Project Grant 2608451

The National Science Foundation Division of Physics awarded $100,000 to the Research Foundation of the City University of New York on August 15, 2026, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to fund field theory research activities led by Professor Vladimir Rosenhaus at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

The award supports development of analytic methods for quantum field theory in non-equilibrium states, with focus on turbulent energy cascades across weakly and strongly interacting regimes. The research employs artificial intelligence as a tool for theoretical discovery to construct new solvable quantum field theories that illuminate far-from-equilibrium dynamics. The project will examine how interactions are renormalized in nonthermal flux states and how this controls energy transfer across scales, with specific work on renormalization group flows in stationary cascade states and loop corrections to the wave kinetic equation. Research activities span high-energy physics, condensed matter physics, atomic physics, plasma physics, and nonlinear dynamics.

The recipient will mentor graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, develop new graduate-level special topics courses based on the research outcomes, deliver public lectures, and organize scientific workshops. Performance of work occurs in New York, New York, with period of performance from award date through July 31, 2028. This is a project grant, the assistance type for direct support of investigator-initiated research.