Avi Wadhwa

Avi Wadhwa

PhD student at ICTS–TIFR, Bengaluru

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avi.wadhwa@icts.res.in avi.wadhwa@outlook.com
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About

I am a graduate student in physics at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR). I completed my undergraduate studies at BITS Pilani, Goa Campus. My research interests lie broadly in understanding physics at the smallest and largest length scales.

Outside of academia, I enjoy swimming, painting, listening to rock music, and sharing memes.

Doctoral research
ICTS–TIFR, Bengaluru · Advisor: R. Loganayagam
Undergraduate studies
BITS Pilani, Goa Campus Undergraduate thesis

Research

Gravitation · Quantum field theory · Holography

Binary dynamics and holography Two bodies orbit in a schematic AdS cylinder. Gentle wavefronts extend towards its boundary, labelled CFT, with the bulk energy and boundary scaling dimension linked below. CFT E ↔ Δ

Post-Newtonian dynamics in (A)dS and dual CFT data

How does AdS/CFT dictionary work for the most familiar gravitational system: two massive bodies bound by a nearly Newtonian potential? In this project we study the post-Newtonian dynamics of an inspiralling binary in Anti de-Sitter/de-Sitter background. We also extract information about the dual boundary field theory (CFT). In dS, this analysis gives us cosmological curvature corrections to gravitational-wave data.

Current directions
  • Conservative dynamics and conserved charges through 2PN.
  • Effective one-body dynamics and quasi-circular orbits.
  • CFT data from bulk energy spectrum and boundary waveform.
  • Gravitational radiation and radiation reaction in AdS
Scattering and soft radiation A hard scattering amplitude joins two incoming and two outgoing particle lines. A wavy gauge-boson line is emitted from an outgoing leg, with its frequency tending to zero in the soft limit. M ω → 0

Soft theorems and gauge invariance

Soft theorems describe infrared properties of gauge theories. How do they get modified when the gauge invariance is non-trivial: as in the case of Chern–Simons gauge theories? We studied soft theorems for gauge theories with Chern-Simons perturbations in both flat and curved (de Sitter) background.

Current directions
  • Soft theorems for Chern-Simons in flat spacetime
  • Loop corrections to tree-level Chern-Simons soft factors
  • Curvature corrections (or lack of) to Chern-Simons soft factors
  • Connections to asymptotic symmetries