Roland Bittleston

Roland Bittleston profile picture
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Postdoctoral Researcher
Areas of research:
Mathematical Physics
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.
  • PhD student, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, 2017-2021
  • Tyson Medal, University of Cambridge, 2017
  • Bittleston, R., Skinner, D., & Sharma, A. (n.d.). Quantizing the Non-linear Graviton. Communications in Mathematical Physics. 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. doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2023)008
  • Bittleston, R., & Skinner, D. (n.d.). Twistors, the ASD Yang-Mills equations and 4d Chern-Simons theory. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2023(2). doi:10.1007/jhep02(2023)227
  • Bittleston, R. (n.d.). On the associativity of 1-loop corrections to the celestial operator product in gravity. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2023(1). doi:10.1007/jhep01(2023)018
  • Bittleston, R., Sharma, A., & Skinner, D. (2022). Quantizing the non-linear graviton. arxiv:2208.12701v2
  • Classical and Quantum Integrability in Self-Dual Gravity, Nagoya University, Mathematics, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8602, Japan, 2023/06/16, Video URL
  • Overview of Classical and Quantum Integrability in Four Dimensions, Nagoya University, Mathematics, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8602, Japan, 2023/06/15, Video URL
  • Classical and Quantum Integrability in Self-Dual Gravity, Black Hole Inititative Conference, Harvard University, Physics, 20 Garden St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, United States, 2023/05/19
  • On quantum corrections to the celestial operator product in gravity, Quantum Fields and Strings, 2023/01/24, PIRSA:23010110
  • Twistors, integrability, and 4d Chern-Simons theory, Mathematical Physics, 2021/10/29, PIRSA:21100050
  • Roland Bittleson, Postdoc Welcome 2021, 2021/10/28, PIRSA:21100032
  • Bosonic string from Beltrami-Chern-Simons, London Integrability Journal Club, 2021/01/01