Ask Ellingsen

I'm interested in the mathematical formulation of fundamental physics. My PhD project is about quantum mechanical systems of identical particles. In particular I study anyons, a class of particles displaying exotic statistical behaviour.

I am part of the research group Analysis and PDE:s.

My position is sponsored in part by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematics, and my supervisor is Douglas Lundholm.

• 2022 - present: PhD student at Uppsala University.
• 2021 - 2022: PhD student at Stockholm University.
• 2020 - 2021: Teaching assistant at KTH.
• 2014 - 2020: Student in the engineering physics programme at KTH. Defended my master's thesis on June 30:th 2020.

My PhD project is concerned with the mathematical description of anyons, a type of quasiparticle that arises in certain low dimensional systems (1 and 2 dimensions). Anyons are interesting because they exhibit fractional (or intermediate) quantum statistics. Traditionally, particles can be classified into two groups based on their statistical behaviour: bosons and fermions. In the 70:s and 80:s, it was realised that in low dimensions there is a multitude of new, more exotic possibilities. These are collectively called anyons.

In my project, I want to study both the fundamental mathematical description and classification of anyons, as well as possible applications. Open questions span from computing the ground state energy of an anyon gas, to figuring out how to use anyons to construct topological quantum computers.