Igor R. Klebanov (born 1962) is an American

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

. Since 1989, he has been a faculty member at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he is currently a Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics and the director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. In 2016, he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. Since 2022, he is the director of the Simons Collaboration on Confinement and QCD Strings. Klebanov received his undergraduate education at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

(class of 1982) and his Ph.D. degree at

in 1986 as a student of

Curtis Callan Curtis Gove Callan Jr. (born October 11, 1942) is an American theoretical physicist and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He has conducted research in gauge theory, string theory, inst ...

. In his thesis he made advances in the Skyrme model of

hadron In particle physics, a hadron is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong nuclear force. Pronounced , the name is derived . They are analogous to molecules, which are held together by the electri ...

s, which included the first paper on a Skyrmion crystal. Klebanov worked as a post-doc in the

SLAC Theory Group The SLAC Theory Group is the hub of theoretical particle physics research at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. It is a subdivision of the Elementary Particle Physics (EPP) Division at SLAC. Research The group has ...

. His main contributions to string theory are in matrix model approaches to two-dimensional strings, in

brane In string theory and related theories (such as supergravity), a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a zero-dimensional point particle, a one-dimensional string, or a two-dimensional membrane to higher-dimensional objec ...

dynamics, and in the gauge theory-gravity duality. His work in 1996-97 on relations between branes in

supergravity In theoretical physics, supergravity (supergravity theory; SUGRA for short) is a modern field theory that combines the principles of supersymmetry and general relativity; this is in contrast to non-gravitational supersymmetric theories such as ...

and their

gauge theory In physics, a gauge theory is a type of field theory in which the Lagrangian, and hence the dynamics of the system itself, does not change under local transformations according to certain smooth families of operations (Lie groups). Formally, t ...

description anticipated the gauge theory-gravity correspondence. Klebanov's 1998 paper with his graduate student

Steven Gubser Steven Scott Gubser (May 4, 1972 – August 3, 2019) was a professor of physics at Princeton University. His research focused on theoretical particle physics, especially string theory, and the AdS/CFT correspondence. He was a widely cited schol ...

, and Alexander M. Polyakov, which made a precise statement of the AdS/CFT duality, is among the top cited papers in theoretical high-energy physics. A series of papers by Klebanov and collaborators on

D-branes In string theory, D-branes, short for Dirichlet membrane, are a class of extended objects upon which open string (physics), strings can end with Dirichlet boundary conditions, after which they are named. D-branes are typically classified by their ...

on the

conifold In mathematics and string theory, a conifold is a generalization of a manifold. Unlike manifolds, conifolds can contain conical singularities, i.e. points whose neighbourhoods look like cones over a certain base. In physics, in particular in flux ...

has led to discovery of cascading gauge theory. Its dual warped throat provides a geometric description of

color confinement In quantum chromodynamics (QCD), color confinement, often simply called confinement, is the phenomenon that color-charged particles (such as quarks and gluons) cannot be isolated, and therefore cannot be directly observed in normal conditions b ...

and

chiral symmetry breaking In particle physics, chiral symmetry breaking generally refers to the dynamical spontaneous breaking of a chiral symmetry associated with massless fermions. This is usually associated with a gauge theory such as quantum chromodynamics, the quant ...

; it has been used in model building for cosmology and particle physics. The relation between 3-dimensional critical O(N) model and bosonic higher-spin gauge theory in 4-dimensional AdS space has been called the Klebanov-Polyakov correspondence. Klebanov's more recent work includes the Entanglement Entropy in confining gauge theories, the F-theorem for Renormalization Group flows, large N tensor models, field theory descriptions of critical phenomena, and quantum many-body scars as group invariant states.

Honors

* 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship *2010 Princeton University Graduate Mentoring Award *2012 Elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. *2014

Tomassoni awards Tomassoni awards was the overarching name of two prizes for outstanding achievements in physics, the Premio Felice Pietro Chisesi e Caterina Tomassoni and the Premio Caterina Tomassoni e Felice Pietro Chisesi. The two prizes were awarded every one ...

*2016 Elected to the U.S.

. *2017

Pomeranchuk Prize The Pomeranchuk Prize is an international award for theoretical physics, awarded annually since 1998 by the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) from Moscow. It is named after Russian physicist Isaak Yakovlevich Pomeranchuk, wh ...

*2022 Oskar Klein Medal *2023

Dirac Medal (ICTP) The Dirac Medal of the ICTP is given each year by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in honour of physicist Paul Dirac. The award, announced each year on 8 August (Dirac's birthday), was first awarded in 1985. An internation ...

Works

hep-th/9108019 "String Theory in Two Dimensions"
''High Energy Physics - Theory'' (hep-th) Igor R. Klebanov, 26 Aug 1991 * * * *
"Some stringy aspects of the AdS/CFT duality"
''Strings'' 2002, Igor Klebanov
Solving Quantum Field Theories via Curved Spacetimes
''

Physics Today ''Physics Today'' is the membership magazine of the American Institute of Physics. First published in May 1948, it is issued on a monthly schedule, and is provided to the members of ten physics societies, including the American Physical Society. ...

,'' Igor Klebanov and Juan Maldacena * * *

References

External links

List of his papers on Arxiv

List of his papers on Google Scholar

Igor R Klebanov"
, ''Scientific commons'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Klebanov, Igor 21st-century American physicists Soviet emigrants to the United States Living people American string theorists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1962 births