Alex Buchel

Research Interests

My research efforts focus on understanding quantum properties of black holes and the origin of our Universe, as described by string theory. Additionally, I'm involved in developing analytical tools in string theory that could shed new light on strong interactions of subatomic particles.

Positions Held

• Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario, Canada (2007-2012)
• Assistant Professor, University of Western Ontario, Canada (2003-2007)
• Research Fellow, Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics , UofM, USA (2002-2003)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB, USA (1999-2002)

Awards

• Early Researcher Award (2007); $100,000; Ministry of Research and Innovation

Recent Publications

• V.Balasubramanian, A.Buchel, S.R. Green, L.Lehner, and S.L.Liebling, "Holographic Thermalization, Stability of AdS, and the FPU Paradox", accepted for publication in PRL, 1403.6471
• V.Balasubramanian and A.Buchel, "On consistent truncations in N=2* holography", JHEP 1402 (2014) 030, 1311.5044
• A.Buchel and D.A.Galante, "Cascading gauge theory on dS_4 and String Theory Landscape", Nucl.Phys. B883 (2014) 107, 1310.1372
• A.Buchel, R.C.Myers and A.van Niekerk, "Universality of Abrupt Holographic Quenches", Phys.Rev.Lett. 111 (2013) 201602, 1307.4740
• A.Buchel,S.L.Liebling and L.Lehner, "Boson stars in AdS", Phys.Rev. D87 (2013) 123006, 1304.4166
• Alex Buchel, "Localization and holography in N=2 gauge theories", JHEP 1308 (2013) 004, 1304.5652
• A.Buchel, X.O.Camanho and J.D.Edelstein, "Cavitation effects on the confinement/deconfinement transition", Phys. Lett. B 734 131 (2014), 1303.6300
• A.Buchel, L.Lehner, R.C.Myers and A.v.Niekerk, "Quantum quenches of holographic plasmas", JHEP 1305 (2013) 067, 1302.2924
• A.Buchel, J.G.Russo and K.Zarembo, "Rigorous Test of Non-conformal Holography: Wilson Loops in N=2* Theory", JHEP 1303 (2013) 062, 1301.1597
• I.Bena, A.Buchel and O.J.C.Dias, "Horizons cannot save the Landscape", Phys.Rev.D 87 063012 (2013), 1212.5162
• A.Buchel, L.Lehner and S.L.Liebling, "Scalar Collapse in AdS", Phys.Rev.D 86 123011 (2012), 1210.0890
• A.Buchel, L.Lehner and R.C.Myers, "Thermal quenches in N=2* plasmas", to appear in JHEP , 1206.6785
• Alex Buchel, "Violation of the holographic bulk viscosity bound", Phys.Rev.D85 066004 (2012), 1110.0063
• Alex Buchel, "Quantum phase transitions in cascading gauge theory", Nucl.Phys.B856 278 (2012), 1108.6070
• A.Buchel, U.Gursoy and E.Kiritsis, "Holographic bulk viscosity: GPR vs EO", JHEP 1109 095 (2011), 1104.2058
• Alex Buchel, "On Eling-Oz formula for the holographic bulk viscosity", JHEP 1105 065 (2011), 1103.3733
• A.Buchel and A.Patrushev, "Can the correlated stability conjecture be saved?", JHEP 1106 090 (2011), 1102.5331
• Alex Buchel, "Chiral symmetry breaking in cascading gauge theory plasma", Nucl.Phys.B 847 297 (2011), 1012.2404
• A.Buchel and C.Pagnutti, "Critical phenomena in N=2* plasma", Phys.Rev.D 83 046004 (2011), 1010.3359
• A.Buchel and C.Pagnutti, "Correlated stability conjecture revisited", Phys.Lett.B 697 168 (2011), 1010.5748
• A.Buchel and S.Cremonini, "Viscosity Bound and Causality in Superfluid Plasma", JHEP 1010 026 (2010), 1007.2963
• Alex Buchel, "Critical phenomena in N=4 SYM plasma", Nucl. Phys. B841 59 (2010), 1005.0819
• A.Buchel and C.Pagnutti,"Transport at criticality", Nucl. Phys. B834 222 (2010), 0912.3212
