ICTS - Amey Gaikwad
In my second year summer, I was selected to work with the String group over a period of 8
weeks at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR), Bangalore as one of
the 20 students chosen from India as a part of the SN Bhatt Memorial Excellence Fellowship
Program 2017.
Application Process:
I had applied only to the Indian institutes as I did not deem it necessary to go for abroad
internships due to limited time and most importantly due to my extremely narrow research
interest (theoretical + String oriented). Due to the naivety at the time, I applied to just 4 institutes
in India. Fortunately, I got selected for the SN Bhatt program which has a very rigorous selection
criteria.
The Place:
Bangalore has a very cool and pleasant climate, serving as a nice change from the humidity of
Mumbai. The institute is located away from the hustle and bustle of city life. I used to take a
shuttle from NCBS (my hostel) - about a half an hour drive. The campus is quite small, but well
contained and pretty new. The calm atmosphere and serenity of the place lends an aesthetic
beauty which is very favourable for theoretical research.
The Work:
Confinement: Free quarks have never been observed. Clashing hadrons and mesons and other
particle physics paraphernalia have never led to free quarks. The entire theory of Quantum
Chromodynamics aims to give semblance to the theory of quarks - but does not solve the
confinement problem. Confinement remains a theory unproven in theoretical physics.It is in fact
what led to the establishment of the thinking process that led up to proposing String Theory. The
main aim of the project was to get introduced to some of the major concepts that lead up to the
understanding of the confinement problem.
The mentor allotted to me was Dr. Pallab Basu. The topic of my project was: “Confinement -
Instantons and Monopoles in Non-Abelian Gauge Theories”. Since this was my first venture into
this field everything seemed new to me. I had to build up the basic concepts of Classical Field
Theory and Group theory. Over the next couple of weeks, I had to build a base to understand
the application of monopoles and instantons in the theory of Confinement. A brief review of
Instantons in quantum mechanics was followed by the generalization to non-Abelian Yang-Mills
field theory. After a brief look on Spontaneous symmetry breaking, Goldstone’s theorem and a
study of Higgs boson, I moved on to study the next module of my summer project - Monopoles.
The existence of monopoles is still under question, however their existence might prove one of
the theories of confinement.
Experience and Stay:
I was given a room to stay near NCBS, Bangalore. ICTS students were allowed entry. It served
as a good alternative place to study. Since my mentor used to reside near NCBS, most of my
meeting would be held here. The stipend paid to me at the end of the 8-week stay was
Rs.30000/-.
Regarding the experience, this was my first peep into what research in theoretical physics (or
String theory, for that matter) felt like. Regular talks were held by the members of the string
group. Though I did not understand much at my level of education, it served as a good place to
familiarise myself with the catchphrases used in the community. I interacted with the members
of the String group - most notably Dr. R Loganayagam who helped me a lot during the course of
8 weeks. I continued to work with him as an SLP guide in my fifth semester (SLP
Topic: Quantum Field Theory). I gave two informal presentations and one formal presentation
during my 8-week stay. SN Bhatt fellows also had to attend a summer course by Dr .G
Srinivasan on Astronomy and Astrophysics. Since my inclination towards this field was not much, I could not get much out of these lectures, but to a more tuned person they provided an
excellent overview of the subject matter. We also had guest lectures by Dr. John Ellis -
renowned particle physicist giving a set of lectures aimed at masters or postgraduate students.
Numerous such lectures and talks were arranged, where one would wonder whether even an
advanced undergraduate would be able to understand the tons of stuff that were going on under
the radar of his consciousness.
Conclusion:
Overall the experience was enriching. It served as a good primer of what research in theoretical
physics entails. It provided me with an opportunity to interact with the top researchers in the
country, expose myself to the unsolved problems of physics, helped me to distinguish between
what is theoretically possible and what is not and most importantly helped me realise the trials
and tribulations involved in pursuing a career in theoretical physics. The problem of confinement
still remains a very rich area of research and I am grateful to the organizers of the SN Bhatt
program for bestowing me with an opportunity to venture into this field.
weeks at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR), Bangalore as one of
the 20 students chosen from India as a part of the SN Bhatt Memorial Excellence Fellowship
Program 2017.
