The MIT Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP) is the hub of theoretical nuclear physics, particle physics, and quantum information research at MIT. It is a subdivision of

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 ...

Laboratory for Nuclear Science and

Department of Physics Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Research

CTP activities range from string theory and cosmology at the highest energies down through unification and beyond-the-standard-model physics, through the standard model, to QCD, hadrons, quark matter, and nuclei at the low energy scale. Members of the CTP are also currently working on quantum computation and on energy policy. The breadth and depth of research in nuclear, particle, string, and gravitational physics at the CTP makes it a unique environment for researchers in these fields.

Members

In addition to the 15 MIT faculty members working in the CTP, at any one time there are roughly a dozen postdoctoral fellows, and as many, or more, long-term visitors working at the postdoctoral or faculty level. The CTP supports 25-35 MIT graduate students, who work with the faculty and postdocs on problems across the energy spectrum. Current research areas in the center include

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...

in and beyond the

standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the Scientific theory, theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions – excluding gravity) in the unive ...

quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...

lattice QCD Lattice QCD is a well-established non- perturbative approach to solving the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) theory of quarks and gluons. It is a lattice gauge theory formulated on a grid or lattice of points in space and time. When the size of the ...

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid State of matter, phases, that arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms and elec ...

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

, and

energy research Energy development is the field of activities focused on obtaining sources of energy from Natural resource, natural resources. These activities include the production of Renewable energy, renewable, nuclear power, nuclear, and fossil fuel derive ...

. Notable current faculty include Nobel Laureate

Frank Wilczek Frank Anthony Wilczek ( or ; born May 15, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate. He is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Director ...

Jeffrey Goldstone Jeffrey Goldstone (born 3 September 1933) is a Great Britain, British theoretical physicist and an ''emeritus'' physics faculty member at the MIT MIT Center for Theoretical Physics, Center for Theoretical Physics. He worked at the University of ...

, inflationary cosmologist

Alan Guth Alan Harvey Guth (; born February 27, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is the Victor Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Along with Alexei Starobinsky and Andrei Linde, ...

, cosmologist

Max Tegmark Max Erik Tegmark (born 5 May 1967) is a Swedish-American physicist, machine learning researcher and author. He is best known for his book ''Life 3.0'' about what the world might look like as artificial intelligence continues to improve. Tegmark i ...

, and quantum information scientist

Peter Shor Peter Williston Shor (born August 14, 1959) is an American theoretical computer scientist known for his work on quantum computation, in particular for devising Shor's algorithm, a quantum algorithm for factoring exponentially faster than the ...

. Past CTP faculty members include US

Secretary of Energy The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States and fifteenth in the presidential line of succession. The position was created on October 1, 1977, when P ...

Ernest Moniz Ernest Jeffrey Moniz, Order of Prince Henry, GCIH (; born December 22, 1944) is an American nuclear physicist and former government official. From May 2013 to January 2017, he served as the 13th United States secretary of energy in the Obama admi ...

, Breakthrough Prize winner Daniel Freedman, particle theorist and author

Lisa Randall Lisa Randall (born June 18, 1962) is an American theoretical physicist and Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. Her research includes the fundamental forces of nature and dimensions of space. She studies the Standa ...

, and many others.

Directors

Herman Feshbach Herman Feshbach (2 February 1917 – 22 December 2000) was an American physicist. He was an Institute Professor Emeritus of physics at MIT. Feshbach is best known for Feshbach resonance and for writing, with Philip M. Morse, ''Methods of The ...

, 1967–73 * Francis Low, 1973–76 * Arthur Kerman, 1976–83 *

, 1983–89 * John Negele, 1989–98 * Robert Jaffe, 1998–2004 * Eddie Farhi, 2004–16 * Washington Taylor IV, 2016–19 * Iain Stewart, 2019–present

Faculty

Current and former faculty members in the CTP include: * Michel Baranger, student of Hans Bethe, made contributions to plasma spectroscopy, nuclear collective motion, and quantum chaos * Netta Engelhardt, 2021 New Horizons in Physics Prize recipient for work on black holes * Edward Farhi, particle-physicist turned quantum information theorist *

, founding director of the CTP * Daniel Freedman, Breakthrough Prize winner *

Sergio Fubini Sergio Fubini (31 December 1928 – 6 January 2005) was an Italian theoretical physicist. He was one of the pioneers of string theory. He was engaged in peace activism in the Middle East. Biography Fubini was born in Turin. In 1938, he fled t ...

