John F. Donoghue

Distinguished Professor – Emeritus
Department of Physics
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
donoghue@physics.umass.edu

Overview:

I am a theoretical physicist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

While over the years I have worked on many topics, my primary research areas are gravitational physics and particle physics. In particular, I have been active in developing the effective field theory treatment of quantum effects in General Relativity, which provides a rigorous treatment of low energy quantum gravity. More recently I have been exploring the more speculative case of Quadratic Gravity, which is a renormalizable quantum field theory in which the metric remains the main dynamical variable. This brings in many interesting and novel aspects of QFT. 

I have retired from the teaching and service roles at the University. This allows me more time for exploring my research interests. It also allows more freedom in travel for conferences and talks, which I have taken advantage of.

Despite good intentions, I have not been keeping up with maintaining these pages. In the meantime, my papers on inSPIRE provide a way to see what I have been recently working on.

2026 Sakurai Prize: I recently have been awarded the 2026  J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics from the American Physical Society. The citation reads: For original and lasting contributions to the development of effective field theories, including work on gravity as an effective quantum field theory, and important contributions to chiral perturbation theory. 

I am very grateful for this honor, and want to thank my colleagues and students for all your essential collaboration over the years.

Somewhat recent activity:

For a sample of recent interest, one can see the video of a talk at a very nice  conference on fundamental physics.

I maintain a page on the subject of General Relativity as a Quantum Field Theory . This is also not fully up to date. While at present it contains much of my own material, I would like to transition it to more of a community resource in the future.

I gave a mini-course on General Relativity as a Perturbative Quantum Field Theory for the Basics of Quantum Gravity online school sponsored International Society for Quantum Gravity. This was about 10 hours of lectures for theorists, presented during June and September 2023, and recorded for future use. The notes and references can be found on my GR-QFT webpage.

Also in June 2023, I gave 3 lectures covering Effective Field Theory Techniques for General Relativity, to the experimental and theoretical students of the TRISEP summer school. I posted those notes on a separate page.

Moreover, also recently active was a short course on Effective Field Theory, given to the Perimeter Scholars program.

I am also flattered that there has been a history of science paper focused on my EFT for GR work. It can be found  at this link https://inspirehep.net/literature/2770666

Recently, I was interviewed on a podcast by “Superconformal Hassan” about a variety of topics. Here is the  link . I wish that I was more articulate, but…

 

 

Information:

Here is a link to my papers on inSPIRE.

My papers can also be found using my profile on Google Scholar

Readers looking for information about our Dynamics of the Standard Model book can find it here.

Recent citations of my papers can be found here:

Dynamics of the Standard Model is now free in Open Access:

Get an online version for free at this link

New book- A Prelude to Quantum Field Theory:

Lorenzo Sorbo and I have completed a short book designed to help students transition from Quantum Mechanics to Quantum Field Theory. Titled A Prelude to Quantum Field Theory , it has been published by Princeton University Press. Here is the link.

There is also a website for the book which gives problems/exercises, errata, and other readings.

Teaching and lectures

I have had to opportunity to teach in various settings, with the results being preserved online. For the recent links, please see the following:

Here are links to a course of Effective Field Theory at the Perimeter Institute. This consists of 6 hours of lectures with PDF files and video lectures recorded.

In June and September of 2023, I am teaching an online course on General Relativity as a Quantum Field Theory for the International Society for Quantum Gravity .  This will be about 10 hours of lectures for young theorists. The links are in the discussion above.

I also taught a 4.5 hour course on Effective Field Theory Methods for Gravity at Perimeter as part of the TRISEP summer school. This is aimed at students with both experimental and theory interests. Again the links are at the top of this page.

Hopefully one of these is useful. There are also other options available at my site for  General Relativity as a Quantum Field Theory,

YouTube channel:

Geev Nahal Gelehpordsari (currently at Fermilab), has kindly created a YouTube channel for the video records of three of my courses. Combined with notes which I have uploaded, these then provide the contents for my Quantum Field Theory I, Quantum Field Theory II and General Relativity as a Quantum Field Theory courses. Please feel free to use these course materials.

Other related pages:

Here is a link to the University main page.

Here is the Physics Departmental page .

The Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions provides a focus for the theoretical and experimental efforts.

My CV (last updated June 2020) can be  found here –  CV – 2020