Prof Bill Spence

Bill Spence

Professor of Theoretical Physics

School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Queen Mary University of London

Research

Interests

My research interests are in string theory and its applications in physics and mathematics. Particular past areas of interest have been the geometry of branes in M theory, topological field theories, and manifolds of exceptional holonomy. More recently I have worked on applications related to twistor theory, on celestial amplitudes and on new results involving the double copy.

Publications

solid heart iconPublications of specific relevance to the Centre for Fundamental Physics

2024

bullet iconBrown GR, Gowdy J and Spence B (2024). Self-dual fields on self-dual backgrounds and the double copy. Physical Review D, American Physical Society (APS) vol. 109 (2) 
15-01-2024

2023

bullet iconBrown GR, Gowdy J and Spence B (2023). Celestial twistor amplitudes. Physical Review D, American Physical Society (APS) vol. 108 (6) 
14-09-2023

2021

Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Brown GR, Gowdy J, Spence B and Travaglini G (2021). Celestial superamplitudes. Physical Review D vol. 104 (4) 
31-08-2021

2020

Relevant PublicationSpence B (2020). Everything Is Now, Revolutionary Ideas from String Theory. 
27-10-2020
Relevant PublicationSpence W, Berman D and Alawadhi R (2020). Weyl doubling. The Journal of High Energy Physics, Springer Verlag (Germany) vol. 127 
21-09-2020
Relevant PublicationAlawadhi R, Berman DS, Spence B and Veiga DP (2020). S-duality and the double copy. The Journal of High Energy Physics, Springer Verlag (Germany) vol. 2020 (3) 
11-03-2020

2016

Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Hughes E, Panerai R, Spence B and Travaglini G (2016). The connected prescription for form factors in twistor space. Journal of High Energy Physics vol. 2016 (11) 
23-11-2016
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Hughes E, Spence B and Travaglini G (2016). One-loop soft theorems via dual superconformal symmetry. Journal of High Energy Physics vol. 2016 (3) 
14-03-2016

2014

Relevant PublicationPenante B, Spence B, Travaglini G and Wen C (2014). On super form factors of half-BPS operators in N=4 super Yang-Mills. JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS (4) 
11-04-2014

2011

Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B, Travaglini G and Yang G (2011). Form factors in N=4 super Yang-Mills and periodic Wilson loops. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS vol. 2011 (1) 
01-01-2011
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2011). Tree-level formalism. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS A-MATHEMATICAL AND THEORETICAL vol. 44 (45) 
01-01-2011

2010

Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B, Travaglini G and Yang G (2010). A note on dual MHV diagrams in N=4 SYM. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (12) 
01-12-2010
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Heslop P, Katsaroumpas P, Nguyen D, Spence B, Spradlin M and Travaglini G (2010). A surprise in the amplitude/Wilson loop duality. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (7) 
01-07-2010

2009

Relevant PublicationKatsaroumpas P, Spence B and Travaglini G (2009). One-loop N=8 supergravity coefficients from N=4 super Yang-Mills. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (8) 
01-08-2009
Relevant PublicationAnastasiou C, Brandhuber A, Heslop P, Khoze VV, Spence B and Travaglini G (2009). Two-loop polygon Wilson loops in N=4 SYM. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (5) 
01-05-2009
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Heslop P, Nasti A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2009). Four-point amplitudes in N=8 supergravity and Wilson loops. NUCL PHYS B vol. 807 (1-2), 290-314.  
21-01-2009

2007

Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B, Travaglini G and Zoubos K (2007). One-loop MHV rules and pure yang-mills. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (7) 
01-07-2007
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2007). Twistor inspired methods in gauge theory and gravity. CONTEMP PHYS vol. 48 (3), 131-142.  
01-05-2007
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, McNamara S, Spence B and Travaglini G (2007). Recursion relations for one-loop gravity amplitudes. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (3) 
01-03-2007
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2007). Amplitudes in pure Yang-Mills and MHV diagrams. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (2) 
01-02-2007

2006

bullet iconMcNamara S, Papageorgakis C, Ramgoolam S and Spence WJ (2006). Finite N effects on the collapse of fuzzy spheres. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (5) 
01-05-2006
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2006). From trees to loops and back. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (1) 
01-01-2006

