Sebastian Schenk

Theoretical physicist working on the theory and phenomenology of quantum fields

Hi, I am Sebastian. I am a theoretical physicist working as a postdoc at Mainz University. Before coming here, I was a postdoc at the IPPP Durham on a Walter Benjamin fellowship by the DFG. I started my academic career by doing my PhD at Heidelberg University. Currently, I am trying to find ways of exploring fundamental physics that is still beyond our experimental reach. When not doing physics, I like to go running, hiking and bouldering, all of which appear to be pretty much obligatory for a physicist these days.

You can get a brief glimpse of my research below.

If you want to chat about physics, feel free to visit me at Mainz University or drop me an email: Email

Research interests

Literally almost any topic related to high energy physics can catch my attention. However, for a living, I am mostly working on certain aspects of quantum field theory and its phenomenological implications. Here is an example of questions that I am currently pondering on.

Higgs physics

What can the Higgs boson still tell us about the quantum field theory underlying the Standard Model of particle physics? In particular, how do we obtain information on the global features of its potential?

Nonperturbative phenomena

What is the distinctive role of nonperturbative effects, such as instantons, in quantum field theories? How are they related to perturbation theory?

Light dark matter

How can we search for very light dark matter? From a field theory perspective, are there self-consistency conditions that any light dark matter candidate has to fulfill?

Recent publications

Here are some of my most recent publications.

A Coordinate-Independent Formalism for Detecting High-Frequency Gravitational Waves (e-Print)
Wolfram Ratzinger, Sebastian Schenk, and Pedro Schwaller (2024)

Quantum Imprint of the Anharmonic Oscillator (e-Print)
Prisco Lo Chiatto, Sebastian Schenk, and Felix Yu (2023)

Primordial gravitational waves in the nano-Hertz regime and PTA data (e-Print)
Eric Madge, Enrico Morgante, Cristina Puchades-Ibáñez, Nicklas Ramberg, Wolfram Ratzinger, Sebastian Schenk, and Pedro Schwaller (2023)

Towards a Quantum Simulation of Nonlinear Sigma Models with a Topological Term (e-Print)
Jack Y. Araz, Sebastian Schenk, and Michael Spannowsky (2022)