Simon is a high energy theorist whose interests center on the exploration of theories of elementary particles and their interactions which go beyond the so-called Standard Model of particle physics. Simon uses the ideas and tools of lattice field theory to study these theories at strong coupling using supercomputer simulations.
In particular, he has worked on discrete approaches to quantum gravity and has pioneered the study of supersymmetric lattice gauge theories in particular the famous N=4 Super Yang-Mills theory that forms the cornerstone of the AdS/CFT correspondence relating gauge theories to gravity. He is also worked on mechanisms and models of dynamical symmetry breaking such as technicolor and composite Higgs models.
More recently he has become interested in problems that lie at the interface of fundamental physics and quantum information science. The last two decades have seen the development of the new field of quantum information science, which analyses how quantum systems may be used to store, transmit and process information.The field encompasses a broad swathe of science and engineering and is poised to revolutionize much of science and technology with the development of practical quantum computing.
For example, just within the arena of theoretical physics, quantum computing offers the potential to calculate for the first time the properties of strongly interacting dense matter such as found in neutron stars or high temperature superconductors. Very recently there have also emerged surprising and deep connections between black holes, quantum gravity and quantum error correction.
One specific new idea that has arisen in this context is the possibility of reformulating (lattice) quantum field theory as a tensor network. Tensor network formulations have the potential to avoid the notorious sign problem that plagues Monte Carlo methods of simulating quantum field theory and explicitly reveals connections to holographic approaches to quantum gravity. Such approaches also can serve as the first step in a reformulation of QFTs suitable for quantum computation.
The iNSPIRE-HEP page can be accessed here.
The Particle theory group meeting details can be found out here.