Hermann Nicolai (physicist)
Hermann Nicolai (born July 11, 1952 in Friedberg / Hessen ) is a German theoretical physicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam - Golm .
Life
Hermann Nicolai studied physics and mathematics at the University of Karlsruhe from 1971 with a diploma in 1975 and received his doctorate in 1978 at the same place under Julius Wess . From 1979 to 1986 he worked at CERN in Geneva as a member of the theory department and completed his habilitation in theoretical physics at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in 1983 . In 1986 Nicolai accepted a C3 professorship at the University of Karlsruhe. In 1988 he was given a C4 professorship at the University of Hamburg . Since 1997 he has been a Scientific Member and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics ( Albert Einstein Institute ) in Potsdam-Golm, where, among other things, he deals with supergravity and string theory. There he is head of the Quantum Gravity and Unified Field Theories department .
research
In the mid-1980s, Nicolai and Bernard de Wit developed the N = 8 supergravity theory , which arises from the dimensional reduction of the maximally supersymmetrical d = 11 supergravity to four space-time dimensions (d = 4) and in many respects a maximum supersymmetry for has a supergravity theory with a graviton and no particle with a spin greater than 2.
In the 2000s, Nicolai investigated the behavior of gravitational equations near spatiotemporal singularities such as the big bang, which lead to models with chaotic billiards , in the case of classical general relativity in three dimensions. In the case of eleven-dimensional supergravity, this leads to ten-dimensional billiards and the infinite-dimensional hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebra appears as symmetry. contains the largest finite-dimensional exceptional semi-simple complex Lie algebra , which has also been discussed as a candidate by GUTs . Nicolai proposed a purely algebraic description of the universe in areas near the singularity (within Planck time ) via the - symmetry , whereby the space-time dimensions emerge as an emergent phenomenon .
Nicolai also sees indications of a special role for in M-theory .
He also constructed maximally gauged (N = 16) supergravity theories in three dimensions and their symmetries and investigated generalizations of the variables of loop quantum gravity to supergravity / string theory.
Awards
In 1991 Nicolai was awarded the Klung Wilhelmy Weberbank Prize . In 2010 he was awarded the Albert Einstein Medal and in 2012 he was awarded the Gay Lussac Humboldt Prize .
He is the executive editor of the journal General Relativity and Gravitation .
Fonts (selection)
In addition to the writings cited in the footnotes:
- On a New Characterization of Scalar Supersymmetric Theories , Phys. Lett. 89B (1980) 341
- with B. de Wit: The Consistency of the S7 Truncation in d = 11 Supergravity , Nucl. Phys. B281 (1987) 211
- with B. de Wit and J. Hoppe: On the Quantum Mechanics of Supermembranes , Nucl. Phys. B305 (1988) 545
- with H. Samtleben: Maximal Gauged Supergravity in Three-Dimensions , Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 (2001) 1686-1689, Arxiv
- with T. Damour and M. Henneaux: E10 and a "small tension expansion" of M Theory , Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 221601-1-221601-4, Arxiv
- with T.Damour: Symmetries, Singularities and the De-Emergence of Space , 2007 Arxiv
- with T.Damour and M. Henneaux: Cosmological Billards , Classical and Quantum Gravity, 20 (2003), R 145-200, Arxiv
- with Krzsysztof Meissner: Conformal symmetry and the standard model , Physics Letters B 648 (2007) 312, Arxiv
- with G. Bossard and C. Hillmann: E7 (7) symmetry in perturbatively quantized N = 8 supergravity , JHEP 2010, Arxiv
- with Guillaume Bossard: Counterterms vs. dualities , 2011, Arxiv
- Quantum gravity - the view from particle physics , Prague 2013, Arxiv
- with Axel Kleinschmidt: E 10: a fundamental symmetry of nature? , Physics in Our Time, Volume 41, 2010, No. 3, pp. 134-140
Web links
- Homepage of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
- Nicolai's page at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
- Interview in the newspaper Potsdamer Latest News from March 2013.
Individual evidence
- ^ De Wit, Nicolai N = 8 Supergravity , Nucl. Phys. B 208, 1982, p. 323
- ↑ A space-like singularity, described by Belinski, Khalatnikov, Lifschitz (BKL singularity) in general relativity
- ^ First found by Thibault Damour and Marc Henneaux 2001, Phys. Rev. Lett., Volume 86, p. 4749
- ↑ Axel Kleinschmidt, Michael Koehn, Hermann Nicolai Supersymmetric quantum cosmological billards , Phys. Rev. D, Volume 80, 2009, p. 061701, Arxiv
- ↑ Kleinschmidt, Nicolai Cosmological quantum billards , 2009, Arxiv
- ↑ De Wit, Nicolai, Samtleben Gauged supergravities in 3 dimensions - a panoramic overview , Proc. 27th Johns Hopkins Workshop 2003
- ^ Awarding of the Einstein Medal to Nicolai
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Nicolai, Hermann |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German theoretical physicist |
DATE OF BIRTH | July 11, 1952 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Friedberg (Hesse) |