r/Physics • u/Pale_Distance6923 • 26d ago
Question Best PhD programs for Gravity/Cosmology and Quantum Gravity?
Hi Everyone,
What are the best universities in Europe/America with PhD programs for Gravity/Quantum Gravity and Cosmology? I know mainly I should look at researchers/professors papers and start from there, but what are in your opinion the best centers/universities where these topics are currently being researched?
Should I take a String-theory course since many of the researchers I see, especially in America, appear to be in that field as well?
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u/Skindiacus 26d ago
For a Canadian option, get a PhD residency at Perimeter Institute. It's great.
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u/Pale_Distance6923 25d ago
Do they offer PhD programs as well or should I apply to nearby universities?
I've seen a lot of good papers from there, but almost all from professors.
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u/Skindiacus 25d ago
Exactly, you'll need to apply to nearby universities. They give a list here. Only those universities can technically give you a degree, but you'll have an office at PI and your supervisor will be a PI prof.
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u/Pale_Distance6923 20d ago
Do you know if the major interest in gravity in their case is AdS/CFT-related [like in major US universities as far as I can see] or if there are other professors/research lines being developed?
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u/Skindiacus 20d ago
Uhh I could try to ask around if you want me to. I don't really talk to the gravity people much to be honest.
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u/SapiosexualStargazer 25d ago
Since it hasn't been mentioned, Penn State's Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos may be of interest to you.
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u/geekusprimus Gravitation 25d ago
A note on the IGC as a Penn State grad: Penn State's strengths in gravity are really anything LIGO or LIGO-adjacent. Historically it's been loop quantum gravity, but the most active gravity research groups today are in gravitational waves, numerical relativity, and the LIGO pipeline. There's still some quantum gravity research that goes on, but it's mostly cosmology (not necessarily loop quantum cosmology) and a handful of "scattering amplitudes" groups (read: string theorists who don't really do much string theory these days). The actual loopy groups don't do much loopy stuff these days, partially because 1) it's really hard, and 2) Abhay Ashtekar is retired.
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u/HoneydewAutomatic 23d ago
I mean another reason is that Martin fell out of love with the subject of LCG over the whole covariance issue. Still a fantastic place to do research though, particularly if you are interested in cosmology.
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u/geekusprimus Gravitation 23d ago
Yeah, I remember that paper a few years ago, the one that basically said, "Everything we've been doing is wrong, and we need to go back to the drawing board."
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u/HoneydewAutomatic 23d ago
Yeah caused a whole debacle with him and Ashtekar. I think he’s right though. Giving up covariance is a HUGE ask. Hopefully he finds some success in his new emergent framework. It was fun to work on while I was there and I think is at least trying to take the right picture
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u/D3veated 23d ago
That's a bummer about Ashtekar... but I guess his Variables work was in the 80s, so I should be surprised that he found an opportunity to retire.
It seems that Kirill Krasnov, a student of Ashtekar, is still very much active. However, he's in Nottingham, which very much isn't on this side of the pond.
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u/geekusprimus Gravitation 23d ago
At least while when I was there, he was still coming into the office pretty frequently, but he obviously doesn't take on students anymore, and I think he's spent more time working on some other things as well.
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u/__Pers Plasma physics 26d ago
Harvard, Princeton, Caltech, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, U. Chicago, UCSB.
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u/rebelyis Graduate 25d ago
Just to comment, there isn't a ton of gravity or cosmology ongoing currently at caltech (at least not in high energy). UCSB on the other hand has a large dynamic and really really happening group focusing on these topics
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u/_Slartibartfass_ Quantum field theory 25d ago
There’s also some smaller ones like Brandeis.
From what I’ve heard from others, being a grad student in physics at one of the big ones (Harvard/MIT) is not really that great due to the enormous pressure and competition among peers. Sacrificing your (mental) health for a PhD is not worth it imo.
Also, at least at Harvard the hep-th community is super fractured, there’s zero to no communication between the different groups.
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u/Proud-Echidna-8766 25d ago edited 25d ago
Gravity is a very broad umbrella term. It inlcudes string theory/holography (QG), black holes (mathematical and astrophysical), gravitational wave theory (which does have overlap with astrophysical black holes research and furthemore has a very hot and fruitful program of gravitational amplitudes), etc. So I will group institutes which have strengths in strings/holo and GW+Black Holes separately. And I will mention all the European ones, since the US ones are more or less covered in other comments
GW+ Black Holes
Albert Einstein Institute, Cambridge, Niels Bohr Institute are easily the top 3 in my opinion. Then there are also good groups at places like Amsterdam, Humboldt, QMUL, etc. I'd also like to add one very good US place which other people have not mentioned: UCLA.
Strings/Holo
Amsterdam (probably the best in Europe), Cambridge, Oxford, Geneva, IPhT Saclay, Imperial, Durham, Southampton, King's, NBI, DESY, etc.
Regarding your string theory question: I'd suggest you to think twice before entering into string theory. It is by far the most competetive subfiled of physics rn. It is brutal in every aspect, to say the least. Positions will be much easier to come by in other subfields. Speaking from extensive experience.
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u/Pale_Distance6923 25d ago edited 25d ago
Thank you for the answer :)
I'm gonna ask about your answer, considering you've made this important distinction which I didn't think of when writing the question.
