for beginners in the…
Relying on a mathematical analogy of the pure states of the two-qubit system of quantum information theory with four-component spinors we introduce the concept of the intrinsic entanglement of spinors. To explore its physical sense we study…
The twistor construction is applied for obtaining examples of generalized complex structures (in the sense of N. Hitchin) that are not induced by a complex or a symplectic structure.
The recently introduced anomaly-free twistor string in four dimensions is shown to be defined not just in flat but also in curved twistor space. Further, arguments are given that the classical limit of the corresponding string field theory,…
We re-examine the symmetry structure of massive momentum bispinors in four dimensional Minkowski spacetime and apply the result to the geometry of a two-qubit entanglement system. The geometry of entanglement is recovered by restricting the…