Professor Ben-Zvi is interested in the interface between representation theory, algebraic geometry and mathematical physics.
One of the great themes in high-energy theoretical physics is electric-magnetic duality, the symmetry between electricity and magnetism (a variant of the Fourier transform), and its profound generalization (S-duality) to supersymmetric variants of the nonabelian gauge theories that describe fundamental interactions. One of the great themes in number theory is the Langlands program, a profound nonabelian analog of the Fourier transform linking arithmetic questions to the algebra and analysis of symmetry groups. Professor Ben-Zvi works on aspects of the Geometric Langlands Program, which bridges these themes.