Arghya Chattopadhyay

Bio Sketch

I am a theoretical physicist interested in various aspects of string theory and topics which are traditionally classified as mathematical physics. I have completed my bachelors (2009-12) and masters (2012-14) in physics from Visva-Bharati and moved to IISER Bhopal to pursue PhD in theoretical physics (2014-19). Since then, I have worked as a postdoctoral fellow at IMSc Chennai (India) [2019-20], WITS University (South Africa) [2020-22] and at the University of Mons (Belgium) [2022-24] as a C2W postdoctoral fellow .

As a theoretical physicist, my work so far has primarily focused on exploring the foundational principles of physics. In an effort to bridge the disconnet between present stance of string theory and current (and upcoming) experimental results from particle accelarators, I have ventured into the realm of particle physics. I am currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM), where I am leveraging machine learning techniques to investigate the underlying physics at the CMS experiment at CERN, in collaboration with researchers from Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI). I am also affiliated with IAIFI as a Junior Investigator and with University of Mons as a scientific collaborator.

This webpage is designed to be the nest of my varied interests and thoughts in different aspects of life and of course physics.

Seminars

This page will soon be updated with my talk slides.

Research

My research interests are quite varied. I get attracted to problems having challenging mathematical undertones, possibly allowing some algebraic geometry approach. This brought me closer to a lot of mathematical physics issues and specially string theory. At present I am working at the interface of theoretical physics and AI-driven experimental particle physics. By integrating machine-learning tools into both my formal studies (holography/mathematical physics) and hands-on work with Large hadron Collider open data, I am researching to bridge deep theory with real-time data applications.

Theoretical & Mathematical Physics: My research spans from 0D matrix models and 1D matrix quantum mechanics (mapping it to 2D Yang-Mills theory) through 2D Jackiw–Teitelboim gravity, CFTs and their integrable deformations, up to 3–4D higher-spin gravities and results in (non)-relativistic fluid/gravity duality for higher dimensions. At the 10D end, I study Calabi–Yau compactification, T-duality and Freudenthal duality in supergravity black holes, with side-projects in p-adic holography and other avenues of mathematical physics.

Experimental & AI-driven Applications: Alongside my theoretical endeavor, I’m developing machine-learning tools for jet physics and real-time data-quality monitoring for particle accelerators. My work on physics/symmetry-informed neural architectures further unites my theoretical insights with phenomenological and detector-level innovations.

Publications

A list of my recent academic publications is written below. The full details of my publications in HEP can be found in my inspire profile.

Teaching

This page will be updated with my teachings.

PURSUE 2025

The US CMS PURSUE Undergraduate Summer Research Internship 2025 Program is a ten-week paid internship program, which offers undergraduate students an opportunity to perform a project under the mentorship of scientists working at the frontier of physics at one of the 50+ institutions in the US.

I have facilitated the Machine Learning (ML) workshop for PURSUE. The jupyter book for this course is open and the Jupyter notebooks are free to use. This is a introductory course in ML, good for anyone trying to begin their journey with ML.

CROEM Workshop on Machine Learning 2025

Centro Residencial de Oportunidades Educativas de Mayagüez is a magnet high school It specializes in science, mathematics, and technology, where talented students are selected from all over Puerto Rico. I was a part of the The team from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez to conduct a one day workshop in machine learning. The workshop page itself is a jupyter book, where one can practice the course through google collab. This Jupyter book is a collaborative one with Roy Cruz, Tetiana Mejurets and Juvenal Bassa.

Project Students

Loris Cavenaile worked with me for a month towards his Master Internship project "Membrane Paradigm". In this project he worked with the prescription of the paper "An Action for Black Hole Membranes" by Maulik K. Parikh and Frank Wilczek, to compute actions for blackhole membranes. His project report with detailed computations can be downloaded here.

Online Lectures

Lecture 1 of Machine Learning for physicists, hosted by LETHEP collaboration.

Lecture 2 of Machine Learning for physicists, hosted by LETHEP collaboration.

Music

You can follow my Youtube channel named Arghya for all the available videos. In the following I will list some of the special ones.

Youtube existence

A memorable performance with Shashi and Jagriti for 2014 edition of Enthuzia at IISER Bhopal.

Another one with Shashi at some forgotten edition of Enthuzia at IISER Bhopal.

Power packed performance with our little group at IISER Bhopal around 2017. Along with me I have Nilanjan on vocals, Shamim and Anirban on guitars and Kuzur on drums, a dream team.

A last minute on-stage prepared version of "Alvida" with Shashi on vocal, Gayitri on Bass, Anoop on drums, Kaustav with keyboard and Nandekar doing something (beyond my humble comprehension).

Bengali medley with some of the cult classics of bengal, this time accompanied by the great Indra.

With my first music teacher didibhai recording "Ami jamini..", behind the scenes Rikon, Shilpa and Soumyada handling the camera. Of course Ghilu, my "bhagne" is behind all the moral support required.

With my best friend alias then girlfriend and now wife Shilpa randomly recording "Surjo Dobar Pala".

Contact

You can reach out to me at arghya.chattopadhyay@umons.ac.be or arghya.chattopadhyay@upr.edu.

Connect with me on or follow me on .