• A.Buchel, J.Escobedo, R.C.Myers, M.F.Paulos, A.Sinha and M.Smolkin, "Holographic GB gravity in arbitrary dimensions", JHEP 03 111 (2010), 0911.4257
• Alex Buchel, "Relaxation time of non-conformal plasma", Phys. Lett. B 681 200 (2009), 0908.0108
• A.Buchel, M.P.Heller and R.C.Myers, "sQGP as hCFT", Phys. Lett. B 680 521 (2009), 0908.2802
• A.Buchel and R.C.Myers, "Causality of Holographic Hydrodynamics", JHEP 08 016 (2009), 0906.2922
• A.Buchel, F.A.Chishtie, M.T.Hanif, S.Homayouni, J.Jia and D.G.C.McKeon, "Radiative Corrections in Vector-Tensor Models", Int.J.Mod.Phys. A 25 (2010) 163, 0905.0664
• A.Buchel and C.Pagnutti, "Exotic Hairy Black Holes", Nucl. Phys. B 824 85 (2010), 0904.1716
• Alex Buchel, "Hydrodynamics of the cascading plasma", Nucl. Phys. B 820 385 (2009), 0903.3605
• E.I.Buchbinder and A.Buchel, "Relativistic Conformal Magneto-Hydrodynamics from Holography", Phys.Lett.B678 135 (2009), 0902.3170
• Alex Buchel, Robert C. Myers, Aninda Sinha, Beyond eta/s = 1/4pi, JHEP 0903:084,2009, arXiv: 0812.2521
• A.Buchel and C.Pagnutti, "Bulk viscosity of N=2* plasma", Nucl. Phys.B 816 62 (2009), 0812.3623
• E.I.Buchbinder and A.Buchel, "The Fate of the Sound and Diffusion in Holographic Magnetic Field", Phys.Rev.D 79 046006 (2009), 0811.4325
• E.I.Buchbinder, A.Buchel and S.E.Vazquez, "Sound waves in (2+1) dimensional holographic magnetic fluids", JHEP 0812 090 (2008), 0810.4094
• Alex Buchel, Robert C. Myers, Miguel F. Paulos, Aninda Sinha, Universal holographic hydrodynamics at finite coupling, Phys.Lett.B669:364-370,2008, arXiv: 0808.1837
• A.Buchel and M.Paulos, "Second order hydrodynamics of a CFT plasma from boost invariant expansion", Nucl. Phys.B 810 40 (2008), 0808.1601
• A.Buchel and M.Paulos, "Relaxation time of a CFT plasma at finite coupling", Nucl. Phys. B 805 59 (2008), 0806.0788
• Alex Buchel, "Resolving disagreement for eta/s in a CFT plasma at finite coupling", Nucl. Phys. B 803 166 (2008), 0805.2683
• Alex Buchel, "Shear viscosity of CFT plasma at finite coupling", Phys. Lett. B665 298 (2008), 0804.3161
• A.Buchel and L.Kofman, "Black Universe epoch in string cosmology", Phys. Rev. D 78 (2008) 086002, 0804.0584
• A.Buchel, "Shear viscosity of boost invariant plasma at finite coupling", Nucl. Phys. B 802 281 (2008), 0801.4421
• P.Benincasa, A.Buchel, M.P.Heller and R.A.Janik, "On the supergravity description of boost invariant conformal plasma at strong coupling", Phys. Rev. D77 (2008) 046006, 0712.2025
• Alex Buchel, "Bulk viscosity of gauge theory plasma at strong coupling", Phys. Lett. B663 286 (2008), 0708.3459
• O.Aharony, A.Buchel and P.Kerner, "The black hole in the throat - thermodynamics of strongly coupled cascading gauge theories", Phys. Rev. D76 (2007) 086005, 0706.1768
• A.Buchel, J.Jia, V.A.Miransky, "Dynamical stabilization of runaway potentials and landscape of vacua at finite density", Nucl. Phys. B 772 323 (2007), hep-th/0702066
• A.Buchel, S.Deakin, P.Kerner and J.T.Liu, "Thermodynamics of the N=2^* strongly coupled plasma", Nucl. Phys. B 784 72 (2007), hep-th/0701142
• A.Buchel, F.A.Chishtie, M.Gagne-Portelance, S.Homayouni and D.G.McKeon, "Tensor Self Energy in a Vector-Tensor Model", Int.J.Mod.Phys. A 23 (2008) 529, hep-th/0611298
• P.Benincasa, A.Buchel and R.Naryshkin, "The shear viscosity of gauge theory plasma with chemical potentials", Phys. Lett. B 645, 309 (2007), hep-th/0610145