Application Process:
I had applied only to the Indian institutes as I did not deem it necessary to go for abroad
internships due to limited time and most importantly due to my extremely narrow research
interest (theoretical + String oriented). Due to the naivety at the time, I applied to just 4 institutes
in India. Fortunately, I got selected for the SN Bhatt program which has a very rigorous selection
criteria.
The Place:
Bangalore has a very cool and pleasant climate, serving as a nice change from the humidity of
Mumbai. The institute is located away from the hustle and bustle of city life. I used to take a
shuttle from NCBS (my hostel) - about a half an hour drive. The campus is quite small, but well
contained and pretty new. The calm atmosphere and serenity of the place lends an aesthetic
beauty which is very favourable for theoretical research.
The Work:
Confinement: Free quarks have never been observed. Clashing hadrons and mesons and other
particle physics paraphernalia have never led to free quarks. The entire theory of Quantum
Chromodynamics aims to give semblance to the theory of quarks - but does not solve the
confinement problem. Confinement remains a theory unproven in theoretical physics.It is in fact
what led to the establishment of the thinking process that led up to proposing String Theory. The
main aim of the project was to get introduced to some of the major concepts that lead up to the
understanding of the confinement problem.
The mentor allotted to me was Dr. Pallab Basu. The topic of my project was: “Confinement -
Instantons and Monopoles in Non-Abelian Gauge Theories”. Since this was my first venture into
this field everything seemed new to me. I had to build up the basic concepts of Classical Field
Theory and Group theory. Over the next couple of weeks, I had to build a base to understand
the application of monopoles and instantons in the theory of Confinement. A brief review of
Instantons in quantum mechanics was followed by the generalization to non-Abelian Yang-Mills
field theory. After a brief look on Spontaneous symmetry breaking, Goldstone’s theorem and a
study of Higgs boson, I moved on to study the next module of my summer project - Monopoles.
The existence of monopoles is still under question, however their existence might prove one of
the theories of confinement.
Experience and Stay:
I was given a room to stay near NCBS, Bangalore. ICTS students were allowed entry. It served
as a good alternative place to study. Since my mentor used to reside near NCBS, most of my
meeting would be held here. The stipend paid to me at the end of the 8-week stay was
Rs.30000/-.
Regarding the experience, this was my first peep into what research in theoretical physics (or
String theory, for that matter) felt like. Regular talks were held by the members of the string
group. Though I did not understand much at my level of education, it served as a good place to
familiarise myself with the catchphrases used in the community. I interacted with the members
of the String group - most notably Dr. R Loganayagam who helped me a lot during the course of
8 weeks. I continued to work with him as an SLP guide in my fifth semester (SLP
Topic: Quantum Field Theory). I gave two informal presentations and one formal presentation
during my 8-week stay. SN Bhatt fellows also had to attend a summer course by Dr .G
Srinivasan on Astronomy and Astrophysics. Since my inclination towards this field was not much, I could not get much out of these lectures, but to a more tuned person they provided an
excellent overview of the subject matter. We also had guest lectures by Dr. John Ellis -
renowned particle physicist giving a set of lectures aimed at masters or postgraduate students.
Numerous such lectures and talks were arranged, where one would wonder whether even an
advanced undergraduate would be able to understand the tons of stuff that were going on under
the radar of his consciousness.
Conclusion:
Overall the experience was enriching. It served as a good primer of what research in theoretical
physics entails. It provided me with an opportunity to interact with the top researchers in the
country, expose myself to the unsolved problems of physics, helped me to distinguish between
what is theoretically possible and what is not and most importantly helped me realise the trials
and tribulations involved in pursuing a career in theoretical physics. The problem of confinement
still remains a very rich area of research and I am grateful to the organizers of the SN Bhatt
program for bestowing me with an opportunity to venture into this field.
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