Jorge G. Russo

Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

In 1983 JG Russo obtained a fellowship to study physics at the Instituto Balseiro, Bariloche, Argentina, where he obtained the degree (Licenciatura) in Physics (12/1986). He was awarded a SISSA fellowship to follow the PhD programme at SISSA, Trieste, Italy, where he finished his PhD (10/1990) under the supervision of Daniele Amati on Quantum gravity and String theory. As a postdoc at Stanford University, USA, he collaborated with L. Susskind on black hole physics. He continued his research on black holes and string theory first at the University of Texas at Austin, USA, and then at CERN, Geneva. In 1998 JG Russo moved to the University of Buenos Aires as a Professor and in 04/2003 joined ICREA as a Research Professor.


Research interests

A major challenge of theoretical physics is unveiling the fundamental laws that govern the universe. The microscopic world, governed by quantum mechanics, is fuzzy, uncertain and involves three forces among elementary particles: electromagnetic, weak nuclear and strong nuclear. The gravitational force, described by Einstein general relativity, is instead observed at large scales. But this theory is incompatible with quantum mechanics. Superstring theory is presently the best candidate to reconcile gravity with quantum mechanics and thus to provide a unifying framework for the four forces of nature.

Selected publications

– Rodriguez-Gomez D & Russo JG 2016, ‘Large N correlation functions in superconformal field theories’, Journal Of High Energy Physics, , 6, 109.

– Russo JG 2016, ‘D branes in background fluxes and Nielsen-Olesen instabilities,’Journal Of High Energy Physics vol. 1606, pp. 021.

– Rodriguez-Gomez D & Russo JG 2016, ‘Operator mixing in large N superconformal field theories on S4 and correlators with Wilson loops’, Journal Of High Energy Physics, 12, 120.


Selected research activities

Plenary address:

– “Exact results in four-dimensional Gauge Theories from Matrix models”, in Workshop “Recent Developments in Strings and Gravity”, Corfu, Greece.

Invited Lecture:

“Supersymmetric Localization and some applications to gauge theories” Dept. de Fisica, University of La Plata, Argentina.

Invited talks:

– “D branes in background fluxes and Nielsen-Olesen Instabilities” in “5th Bangkok Workshop on High-Energy Theory”, Bangkok, Thailand.

– “Novel phase transition in quantum electrodynamics with matter” in  “Topics in Theoretical Physics”, University of La Plata, Argentina.

– “Supersymmetric gauge theories and resurgence”, at “Resurgence in Gauge and String Theories”, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal.

Invited Seminars:

– “Phases of N = 2 theories with massive matter” at Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Torino, Torino, Italy.
– “D branes in background fluxes and instabilities” at STAG Research Centre and Mathematical Sciences, Univ. of Southampton, UK.

Supervisor of Master theses at U. Barcelona. “Matrix Models and Confinement” (by G. Valocchi) and “Orbits of Electrically Charged Particle in Magnetic Reissner-Nordstrom Metric” (by A. Liaghat), defended Sep 7, 2016.

Member of Ph D thesis committee at U. Barcelona. Thesis:  “New insights into holography from supersymmetric localization” (by G. Torrents) defended Jun 27, 2016.

Member of Evaluation Panel for research projects – appointed by Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Reviewer for funding proposals – appointed by Fund for Scientific Research – FNRS, Belgium.