• A.Buchel, J.Jia and V.A.Miransky, "Dynamical stabilization of runaway potentials at finite density", Phys. Lett. B 647, 305 (2007), hep-th/0609031
• O.Aharony, A.Buchel and A.Yarom, "Short distance properties of cascading gauge theories", JHEP 0611 (2006) 069, hep-th/0608209
• A.Buchel and J.T.Liu, "Gauged supergravity from type IIB string theory on Y^{p,q} manifolds", Nucl. Phys. B 771 93 (2007), hep-th/0608002
• A.Buchel, "On jet quenching parameters in strongly coupled non-conformal gauge theories", Phys. Rev. D74 (2006) 046006, hep-th/0605178
• P.Benincasa, A.Buchel, "Hydrodynamics of Sakai-Sugimoto model in the quenched approximation", Phys. Lett. B 640, 108 (2006), hep-th/0605076
• A.Buchel, "Higher derivative corrections to near-extremal black holes in type IIB supergravity", Nucl. Phys. B 750 45 (2006), hep-th/0604167
• A.Buchel, "Inflation on the resolved warped deformed conifold", Phys. Rev. D74 (2006) 046009, hep-th/0601013
• Paolo Benincasa, Alex Buchel, Transport properties of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite coupling, JHEP 0601 (2006) 103, arxiv:hep-th/510041
• Alex Buchel, Transport properties of cascading gauge theories, Phys.Rev. D72 (2005) 106002, arxiv:hep-th/509083
• Alex Buchel, A holographic perspective on Gubser-Mitra conjecture, Nucl.Phys. B731 (2005) 109-124, arxiv:hep-th/507275
• Paolo Benincasa, Alex Buchel, Andrei O. Starinets, Sound waves in strongly coupled non-conformal gauge theory plasma, Nucl.Phys. B733 (2006) 160-187, arxiv:hep-th/507026
• Ofer Aharony, Alex Buchel, Amos Yarom, Holographic renormalization of cascading gauge theories, Phys.Rev. D72 (2005) 066003, arxiv:hep-th/506002
• A.Buchel, F.A.Chishtie, V.Elias, K.Freese, R.B.Mann, D.G.C.McKeon and T.G.Steele, "Radiative corrections to the inflaton potential as an explanation of suppressed large scale power in density perturbations and the cosmic microwave background", JCAP 0503, 003 (2005), hep-ph/0410117
• Alex Buchel, Coarse-graining 1/2 BPS geometries of type IIB supergravity, Int.J.Mod.Phys. A21 (2006) 3495-3502, arxiv:hep-th/409271
• Alex Buchel, On universality of stress-energy tensor correlation functions in supergravity, Phys.Lett. B609 (2005) 392-401, arxiv:hep-th/408095
• Alex Buchel, James T. Liu, Andrei O. Starinets, Coupling constant dependence of the shear viscosity in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, Nucl.Phys. B707 (2005) 56-68, arxiv:hep-th/406264
• Alex Buchel, N=2* hydrodynamics, Nucl.Phys. B708 (2005) 451-466, arxiv:hep-th/406200
• Alex Buchel, Ahmad Ghodsi, Braneworld inflation, Phys.Rev. D70 (2004) 126008, arxiv:hep-th/404151
• Alex Buchel, Gauge theories on hyperbolic spaces and dual wormhole instabilities, Phys.Rev. D70 (2004) 066004, arxiv:hep-th/402174
• Alex Buchel, On effective action of string theory flux compactifications, Phys.Rev. D69 (2004) 106004, arxiv:hep-th/312076
• Alex Buchel, James T. Liu, Universality of the shear viscosity in supergravity, Phys.Rev.Lett. 93 (2004) 090602, arxiv:hep-th/311175
• Alex Buchel, Radu Roiban, Inflation in warped geometries, Phys.Lett. B590 (2004) 284-294, arxiv:hep-th/311154
• Alex Buchel, "Effective Action of the Baryonic Branch in String Theory Flux Throats" , 1405.1518
• A.Buchel, "On SUGRA description of boost-invariant conformal plasma at strong coupling", Ten Years of AdS/CFT: A Workshop Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Maldacena Conjecture, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 19-21 Dec 2007, 0803.3421
