Juan Martín Maldacena (born September 10, 1968) is an Argentine theoretical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and the Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

, Princeton. He has made significant contributions to the foundations of string theory and quantum gravity. His most famous discovery is the

AdS/CFT correspondence In theoretical physics, the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence, sometimes called Maldacena duality or gauge/gravity duality, is a conjectured relationship between two kinds of physical theories. On one side are anti-de Sitter s ...

, a realization of the

holographic principle The holographic principle is an axiom in string theories and a supposed property of quantum gravity that states that the description of a volume of space can be thought of as encoded on a lower-dimensional boundary to the region — such as a ...

in string theory.

Biography

Maldacena obtained his ''licenciatura'' (a six-year degree) in 1991 at the

Instituto Balseiro Balseiro Institute ( es, Instituto Balseiro) is an academic institution that belongs partially to the National University of Cuyo and partially to Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission. It is located in Bariloche, Río Negro province, Ar ...

Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel Huapi National Park ...

, Argentina, under the supervision of Gerardo Aldazábal. He then obtained his Ph.D. in physics at Princeton University after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Black holes in string theory" under the supervision of Curtis Callan in 1996, and went on to a post-doctoral position at Rutgers University. In 1997, he joined Harvard University as associate professor, being quickly promoted to Professor of Physics in 1999. Since 2001 he has been a professor at the

in Princeton, New Jersey and in 2016 became the first Carl P. Feinberg Professor of Theoretical Physics in the institute's School of Natural Sciences.

Contributions to physics

Maldacena has made numerous discoveries in theoretical physics. Leonard Susskind called him "perhaps the greatest physicist of his generation... certainly the greatest theoretical physicist of his generation". His most famous discovery is the most reliable realization of the

– namely the

, a conjecture about the equivalence of string theory on Anti-de Sitter space, Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space, and a conformal field theory defined on the boundary of the AdS space. According to the conjecture, certain theories of quantum gravity are equivalent to other quantum mechanical theories (with no gravitational force) in one fewer spacetime dimensions. In subsequent works, Maldacena elucidated several aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence, describing how certain physical observables defined in one theory can be described in the equivalent theory. Shortly after his original work on the AdS/CFT correspondence, Maldacena showed how Wilson loop, Wilson lines can be computed in a corresponding string theory by considering the area swept by an evolving fundamental string. Wilson lines are non-local physical observables defined in gauge theory. In 2001, Maldacena proposed that an eternal black hole, an object defined in a gravitational theory, is equivalent to a certain Quantum entanglement, entangled state involving two copies of the corresponding quantum mechanical theory. Ordinary black holes emit Hawking radiation and eventually evaporate. An eternal black hole is a type of black hole that survives forever because it eventually re-absorbs the radiation it emits. In 2013, Maldacena co-authored an analysis of the 2012 firewall (physics), black hole firewall paradox with Leonard Susskind, arguing that the paradox can be resolved if quantum entanglement, entangled particles are connected by minor wormholes."

Publications

Awards

Maldacena has received these awards: * Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, 1998 * Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, 1998 * MacArthur Fellowship, 1999 * UNESCO Husein Prize for Young Scientists, 1999 * Sackler Prize in Physics, 2000 * Basilis C. Xanthopoulos, Xanthopoulos International Award for Research in Gravitational Physics, 2001 * Pius XI Medal, 2002 * Edward A. Bouchet Award of the American Physical Society, 2004 *Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected 2007 *Member of the National Academy of Sciences, elected 2013 * Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, Dannie Heineman Prize, 2007 * Dirac Medal of the ITCP, 2008 * Pomeranchuk Prize, 2012 * Fundamental Physics Prize, 2012. * Diamond Konex Award as the most important scientist in the last decade in Argentina, 2013 * Lorentz Medal, 2018 * Albert Einstein Medal, 2018 * St. Albert Award, 2018 * Galileo Galilei Medal, 2019

References

External links

Maldacena's web page at the Institute

Maldacena Theme tree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maldacena, Juan Martin 1968 births Living people Argentine physicists Harvard University faculty Institute for Advanced Study faculty MacArthur Fellows National University of Cuyo alumni People from Buenos Aires Princeton University alumni String theorists Theoretical physicists Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Mathematical physicists Albert Einstein Medal recipients