Introduction to matrix models

10:30AM, 20 Oct 2025

Fedor Levkovich-Maslyuk traces how matrix models reveal striking connections between quantum gravity, string theory and integrability.

Matrix models—systems in which randomness and algebraic structure meet—play a central role across theoretical physics and mathematics. Often seen as zero-dimensional analogues of field theories, they also lie at the heart of deep connections linking string theory, integrability, quantum gravity, Yang–Mills theory, combinatorics, geometry, and representation theory.

In this four-part lecture series, Dr Levkovich-Maslyuk provides a guided, pedagogical journey through the subject: starting with motivation and definitions, through reduction to eigenvalue form, to continuum limits and spectral curves, and finally to orthogonal polynomials, phase transitions, and links to two-dimensional gravity. Along the way he sketches the broader vista of loop equations, topological recursion, and integrability. The series offers both newcomers and seasoned theorists a unified and illuminating view of how matrix models continue to shape modern research.

Event information

This is a four-part lecture series from LonTI Lectures are on Mondays at 10:30 am in the seminar room at the London Institute, on the second floor of the Royal Institution, followed by drinks and snacks onsite. To register and attend, please visit lonti.weebly.com.

Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models
Introduction to matrix models

Speaker

Fedor Levkovich-Maslyuk

Dr Fedor Levkovich-Maslyuk is a lecturer at City, University of London. He did his PhD at King's College London, then held postdocs in Sweden and France, including a Junior Research Chair at Paris’s École Normale Supérieure. His research focuses on string theory, integrable models, quantum field theory and random matrix models.