Pierre Ouimet
Assistant Professor
Office: LB 214
E-mail: Pierre-Philippe.Ouimet@uregina.ca
Phone: 306-337-2238
Research interests
Physics Education, novel formulations of Quantum Field Theories, Magnetic Monopoles, Q-balls.
Research Interests
The Quantum Theory of Fields (QFT) is the name given to the mathematical framework unifying quantum mechanics with special relativity. The quantum theory of the strong nuclear force, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), the quantum theory of the electromagnetic interactions, are examples of these quantum field theories. These theories are among the most successful in the history of physics, having been tested to unprecedented precision.
Unfortunately, while QFT has been quite successful in describing the behavior of matter while subjected to three of the four fundamental interactions, it fails when it attempts to describe gravity. The formulation of a reasonable quantum theory of gravity therefore represents a substantial challenge. Though several approaches to this problem have been taken, at the moment none of the candidate theories have any significant experimental support. Though the details of a fully quantum theory of gravity are not known, there are effective and/or semi classical approaches to the problem which are based on traditional and mostly well understood classical and quantum field theories. Working out the consequences of these approaches might then serve to guide more fundamental searches for a full quantum theory of gravity.
At the moment I am interested in technical (mathematical) issues arising when applying novel formulations of classical and quantum field theory to physical problems involving gravity and the strong nuclear force. In particular, I am interested in using noncommutative geometry to model quantum effects in gravity. I am also interested in mathematical issues arising in effective field theory techniques such as chiral perturbation theory and quantum field theory in curved spacetime. Finally I am interested in the use of the lattice formulation of quantum field theory, quantum field theory where spacetime is not a continuous whole but rather a lattice of points, to understand the strong nuclear and gravitational interactions.