Research topics: Quantum field theory methods in statistical mechanics;
quantum integrability; exact results; applications to combinatorics; `limit shape’ phenomena.

Research interests

My current activity mainly concerns the limit shape phenomenon in exactly solvable models of statistical mechanics. While the phenomenon has been investigated in depth in ‘free-fermionic’ models (dimers, tilings, non-intersecting lattice paths, etc.), with a wealth of spectacular developments, a lot remains to be understood in the ‘interacting’ case. An excellent training ground in this respect is the six-vertex model, which, although genuinely interacting, is nevertheless still exactly solvable. The technical tool-box in my investigations includes integrability, with Algebraic Bethe Ansatz and the Quantum Inverse Scattering Method, and random matrix models, in particular discrete log-gases.