Ph.D. Physics – Institute for Theoretical Physics, São Paulo, Brazil
M.S. Physics – Institute for Theoretical Physics, São Paulo, Brazil
B.A. Physics Education – Federal University of Santa Maria, RS, Brazil
Luiz is a mathematical physicist, and his interests are in the application of rigorous mathematical methods to address physical problems in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Luiz has been at Concordia for more than 10 years and, before he held post-doctoral positions at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and University of Vienna/Erwin Schrödinger Institute for Mathematical Physics, Austria, as well as a visiting professor position at Macalester College, St. Paul.
Luiz frequently collaborates with students investigating quantum tunneling times, that is, how long it takes for a particle to tunnel through a classically forbidden region – only recently these times, which are of the order of attoseconds (10–18 s), have become accessible to experiment. But, there is still no consensus on the correct definition of the tunneling times. Another field of interest is contact interactions in lower-dimensional quantum mechanics. Contact interactions are singular by nature, requiring advanced mathematical methods, such as self-adjoint extensions, to avoid ambiguities. Luiz and his collaborators use distribution theory to address such interactions.
In addition to physics, Luiz enjoys reading, traveling with his wife and son, fishing, and playing with his dog (Hamlet). Luiz is also an avid fountain pen collector.