• A.Buchel, "On effective action of string theory flux compactifications", Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Quantum Theory and Symmetries (QTS3) 10 - 14 Sept 2003

Seminars

• Aspects of Holography, APCTP, Pohang, Korea, July 15, 2014, "Quantum quenches and the entropy production in strongly coupled systems"
• Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, May 12, 2014, "N=2*: holography, localization and consistent truncations of gravitational dual"
• Join Jerusalem/Tel-Aviv/Weizmann seminar,Neve Shalom, Israel, May 13, 2014, "HOLOGRAPHIC QUANTUM QUENCHES"
• Canadian Conference on General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics, University of Winnipeg, May 22, 2014, "Quantum quenches and the entropy production in strongly coupled systems"
• Western University, Department of Mathematics, January 30, 2014, "Localization and holography of N=2 gauge theories"
• McGill University, November 15, 2013, "Localization and holography of N=2 gauge theories"
• Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, UK, October 4, 2013, "Gravitational collapse in AdS"
• HPCH 2013, Natal, Brazil, August 8, 2013, "Boson stars in AdS"
• Benasque Center for Science, Spain, July 22, 2013, "Boson stars in AdS"
• 20th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Poland, July 9, 2013, "Quantum quenches in strongly coupled systems from AdS/CFT correspondence"
• Hadron Physics: A Challenge to Holography, Natal, Brazil, July 30-August 1, 2013, "Holographic thermodynamics and hydrodynamics"
• 16th Eastern Gravity Meeting, CITA, University of Toronto, June 7, 2013, "Gravitational collapse in AdS"
• Great Lakes Strings 2013, University of Kentucky, May 17, 2013, "Localization and holography of N=2 gauge theories"
• Caltech, May 10, 2013, "Localization and holography in N=2^*"
• Austin Holography Workshop, May 14, 2013, "Boson Stars in AdS"
• Topics in Holography, Supersymmetry and Higher Derivatives, Texas A&M, College Station, April 25, 2013, "Quantum quenches and the entropy production in strongly coupled systems"
• Departamento de Física de Partículas, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, March 1, 2013, "Localization and holography in N=2^* gauge theory"
• Quarks, Gluons, and Hadronic Matter under Extreme Conditions, Schlosshotel Rheinfels, St. Goar, Germany, March 20, 2013, "Confinement/deconfinement and chiral symmetry breaking in gauge theory/string theory"
• Departamento de Física de Partículas, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, February 26, 2013, "Quantum quenches"
• Non-Equilibrium and String Theory Workshop, University of Michigan, October 20, 2012, "Quantum quenches"
• University of Texas, Austin, TX, September 18, 2012, "Quantum quenches"
• Saclay General Seminar, May 15, 2012, "Quantum quenches"
• Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kiev, May 17, 2012, "Quantum quenches"
• Great Lakes Strings 2012, Purdue University, March 3, 2012, "Quantum quenches"
• INT, Seattle, November 2, 2011, "Confinement/deconfinement and csb in gauge theory/string theory correspondence"
• UNIFY Workshop on Frontiers in Theoretical Physics, Porto, June 21, 2011, "Holographic Quark-Gluon Plasma (review)"
• Ohio State University, May 12, 2011, "Shear viscosity from String Theory (status update)"
• Large-N Gauge Theories, GGI, Florence, Italy, April 13, 2011, "AdS/CFT and the Quark-Gluon Plasma: Beyond CFT & SUGRA"
