Max J. Davies

Profile

I am a PhD student in the Quantum Group here at Leeds. I studied for my MPhys and BSc at Leeds too.

• MPhys Dissertation: “The Emergence of Mass in Quantum Mechanics in Configuration Space”.

Research interests

My primary research interest is in the foundations of quantum theory. Specifically problems involving: local aspects of quantum field theories; causality and (spatial) locality in quantum theory; alternative quantisation methods; and the quantum-classical transition.

Broadly, we are exploring a physically motivated quantisation procedure (alternative to standard methods) for various physical systems (Bennett et al., Bukhari et al.). At the moment, we are using the resulting description of quantum mechanical particles to study systems where the dynamics of single particles as predicted by standard quantum theory, deviate greatly from the classical predictions, with the hope of better understanding the quantum-classical transition. We are also using the approach to gain insight into relativistic quantum and classical phenomena, using quantum reference frames.

I also have an interest in the philosophical aspects of quantum mechanics - particularly in the fundamental ontology of quantum (field) theory and the measurement problem.

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Preprints

• A. Bukhari, M. Moro, M. J. Davies, A. Wilson and A. Beige, Quantum mechanics in configuration space in context, arXiv:2606.17622 (2026).

Qualifications

• MPhys (integrated) Theoretical Physics, University of Leeds
• BSc Theoretical Physics, University of Leeds.

Research groups and institutes

• Theoretical Physics