Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Areas of research: Mathematical Physics
Research Interests
My research centres on the intersection of integrability, twistor theory and quantum field theory. In recent years a new approach to integrability, in which 2d integrable systems are obtained from a 4d mixed holomorphic-topological theory, has garnered much interest. From this 4d perspective the infinite dimensional symmetry algebras of 2d integrable systems are manifest. This construction is closely related to the twistor programme, where 4d integrable field theories arise from a holomorphic theory on a 6d manifold known as twistor space. Together with collaborators, I am investigating how twistor theory can be used to understand the integrability of 4d quantum field theories, particularly self-dual gravity. I am also interested in understanding lower dimensional integrable systems from this perspective.
Positions Held
- PhD student, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, 2017-2021
Awards
- Tyson Medal, University of Cambridge, 2017
Recent Publications
- Bittleston, R., Costello, K., & Zeng, K. (2026). Self-dual Gauge Theory from the Top Down. Communications in Mathematical Physics, 407(6), 108. doi:10.1007/s00220-026-05606-4
- Bittleston, R., & Costello, K. (2026). One-Loop QCD ß Function as an Index. Physical Review Letters, 136(21), 211601. doi:10.1103/5kd5-3724
- Bittleston, R., & Costello, K. (2026). Scattering in Instanton Backgrounds. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2602.17538
- Bittleston, R., Mason, L., & Moosavian, S. F. (2026). The Self-Duality Equations on a Riemann Surface and Four-Dimensional Chern-Simons Theory. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2601.05309
- Bittleston, R., & Costello, K. (2025). The One-Loop QCD $ß$-Function as an Index. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.26764
- Bittleston, R., Skinner, D., Simon, H., & Surya, R. (2025). Non-Commutative Gauge Theory at the Beach. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.20643
- Bittleston, R., Bogna, G., Heuveline, S., Kmec, A., Mason, L., & Skinner, D. (2024). On AdS4 deformations of celestial symmetries. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2024(7), 10. doi:10.1007/jhep07(2024)010
- Bittleston, R., Bogna, G., Heuveline, S., Kmec, A., Mason, L., & Skinner, D. (2024). On AdS$_4$ deformations of celestial symmetries. https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.18011v1
- Bittleston, R., Skinner, D., & Sharma, A. (2023). Quantizing the Non-linear Graviton. Communications in Mathematical Physics, 403(3), 1543-1609. doi:10.1007/s00220-023-04828-0
- Bittleston, R., Heuveline, S., & Skinner, D. (2023). The celestial chiral algebra of self-dual gravity on Eguchi-Hanson space. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2023(9), 8. doi:10.1007/jhep09(2023)008
- Bittleston, R., & Skinner, D. (2023). Twistors, the ASD Yang-Mills equations and 4d Chern-Simons theory. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2023(2), 227. doi:10.1007/jhep02(2023)227
- Bittleston, R. (2023). On the associativity of 1-loop corrections to the celestial operator product in gravity. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2023(1), 18. doi:10.1007/jhep01(2023)018
Seminars
- Conformal Anomalies from Index Theory, Rhind Seminar on Physical Mathematics, 2026/04/20
- Self-Dual Gravity from Twistor String Compactifications, Simons Collaboration on Celestial Holography Satellite Meeting, Andaz 5th Avenue, 2026/04/14
- The KP Equation and Celestial Duals to w(1+∞), Harvard Celestial Workshop, Harvard University, Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature, Cambridge, United States, 2026/02/10
- Conformal Anomalies from Index Theory, QF&S group meeting, 2026/01/23
- Non-Commutative Gauge Theory at the Beach, Simons Collaboration Retreat, The St. Regis Bermuda Resort, 2025/12/15
- Non-Commutative Gauge Theory at the Beach, Holomorphic-topological field theories and representation theory, 2025/11/06, PIRSA:25110066
- Quantum Fields on Twistor Space, From Good Cuts to Celestial Holography, University of Oxford, St Antony's College, 62 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6JF, United Kingdom, 2025/07/07
- Instanton Scattering, Amplitudes 2025, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, 2025/06/19
- Anomalies and Instantons, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States, 2025/03/26
- Anomalies and Instantons, Celestial Holography Workshop, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States, 2025/02/21
- Self-Dual Gauge Theory from the Top Down, Simons Collaboration on Celestial Holography Seminar, 2024/11/26
- QCD Form Factors from Large N Chiral Algebras, Edinburgh Mathematical Physics Group Seminar, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2024/09/25
- QCD Form Factors from Large N Chiral Algebras, Twistors in Geometry and Physics, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2024/09/12
- QCD form factors from large N chiral algebras, Mathematical Structures in Scattering Amplitudes, Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics, Largo Enrico Fermi, 2, Florence, 50125, Italy, 2024/08/29
- QCD form factors from large N chiral algebras, Integrability, Duality and Deformations, Swansea University, Mathematics, Crymlyn Burrows, Skewen, Swansea, Wales, SA1 8DD, United Kingdom, 2024/07/16
- Celestial Holograms for Self-Dual QCD, Boston University, Mathematics and Statistics, 665 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States, 2023/11/01
- Deformations of Celestial Chiral Algebras, Celestial Holography Kickoff Workshop, Harvard University, Physics, 17 Oxford Street, Jefferson Laboratory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States, 2023/10/27