• GLS Chicago, April 30, 2011, "Confinement/deconfinement and csb in gauge theory/string theory correspondence"
• Quarks, Gluons, and Hadronic Matter under Extreme Conditions, Schlosshotel Rheinfels, St. Goar, Germany, March 18, 2011, "Confinement/deconfinement and csb in gauge theory/string theory correspondence"
• Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA, October 5, 2010, "Dynamical critical phenomena in strongly coupled gauge theory plasma"
• Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematical Physics, Vienna, Austria, August 4, 2010, "AdS/CFT and the Quark-Gluon Plasma, Part II: Beyond CFT & SUGRA"
• Nordita, Stockholm, Sweden, June 11, 2010, "String Theory approach to nonequilibrium dynamics of strongly coupled systems"
• Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel, May 10, 2010, "Causality and transport in holographic plasma"
• Join Jerusalem/Tel-Aviv/Weizmann seminar,Neve Shalom, Israel, May 4, 2010, "Critical phenomena in N=4 plasma and beyond"
• Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, May 3, 2010, "Causality constraints on transport in holographic plasma"
• Application of AdS/CFT, College Station, April 28, 2010, "Transport at criticality"
• GLS/SPOCK meeting, Cincinnati, March 21, 2010, "Causality of Holographic Hydrodynamics"
• University of Victoria, Victoria, February 5, 2010, "Transport at criticality"
• University of Washington, Seattle, February 2, 2010, "Transport at criticality"
• SPOCK meeting, Cincinnati, December 5, 2009, "Transport at criticality"
• Workshop on the Fluid-Gravity Correspondence, ASC, Munich, September 4, 2009, "Relaxation time of holographic plasma"
• Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kiev, August 28, 2009, "Holographic Hydrodynamics"
• PASCOS 2009, DESY, Hamburg, July 7, 2009, "Causality of Holographic Hydrodynamics"
• Great Lakes Strings, MCTP, University of Michigan, April 5, 2009, "Holographic magnetohydrodynamics"
• Gauge fields, cosmology and mathematical string theory, Banff, Canada, February 2, 2009, "Application of string theory towards RHIC physics"
• XIII MEXICAN SCHOOL OF PARTICLES AND FIELDS, San Carlos, Mexico, October 6, 2008, "Conformal Hydroedynamics Beyond the Supergravity Approximation"
• XIII MEXICAN SCHOOL OF PARTICLES AND FIELDS, San Carlos, Mexico, October 6, 2008, "Hydrodynamics of Non-conformal Gauge theories"
• AdS/CFT, Condensed Matter and QCD, McGill University, October 3, 2008, "Holographic LED displays"
• MCTP, University of Michigan, September 19, 2008, "Aspects of nonconformal gauge theory plasma at finite temperature"
• String theory: from theory to experiment, Jerusalem, April 10,2008, "Black Universe epoch in String Cosmology"
• Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics, Florence, April 29,2008, "Applied gauge/string correspondence:from sQGP to inflationary cosmology"
• CITA, Toronto, April 1,2008, "Black Universe epoch in String Cosmology"
• MCTP, University of Michigan, February 8, 2008, "On SUGRA description of boost-invariant conformal plasma at strong coupling"
• KITP, Santa Barbara, February 19, 2008, "Nonequilibrium AdS/CFT"
• Caltech, February 15, 2008, "On SUGRA description of boost-invariant conformal plasma at strong coupling"
• Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Cosmology and Particle Physics, Santa Barbara, February 28,2008, "On SUGRA description of boost-invariant conformal plasma at strong coupling"
