Wikipedia

Cumrun Vafa

Cumrun Vafa(Persian:کامران وفا,Persian pronunciation:[kɒːmˈrɒːnvæˈfɒː];born 1 August 1960) is anIranian-Americantheoretical physicist and the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy atHarvard University.

Cumrun Vafa
Born(1960-08-01)1 August 1960(age 64)
Tehran,[1]Iran
NationalityIranian-American
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology(BS)
Princeton University(PhD)
Known forF-theory
Vafa–Witten theorem
Gopakumar–Vafa invariant
Mirror symmetry
Swampland
Weak gravity conjecture
AwardsDirac Medal(2008)
Eisenbud Prize (2008)
Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics(2016)
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics(2017)
Mustafa Prize(2021)
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical Physics
InstitutionsHarvard University
Doctoral advisorEdward Witten
Doctoral studentsFreddy Cachazo
Daniel L. Jafferis
Andrew Neitzke
Eric Zaslow

Early life and education

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Cumrun Vafa was born inTehran,Iranon 1 August 1960.[1]He became interested in physics as a young child, specifically how the moon was not falling from the sky, and he later grew his interests in math by high school and was fascinated by how mathematics could predict the movement of objects.[2]

He graduated fromAlborz High Schoolin Tehran and moved to the United States in 1977 to study at university.[1]He received aB.S.inmathematicsandphysicsfrom theMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) in 1981. He received hisPh.D.in physics fromPrinceton Universityin 1985 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "Symmetries, inequalities and index theorems", under the supervision ofEdward Witten.[1][3]

Academia

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After his PhD degree, Vafa became a junior fellow via theHarvard Society of FellowsatHarvard University,where he later got a junior faculty position. In 1989 he was offered a senior faculty position, and he has been there ever since.

Vafa worked at Princeton University within theInstitute for Advanced Study,within the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Mathematics in 1994.[4][5]

Research

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Vafa's research is primarily instring theory,and is focused on the nature ofquantum gravityand the relation between geometry and quantum field theories.[6]He is known in the string theory community for his co-discovery withStromingerthat theBekenstein-Hawking entropyof a black hole can be accounted for bysolitonicstates of superstring theory,[7][8]and for expounding the relation between geometry and field theories that arise through string dualities (culminating in theGopakumar–Vafa conjecture). This topic has been known as "geometric engineering of quantum field theories".

In 1997, he developedF-theory,a 12-dimensional theory that compactifies to 10-D Type IIB superstring theory.

He is also interested in understanding the underlying meaning of string dualities, as well as trying to apply superstring theory to some unsolved questions of elementary particle physics such as the hierarchy problem and thecosmological constantproblem.

He has made contributions totopological string theoriesand to the understanding ofmirror symmetry.

He is a trustee of Network of Iranians for Knowledge and Innovation (NIKI).[9]

Awards and honors

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In 2017, Vafa, alongsideAndrew StromingerandJoseph Polchinski,jointly won theBreakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physicsfor their advancement of string theory[10]and jointly won the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Physics Frontiers Prize.[11]

He is the recipient of theAbdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics(ICTP)'s, 2008Dirac Medal,which was won alongsideJuan Maldacena,andJoseph Polchinskifor their advancement of string theory.[5]

In 1998 he was a Plenary Speaker at theInternational Congress of Mathematicians.[12]

In 2016, Vafa was awarded theDannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics.[13]

Vafa was elected as a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 2005 and as a member of theNational Academy of Sciencesin 2009.[14][15]

In 2021, Vafa was awarded theMustafa Prize.[13]

Publications

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Research articles

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Vafa has co-authored and published more than 300 research articles in the fields of string theory, mathematics, and physics, with many other researchers including:Robbert Dijkgraaf,Hirosi Ooguri,Mina Aganagic,Sergei Gukov,Rajesh Gopakumar,Lotte Hollands,and many others. This is a select list of these works:

