Iordanis Romaidis

Iordanis Romaidis is from Thessaloniki, Greece. He completed his Master in Mathematical Physics at Universität Hamburg in September 2019. His Master thesis "Permutation Orbifolds in Reshetikhin-Turaev TQFTs" describes the algebraic datum of permutation orbifolds for topological bilayer phases and how the orbifold theory changes under modifications on the G-crossed ribbon fusion extension. At Quantum Universe, he is now part of the group of Prof. Dr. Ingo Runkel.

What is the topic of your research?

Together with my supervisor Ingo Runkel, I study mathematical questions related to conformal and topological field theories, motivated by ideas in physics and especially 3D quantum gravity in the context of Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory correspondence. The main goal of the project is to express conformal correlators of certain conformal field theories, for instance the Ising theory, as an average of some special vacuum with respect to the mapping class group action, which is provided by the underlying modular functor of the topological field theory, aiming for a gravitational interpretation of this averaging method.

What fascinates you about your research focus?

The interaction between mathematics and physics in this field is very apparent. I am deeply interested in the mathematical formalization of quantum field theories and the mathematics developed for this. Topological and conformal field theory is a great subject for mathematicians and physicists to work and benefit from each other.

What do you like about Quantum Universe? 

It covers a great variety of research areas and it gives the opportunity for me to interact with people with similar research interests, but also learn about other subjects. This is refreshing and at the same time it motivates me to explore new ideas that may apply in my research. In my opinion, events like the Quantum Universe Days are a great platform for the above to take place.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I am very passionate about exercising regularly as it gives me the opportunity to reduce stress and break free from daily routine. I enjoy a variety of different physical activities like basketball, climbing and occasionally windsurfing. Music is an irreplaceable part of my daily life mostly by listening to it but also studying and playing the guitar. For the past year, in my free time, I have also been playing board games as a way to keep contact with my friends.