• Ten Years of AdS/CFT, Argentina, December 20, 2007, "On SUGRA description of boost-invariant conformal plasma at strong coupling"
• 5rd International Symposium on Quantum Theory and Symmetries, University of Valladolid, Spain, July 26, 2007, "Strongly coupled nuclear plasma and string theory"
• Department of Physics, University of Texas-Austin, April 17, 2007, "Non-conformal gauge theory plasma from gauge/string correspondence"
• Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Western Ontario, January 18, 2007, "Strongly coupled nuclear plasma and string theory"
• Benasque Center for Science, Spain, July 12, 2006, "Non-conformal gauge theory plasma in string theory"
• Trento workshop on Hadrons and Strings, Trento, ECT*, Italy, July 20, 2006, "Non-conformal gauge theory plasma from gauge/string correspondence"
• Physics Department, University of Cincinnati, April 17, 2006, "Hydrodynamics and gauge theory/string theory correspondence"
• Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel, November 21, 2005, "Runaway potentials in gauge/string correspondence"
• Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel, November 24, 2005, "Runaway potentials in gauge/string correspondence"
• Join Jerusalem/Tel-Aviv/Weizmann seminar,Neve Shalom, Israel, November 22, 2005, "Hydrodynamics and gauge theory/string theory correspondence"
• CAP-2005 Congress, Vancouver, Canada, June 5-8, 2005, "Transport Properties of Strongly Coupled Gauge Theory Plasma"
• COSMO-04, International Workshop on Particle Physics and the Early Universe, Toronto, Canada , Sept.17-21, 2004, "Braneworld inflation"
• COSMO-04, International Workshop on Particle Physics and the Early Universe, Toronto, Canada, Sept.17-21, 2004, "Suppression of large scale power of density perturbations in small-field inflationary models"
• Trento workshop on Hadrons and Strings, European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas, July 12th - 17th, 2004, "Universality of the shear viscosity in strongly coupled gauge theory plasma"
• University of Kentucky, June 4, 2004, "Gauge theory hydrodynamics from supergravity"
• Stanford University, May 10, 2004, "Braneworld inflation"
• Caltech, May 7, 2004, "Braneworld inflation"
• Ohio State University, November 14, 2003, "On cosmological constant of string theory flux compactifications"
• University of Toronto, September 22, 2003, "Cosmological constant in string theory flux compactifications"
• 3rd International Symposium on Quantum Theory and Symmetries, University of Cincinnati, September 10-14, 2003, "On cosmological constant of F-theory compactifications"
• Time and String Theory Workshop, Aspen Center for Physics, August 18 - September 5, 2003, "On cosmological constant of string theory flux compactifications"
• Directors xLunch, Perimeter Institute, February 19, 2013, "Quantum quenches"
• PIRSA:12060019, Quantum Quenches, 2012-06-04, Exploring AdS/CFT Dualities in Dynamical Settings
• Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, October 6, 2011, "Bounds on transport coefficients from holography"
• String Theory and Gauge Theory, Present and Future, Perimeter Institute workshop, October 15, 2006, "Non-conformal gauge theory plasma from gauge/string correspondence"
• Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, June 9, 2004, "Gauge theory hydrodynamics from supergravity"
• Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, October 28, 2003, "Inflation in String Theory"