Roland Bittleston

My research centres on the intersection of integrability, twistor theory and quantum field theory. In recent years a new approach to integrability, in which 2d integrable systems are obtained from a 4d mixed holomorphic-topological theory, has garnered much interest. From this 4d perspective the infinite dimensional symmetry algebras of 2d integrable systems are manifest. This construction is closely related to the twistor programme, where 4d integrable field theories arise from a holomorphic theory on a 6d manifold known as twistor space. Together with collaborators, I am investigating how twistor theory can be used to understand the integrability of 4d quantum field theories, particularly self-dual gravity. I am also interested in understanding lower dimensional integrable systems from this perspective.