Description

My research focuses on modeling and studying physical systems that are composed of many particles, using concepts from probability theory and statistics. The branch of physics that studies these so-called 'many-particle' or 'many-body' systems is known as statistical mechanics or statistical physics.

I study many properties of these systems, but especially those that have a connection with a branch of probability theory known as the theory of large deviations. I have recently completed a review article which surveys the many applications of large deviation theory in statistical physics (available here).

Currently my research focuses on five topics:

• Large deviation results for nonequilibrium systems driven in steady states
• Brownian motion with solid friction
• Numerical methods for large deviation calculations and rare event simulations
• Particle systems interacting with long-range potentials
• The equivalence and nonequivalence of statistical mechanical ensembles.

In my spare time, I also work on feedback control systems and information theory, following some work I did for my MSc at MIT, and studying football with graph theory.

Research themes

Statistical mechanics, large deviation theory, nonequilibrium systems, equilibrium systems, long-range systems.

• Publication list
• Students interested in doing a Ph.D. should contact me

Current research

• Large deviation theory approach to statistical mechanics
  see review paper
• Large deviations in nonequilibrium systems
  with Rosemary J. Harris (QMUL), Freddy Bouchet (ENS Lyon), and Raphael Chetrite (University of Nice)
• Brownian motion with solid friction
  Theory with Eddie G. D. Cohen (Rockefeller University), Adrian Baule and Wolfram Just (QMUL)
  Experiments with Andrea Puglisi (University of Rome 'La Sapienza')
• Numerical methods for large deviation calculations
  with Thomas Prellberg and Nicky Cleaver (QMUL)
• Entropy functions and phase transitions in long-range systems
  with Michael Kastner (National Institute for Theoretical Physics, South Africa)

Side interests

• Quantifying information in feedback control systems
  with Seth Lloyd (MIT) and Francisco J. Cao (University of Madrid, Complutense)
• Analysing football with graph theory
  with Javier López Peña (UCL)

• Convex analysis and Legendre-Fenchel transforms
• Probability theory
• Lévy processes
• Nonexponential large deviations
• Non-Markovian models