  • Dijkgraaf, Robbert; Vafa, Cumrun (September 2009). "Toda Theories, Matrix Models, Topological Strings, and N=2 Gauge Systems". p. 41.arXiv:0909.2453[hep-th].
  • Dijkgraaf, Robbert; Hollands, Lotte; Sulkowski, Piotr; Vafa, Cumrun (2008)."Supersymmetric Gauge Theories, Intersecting Branes and Free Fermions".Journal of High Energy Physics.2008(2): 106.arXiv:0709.4446.Bibcode:2008JHEP...02..106D.doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2008/02/106.S2CID3827567– via Research Gate.
  • Dijkgraaf, Robbert; Gopakumar, Rajesh; Ooguri, Hirosi; Vafa, Cumrun (September 2006)."Baby universes and string theory".International Journal of Modern Physics D.15(10): 1581–1586.Bibcode:2006IJMPD..15.1581D.doi:10.1142/S0218271806008978.S2CID199676528– via ResearchGate.
  • Dixon, L; Harvey, JA; Vafa, C; Witten, E."Strings on orbifolds"Archived2017-08-12 at theWayback Machine.Nuclear Physics.
  • Hori, Kentaro; Vafa, Cumrun (2000). "Mirror Symmetry".arXiv:hep-th/0002222.

Books

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  • Hori, Kentaro; Katz, Sheldon; Klemm, Albrecht; Pandharipande, Rahul; Thomas, Richard; Vafa, Cumrun; Vakil, Ravi; Zaslow, Eric (2003).Mirror Symmetry (Clay Mathematics Monographs, V. 1).American Mathematical Society.ISBN978-0821829554.
  • Vafa, Cumrun; Yau, Shing-Tung (S.T.) (1999).Winter School on Mirror Symmetry, Vector Bundles and Lagrangian Submanifolds.American Mathematical Society.ISBN978-0821821596.
  • Vafa, Cumrun (2020).Puzzles to Unravel the Universe.Independently published.ISBN979-8642693636.

References

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  1. ^abcdMemarian, Jahandad (2016-02-10)."Cumrun Vafa on Stringing the Universe Together".HuffPost.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  2. ^"Cumrun Vafa: 2017 Breakthrough Prize Laureate Interviews".YouTube(Video). 1:55. 2018.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  3. ^Vafa, Cumrun (1985).Symmetries, inequalities and index theorems.
  4. ^"$25 Million in Breakthrough Prizes Given in Science and Math".Institute for Advanced Study.5 December 2016.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  5. ^ab"Maldacena Shares 2008 Dirac Medal".Institute for Advanced Study.13 August 2008.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  6. ^Moskowitz, Clara; Billings, Lee (July 30, 2018)."String Theory May Create Far Fewer Universes Than Thought".Scientific American.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  7. ^Overbye, Dennis (2004-12-07)."String Theory, at 20, Explains It All (or Not)".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  8. ^Overbye, Dennis (2004-07-22)."About Those Fearsome Black Holes? Never Mind".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  9. ^"Board of Trustees".www.theniki.net.Network of Iranians for Knowledge and Innovation (NIKI). Archived fromthe originalon 2015-04-16.Retrieved2015-04-16.
  10. ^Overbye, Dennis; Chang, Kenneth; Fleur, Nicholas St; Grady, Denise (2016-12-04)."$25 Million in Breakthrough Prizes Given in Science and Math".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  11. ^"Fundamental Physics Breakthrough Prize Laureates – Cumrun Vafa".Breakthrough Prize.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  12. ^Vafa, Cumrun (1998)."Geometric Physics".Doc. Math. (Bielefeld) Extra Vol. ICM Berlin, 1998, vol. I.pp. 537–556.
  13. ^ab"2016 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics Recipient".www.aps.org.American Physical Society. 2016.Retrieved2019-09-24.
  14. ^"Cumrun Vafa".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.Retrieved2020-06-19.
  15. ^"Cumrun Vafa".www.nasonline.org.Retrieved2020-06-19.
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