Applications of Quantum Field Theory, From the Formal to the Phenomenological

Abstract

Much of the beautiful and complex phenomenology of the Standard Model can be traced back to the presence of chiral symmetries, both global and local, and nonperturbative phenomena. Without chiral symmetries (and the anomalous ways that they can be broken), there would be no flavor physics or CP violation. Without a strongly coupled sector, the richly intricate structure of the hadron spectrum would be lost. After introducing the Standard Model and some of its phenomenological aspects, as well as some of the tools that are used to explore its structure, I will focus on my contributions to several open problems in flavor physics, lattice field theory and astrophysics.