, pioneer of string theory * Roscoe Giles, computer engineer and theoretical physicist; first African-American to earn a theoretical physics Ph.D. from

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, namesake of

Goldstone boson In physics, Goldstone bosons or Nambu–Goldstone bosons (NGBs) are bosons that appear necessarily in models exhibiting spontaneous breakdown of continuous symmetries. They were discovered by Yoichiro Nambu within the context of the BCS superco ...

s *

, discoverer of inflation * Daniel Harlow, 2019 New Horizons in Physics Prize recipient for contributions to "quantum information, quantum field theory, and gravity" * Aram Harrow, quantum information scientist * Kerson Huang, known for contributions to statistical physics and quantum field theory alongside C. N. Yang, T. D. Lee, and

Steven Weinberg Steven Weinberg (; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic inter ...

* Roman Jackiw, of the Jackiw-Teitelboim model of 2d gravity * Robert Jaffe, CTP director, known for

MIT Bag Model In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number. Until the 1960s, nucleons were thought to be ele ...

* Xiangdong Ji, recipient of Herman Feshbach Prize in nuclear physics * Kenneth Johnson, famous for fundamental contributions to quantum field theory and quark substructure * David Kaiser, cosmologist and historian of science * Francis Low, CTP director, Manhattan project alumnus and co-founder of

Union of Concerned Scientists The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environment ...

* Samir Mathur, string theorist and architect of " fuzzball" program for understanding black hole microstates *

, former U.S. Secretary of Energy * John Negele, CTP director, nuclear physicist *

, particle physicist, cosmologist, and popular physics author; first female professor in the CTP *

, quantum information scientist known for

Shor's algorithm Shor's algorithm is a quantum algorithm for finding the prime factors of an integer. It was developed in 1994 by the American mathematician Peter Shor. It is one of the few known quantum algorithms with compelling potential applications and strong ...

Isadore Singer Isadore Manuel Singer (May 3, 1924 – February 11, 2021) was an American mathematician. He was an Emeritus Institute Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Professor Emeritus of Mathemat ...

, winner of the Abel Prize * Tracy Slatyer, known for Fermi bubbles; second tenured female professor in the CTP *

, notable cosmologist and popular physics author * Jesse Thaler, Director of NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Fundamental Interactions * Charles Thorn, noted string theorist *

Gabriele Veneziano Gabriele Veneziano ( ; ; born 7 September 1942) is an Italian theoretical physicist widely considered the father of string theory. He has conducted most of his scientific activities at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and held the Chair of Elementar ...

, pioneer of string theory * Felix Villars, of Pauli-Villars regularization method in quantum field theory *

, Nobel Laureate *

Victor Weisskopf Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels Boh ...

, former MIT physics department chair *

, Nobel Laureate known for

asymptotic freedom In quantum field theory, asymptotic freedom is a property of some gauge theory, gauge theories that causes interactions between particles to become asymptotically weaker as the energy scale increases and the corresponding length scale decreases. (A ...

and

axion An axion () is a hypothetical elementary particle originally theorized in 1978 independently by Frank Wilczek and Steven Weinberg as the Goldstone boson of Peccei–Quinn theory, which had been proposed in 1977 to solve the strong CP problem ...

s * James Young, notable nuclear physicist; founding member of National Society of Black Physicists; first tenured black professor in the MIT Physics Department *

Barton Zwiebach Barton Zwiebach (born ''Barton Zwiebach Cantor'', October 4, 1954) is a Peruvian string theorist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Work Zwiebach studied electrical engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Ingenierí ...

, Peruvian string theorist, made central contributions to

string field theory String field theory (SFT) is a formalism in string theory in which the dynamics of relativistic strings is reformulated in the language of quantum field theory. This is accomplished at the level of perturbation theory by finding a collection of ...

References

External links