2005

Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, McNamara S, Spence B and Travaglini G (2005). Loop amplitudes in pure Yang-Mills from generalised unitarity. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (10) 
01-10-2005
Relevant PublicationBedford J, Brandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2005). A recursion relation for gravity amplitudes. NUCL PHYS B vol. 721, 98-110.  
15-08-2005
Relevant PublicationBedford J, Brandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2005). Non-supersymmetric loop amplitudes and MHV vertices. NUCL PHYS B vol. 712 (1-2), 59-85.  
18-04-2005
Relevant PublicationBrandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2005). One-loop gauge theory amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills from MHV vertices. NUCL PHYS B vol. 706 (1-2), 150-180.  
31-01-2005
Relevant PublicationBedford J, Brandhuber A, Spence B and Travaglini G (2005). A twistor approach to one-loop amplitudes in N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. NUCL PHYS B vol. 706 (1-2), 100-126.  
31-01-2005
Relevant PublicationSpence WJ, TRAVAGLINI G and Brandhuber A (2005). One-loop gauge theory amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills from MHV vertices. Nuc. Phys. B vol. 706 
01-01-2005
Relevant PublicationSpence WJ, TRAVAGLINI G, Brandhuber A and Bedford J (2005). A recursion relation for gravity amplitudes. Nuclear Physics B vol. B721, 98-110.  
01-01-2005
Relevant PublicationSpence WJ, TRAVAGLINI G, Brandhuber A and Bedford J (2005). Non-supersymmetric loop amplitudes and MHV vertices. Nuc. Phys. B vol. B712 
01-01-2005
Relevant PublicationSpence WJ, BRANDHUBER A, Travaglini G and Bedford J (2005). A Twistor Approach to One-Loop Amplitudes in N=1 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory. Nuclear Physics vol. B706 
01-01-2005

2004

bullet iconRamgoolam S, Spence B and Thomas S (2004). Resolving brane collapse with 1/N corrections in non-Abelian DBI. NUCL PHYS B vol. 703 (1-2), 236-276.  
20-12-2004

2003

bullet iconde Medeiros P and Spence B (2003). Four-dimensional topological Einstein-Maxwell gravity. CLASSICAL QUANT GRAV vol. 20 (11), 2075-2086.  
07-06-2003

2002

bullet iconde Medeiros P, Hull C, Spence B and Figueroa-O'Farrill J (2002). Conformal topological Yang-Mills theory and de Sitter holography. J HIGH ENERGY PHYS (8) 
01-08-2002

2001

bullet iconSOLOVIEV O, Spence W and Russakovskii A (2001). Fallback options. VIII International Conference: Forecasting Financial Markets, London 30 May to 01 June, 2001
30-05-2001

1991

bullet iconHull CM, Papadopoulos G and Spence B (1991). Gauge symmetries for (p, q) supersymmetric sigma models. Nuclear Physics B, Elsevier vol. 363 (2-3), 593-621.  
01-10-1991
Relevant PublicationHULL CM and SPENCE B (1991). COUPLING THE WESS-ZUMINO-WITTEN MODEL TO YANG-MILLS FIELDS. Modern Physics Letters A, World Scientific Publishing vol. 6 (11), 969-976.  
10-04-1991
bullet iconHull CM and Spence B (1991). The geometry of the gauged sigma-model with wess-zumino term. Nuclear Physics B, Elsevier vol. 353 (2), 379-426.  
01-04-1991
bullet iconHull CM, Spence B and Vázquez-Bello JL (1991). The geometry of quantum gauge theories: A superspace formulation of BRST symmetry. Nuclear Physics B, Elsevier vol. 348 (1), 108-124.  
01-01-1991

1990

bullet iconHull CM and Spence B (1990). The (2, 0) supersymmetric Wess-Zumino-Witten model. Nuclear Physics B, Elsevier vol. 345 (2-3), 493-508.  
01-12-1990
bullet iconHull CM and Spence B (1990). N = 2 current algebra and coset models. Physics Letters B, Elsevier vol. 241 (3), 357-364.  
01-05-1990

1989

bullet iconHull CM and Spence B (1989). The gauged nonlinear sigma model with Wess-Zumino term. Physics Letters B, Elsevier vol. 232 (2), 204-210.  
01-11-1989

1987

bullet iconSpence B and Thomas S (1987). Consistency and component-field structure of gauge-invariant free open superstrings. Nuclear Physics B, Elsevier vol. 286, 409-428.  
01-01-1987

Grants

solid heart iconGrants of specific relevance to the Centre for Fundamental Physics
solid heart iconAmplitudes, Strings and Duality (CG 2022)
Andreas Brandhuber, David Berman, Matthew Buican, Rodolfo Russo, David Vegh, Sanjaye Ramgoolam, Gabriele Travaglini, Christopher White, Bill Spence, Congkao Wen, Constantinos Papageorgakis, Ricardo Monteiro and Malcolm Perry
£1,477,966 Science & Technology Research Council (STFC) (01-10-2023 - 30-09-2026)


solid heart iconAmplitudes, Strings and Duality
Andreas Brandhuber, Bill Spence, Rodolfo Russo, Sanjaye Ramgoolam, Matthew Buican, Michael Green, Steven Thomas, Steven Thomas, Gabriele Travaglini, Congkao Wen, Constantinos Papageorgakis, David Berman, Christopher White, David Vegh, Ricardo Monteiro and Malcolm Perry
£890,210 Science & Technology Research Council (STFC) (01-10-2020 - 31-03-2024)
solid heart iconFacility for Materials Engineering
Michael Reece and Bill Spence
£313,840 EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (01-04-2015 - 31-03-2020)