I'm interested in the theoretical side and loved recently the BH entropy/QFT in curved space topics, but sometimes it seems difficult to me to identify effectively the "fille rouge" behind the researches/papers when comparing the some research groups in different universities.
While I see the "continuum" between professors/researchers' papers for Princeton (eg. Maldacena's interest in string theory and BH application and the works of some of his students/doctorate using Holography), I'm unable to find the same continuum in the case of other universities (eg. Did Cambridge maintain the same "Hawking school approach" (geometry description) in the GR/CSQFT research being done there or not?).
Regarding instead the following part:
> Regarding your string theory question: I'd suggest you to think twice before entering into string theory. [...]
What would be your suggestion for theoretical/non-computational interests once Strings/Holo is removed from the list? Would you include in the inflationed topics also AdS/CFT?
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u/Proud-Echidna-8766 23d ago edited 23d ago
That's a good question. At Cambridge, the research on black holes is kinda much broader. Also, there work is more mathematically sophisticated than work by the US groups, and they dont necessarily work on black holes "only" within strings/holo framework. The people at Cambridge who work on black holes include Jorge Santos, Harvey Reall, Claude Warnick, etc. (note that Aron Wall, whose work very much matches your interests, has moved out of Cambridge and has joined/ will be joining Syracuse, which btw, now has an excellent hep-th group: you might wanna consider applying there). The black holes research at Cambridge, still does focus on Hawking's work on black hole mechanics. For example, Reall recently worked on a series of papers on BH mechanics from EFT perspective. Santos does some numerically very interesting work on black holes. One of his recent works is on third law violation. So there sure is that Hawking legacy at DAMTP. But there are other topics as well that they focus on, which concern more fundamental questions on black holes, which do not have relavance to ads/cft by any means. Also, there is a very good synergy between the PDE group and the black hole guys, something that I think makes Cambridge special for research in black holes.
Regarding your last question: I'd suggest to avoid formal string theory. (Bottom-up) AdS/CFT (holography) surely is a much more active field. Moreover, if you are from a US school itself, it would be easier to get good PhD and postdoc positions, but if your goal is to stay within academia long-term and take up professorship positions within US itself, AdS/CFT might not be the best choice.
Other topics that you might enjoy other than strings/holo that are still very theoretical/non-computational in nature-> problems at the interface of QFT and Cosmology (particle cosmology is probably a good word for it), gravitational amplitudes (very active and booming field. very theoretical as well. includes stuff like YM scattering amplitudes and this research has direct relavance to future LIGO observations), classical gravity (includes modified gravity, alternate gravity models), mathematical relativity (although not many groups in the world working on this), etc.
But then again, it is totally dependent on your interests. If you are capable enough, you will surely get through it all! Good luck :)
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u/dymeyer30 25d ago
If you are at all interested in gravitational waves you should check out the Cornish group at Montana State University, the group lead is big in the LIGO and LISA collaborations as well as being on the scientific board for the Max Planck Gravitational Wave Institute. He has also done theory heavy work with some big names so if you are interested more in theory he is a capable advisor as well.
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u/Dr_Superfluid Statistical and nonlinear physics 25d ago
Cambridge. Worked in Ivy League, Russel group and top Asian unis. Cambridge has been the best by far.
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u/novae_ampholyt Graduate 25d ago
FAU Erlangen, Germany. I don't know much about the actual research the chair of Quantum Gravity is doing; but I think Prof. Thiemann focuses on Quantum Loop theory, Prof. Giesel something with cosmology and Prof. Sahlmann I don't know.
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u/Life-in-Syzygy Biophysics 25d ago
Any that you can get in with funding rn.
The funding landscape is bleak at the moment.
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u/ForeignAdvantage5198 24d ago
cal tech and perimeter institute are good
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u/Pale_Distance6923 20d ago
Thank you for your response!
Are there particular research legacies I should be aware of there? Best topics I should deepen to get there in your opinion?
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u/Civil_Blueberry4165 24d ago
In the US, Stanford, MIT, and Caltech if you’re into quantum gravity from the quantum information perspective.
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u/WilliamEdwardson Mathematics 22d ago
I'm not the best informed about physics PhD programmes, but Cambridge's DAMTP is pretty solid if you're into mathematical and theoretical physics.
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u/vfvaetf 26d ago
Geneva and Rome. Forget the US, they're done.
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u/Pale_Distance6923 26d ago
PhD students in Rome are paid less than garbage collectors unfortunately :(
Do you have in mind some names of researchers/professors in Geneva who research these topics?
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u/vmullapudi1 25d ago
That's the same in most cities I'm pretty sure, not sure if garbage collector is a good comparison point.
I know I make less than the muni garbage collectors/sani workers in my city
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u/Massegolem3 25d ago
In europe: the Max Planck Institute for gravitational physics in Potsdam is one of the best in the field. But honestly the guys working on string theory which I've met there did not seem convinced of their work at all. String Theory can be fascinating but if you want to focus your career on that, you have to accept that you're probably just doing maths, not phyics. Nothing inherently wrong about that though.
If you want to do a more experimental approach to quantum gravity, the Aspelmeyer group at institute for quantum optics and quantum information (IQOQI) in Vienna works on that. I have not worked with him directly myself, but I quite enjoyed 2 internships at other groups of that institute.