Federico Zalamea Research Professor in Mathematics

After obtaining his Master Degree in Theoretical Physics (ENS-Paris Diderot) in 2010, Federico Zalamea prepared a Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Physics. During his doctorate, he was a member of the SPHERE Laboratory and the ERC Philosophy of Canonical Quantum Gravity project, led by Gabriel Catren (CNRS). He then completed a one-year Post-Doctorate at the University Paris-Diderot, before joining the mathematics department of Efrei as a Research Professor.

Broadly speaking, his research focuses on the conceptual and mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. During his Ph.D., he compared the mathematical structures underlying classical and quantum mechanics. Since then, he has worked on the different interpretations of non-locality and quantum contextuality.

Federico Zalamea also participated in the organization of several workshops and summer schools, which aim to promote interaction between young mathematicians, physicists and philosophers.

Research Interests :

• Mathematical foundations of classical and quantum mechanics (mostly symplectic geometry and C*-algebras).
• Interpretation of quantum non-locality and quantum contextuality.
• Conceptual foundations of (algebraic) quantum field theory and general relativity.

Teaching :

• At EFREI (since September 2017) :
  • Group Theory and its Applications (L3)
  • Optimization (L3)
  • Multi-variable functions (L2)
  • Probability Theory (L2)
  • Linear Algebra (L1)
  • General Algebra (L1)
  • Introduction to the History of Science (L2 and M1)
• Outside EFREI :
  • Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, Paris Sorbonne Cité (M1, 2019).
  • The two-fold role of observables in Quantum Mechanics, “l’Agape” Summer school (Doctoral Level, 2019).
  • Introduction to Loop Quantum Gravity, Paris Diderot, (Doctoral Level, 2013).

Projects :

• 2012 to 2017 : Member of the ERC project ERC Philosophy of Canonical Quantum Gravity lead by Gabriel Catren (CNRS).

• Martin-Dussaud, C. Rovelli, F. Zalamea, “The notion of locality in relational quantum mechanics”, Foundations of Physics, Vol. 49 (2) (2019), pp. 96-106. DOI: 10.1007/s10701-019-00234-6, arXiv:1806.08150.
• Zalamea, “The Two-Fold Role of Observables in Classical and Quantum Kinematics”, Foundations of Physics, Vol. 48 (9) (2018), pp. 1061-1091. DOI:10.1007/s10701-018-0194-8, arXiv:1711.06914.
• Zalamea, “Chasing Individuation: Mathematical Description of Physical Systems”, Thèse de doctorat, arXiv:1612.02959.
• Zalamea, “The Mathematical Definition of a Generic Physical System”, Topoi, Special Issue on the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics, ed. Anna Marmodoro, Vol. 34 (2) (2015), pp. 339-348.
• Paolo Serra, Federico Zalamea, Asantha Cooray, Gianpiero Mangano, Alessandro Melchiorri, “Constraints on neutrino-dark matter interactions from cosmic microwave background and large structure data”, Physical Reviews D 81 (4) (2010), notes 1-043507.5.