Professor John Cardy

Professor John Cardy

FRS
Physics
Emeritus Fellow since 2014

I am a theoretical physicist who applies the methods of quantum field theory to problems in statistical and condensed matter physics. In the past I helped develop the tools of conformal field theory which had applications also to string theory and black holes. I have investigated questions of quantum entanglement and non-equilibrium behaviour in many-body systems such as quantum spin chains and ultra-cold atoms. Recently I developed a mathematical theory of the coffering pattern of vaulted ceilings like that of the Roman Pantheon.

Research Areas
Statistical Mechanics
Quantum Field Theory
Conformal symmetry
Quantum entanglement
Architectural mathematics

Selected Publications

Cardy J, Conformality in Hawksmoor’s Ceiling, the Roman Pantheon and Mercator’s Projection

Proc. Roy. Soc. A, to appear.
arXiv Link (2025).
 

Cardy J, Fluids in Random Media and Dimensional Augmentation

Phys. Rev. Lett.
131, 147102 (2023).
 

Cardy J, TTbar deformation of correlation functions

J. High Energ. Phys. (2019) 2019:
160. arXiv:1907.03394 [hep-th].
 

Calabrese P and Cardy J, Quantum quenches in 1+1 dimensional conformal field theories

J. Stat. Mech. 064003, 2016.

Cardy J, Scaling and Renormalization in Statistical Physics

256 pp, ISBN 0521499593, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Cardy J, Operator Content of Two-Dimensional Conformally Invariant Theories,

Nuclear Physics B270, 186, 1986.
 

Awards
  • 1986 Guggenheim Fellowship
  • 1991 Fellow of the Royal Society
  • 2000 Dirac Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics
  • 2004 Lars Onsager Prize of the American Physical Society
  • 2010 Boltzmann Medal of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
  • 2011 Dirac Medal of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste
  • 2012 Honorary Fellowship, Downing College Cambridge
  • 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics