Matthew Benjamin Kleban 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 ...
who works on
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 ...
and theoretical cosmology. He is the chair of the Department of Physics and a professor at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, former director of the
Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, and a former member of the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
. His contributions to physics include:
* The discovery of the first distinct signature of the black hole singularity in
AdS/CFT
In theoretical physics, the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence (frequently abbreviated as AdS/CFT) is a conjectured relationship between two kinds of physical theories. On one side are anti-de Sitter spaces (AdS) that are used ...
(with
Lukasz Fidkowski,
Veronika Hubeny and
Stephen Shenker
Stephen Hart Shenker (born 1953) is an American theoretical physicist who works on string theory. He is a professor at Stanford University and former director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. His brother Scott Shenker is a comp ...
)
* Pioneering work on the subtleties of very late-time cosmology in the presence of a positive
cosmological constant
In cosmology, the cosmological constant (usually denoted by the Greek capital letter lambda: ), alternatively called Einstein's cosmological constant,
is a coefficient that Albert Einstein initially added to his field equations of general rel ...
, and the "Boltzmann brain" problem (with
Lisa Dyson and
Leonard Susskind
Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birth anniversary was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an Americ ...
)
* A determination of the effects of cosmic bubble collisions on the microwave background radiation and other cosmological observables.
* Work on the fundamental origin of
cosmic inflation
In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation, or just inflation, is a theory of exponential expansion of space in the very early universe. Following the inflationary period, the universe continued to expand, but at a slower ...
.
* Demonstrating that theories with multiple axion fields can account for many otherwise mysterious features of our universe.
Selected works
*
References
Astronomy magazine cover story on observational signals of the multiversePhysics World article on bubble collisionsDiscover Magazine profile of Kleban
External links
of the
Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleban, Matthew
21st-century American physicists
American string theorists
Living people
Stanford University alumni
New York University faculty
1974 births