Dr Cyril Closset BA MA PhD

Dr Cyril Closset

School of Mathematics
Royal Society University Research Fellow (Associate Professor)
Birmingham Fellow
Head of the Geometry and Mathematical Physics group

Contact details

Email
c.closset@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Mathematics
Watson Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Closset is a string theorist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow, a Birmingham Fellow, and a is head of the Geometry and Mathematical Physics group. He specialises in string theory, quantum field theory, and other aspects of theoretical physics at the interface between high-energy physics and pure mathematics. The overall theme of his research is supersymmetry, used as a powerful theoretical concept that connects together many exciting areas of physics and mathematics.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Theoretical Physics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, 2010
  • MA in Physics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, 2006
  • BA in Physics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, 2004

Biography

Dr Closset is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a Birmingham Fellow. He obtained a PhD in theoretical physics from the Free university of Brussels (ULB) in 2010. He went on to hold postdoctoral positions at the Weizmann Institute (Israel), the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics (NY, USA) and at CERN (Switzerland).

Since 2018, he has been a Royal Society University Research Fellow. After two years at the Mathematical Institute in Oxford, he joined the School of Mathematics at the University of Birmingham in 2020.

His main areas of research are string theory, quantum field theory (QFT), topological QFT (TQFT), supersymmetry, and the intersection of these domains with pure geometry, in particular with algebraic geometry.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Closset welcomes applications from prospective PhD candidates.

Research

Research themes

  • Supersymmetric localisation
  • Mirror symmetry
  • Canonical singularities
  • Topological field theory
  • Superconformal field theory

Research activity

The main focus of Dr Closset's research is on mathematical and 'formal' aspects of Quantum Field Theory (QFT) in the presence of supersymmetry. The underlying 'big question' is: How do we use supersymmetry to learn more about QFT at strong coupling? Along the way, there are quite a few beautiful mathematical structures to be uncovered. Many of the problems that he works on arise in string theory, or have deep relations to it.

Other activities

Postdoc development (support for the career development of the postdoctoral researchers in the school)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Closset, C & Khlaif, O 2023, 'Grothendieck lines in 3d N = 2 SQCD and the quantum K-theory of the Grassmannian', Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2023, no. 12, 82. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep12(2023)082

Closset, C & Khlaif, O 2023, 'On the Witten index of 3d N=2 unitary SQCD with general CS levels', SciPost Physics, vol. 15, no. 3, 085. https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.3.085

Closset, C & Magureanu, H 2023, 'Partition functions and fibering operators on the Coulomb branch of 5d SCFTs', Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2023, no. 1, 35. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep01(2023)035

Closset, C & Khlaif, O 2023, 'Twisted indices, Bethe ideals and 3d N = 2 infrared dualities', Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2023, no. 5, 148. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep05(2023)148

Closset, C, Schäfer-Nameki, S & Wang, Y-N 2022, 'Coulomb and Higgs branches from canonical singularities. Part I. Hypersurfaces with smooth Calabi-Yau resolutions', Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2022, no. 4, 61. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2022)061

Closset, C & Del Zotto, M 2022, 'On 5D SCFTs and their BPS quivers. Part I: B-branes and brane tilings', Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 37–142. https://doi.org/10.4310/ATMP.2022.v26.n1.a2

Closset, C & Magureanu, H 2022, 'The U-plane of rank-one 4d N=2 KK theories', SciPost Physics, vol. 12, no. 2, 065. https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.12.2.065

Closset, C, Giacomelli, S, Schäfer-Nameki, S & Wang, Y-N 2021, '5d and 4d SCFTs: canonical singularities, trinions and S-dualities', Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2021, no. 5, 274. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2021)274

Closset, C, Schäfer-Nameki, S & Wang, Y-N 2021, 'Coulomb and Higgs branches from canonical singularities. Part 0', Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2021, no. 2, 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2021)003

Closset, C 2019, 'Five-dimensional SCFTs and gauge theory phases: an M-theory/type IIA perspective', SciPost Physics.

Closset, C, Franco, S, Guo, J & Hasan, A 2019, 'Graded quivers and B-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities', Journal of High Energy Physics. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2019)053

Closset, C, Di Pietro, L & Kim, H 2019, '’t Hooft anomalies and the holomorphy of supersymmetric partition functions', Journal of High Energy Physics. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2019)035

Closset, C & Kim, H 2019, 'Three-dimensional = 2 supersymmetric gauge theories and partition functions on Seifert manifolds: A review', International Journal of Modern Physics A, vol. 34, no. 23, 1930011. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217751X19300114

Closset, C, Guo, J & Sharpe, E 2018, 'B-branes and supersymmetric quivers in 2d', JHEP. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2018)051

Closset, C, Kim, H & Willett, B 2018, 'Seifert fibering operators in 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories', JHEP. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2018)004

View all publications in research portal