String Theory is a promising candidate for a unified theory of all elementary particles and interactions, including a quantum theory of gravitation. General Relativity is one of the best validated theories in all of physics and so far correctly describes all gravitational phenomena. At the same time it is a theory of the structure of space and time, enabling day-to-day technologies such as the tracking system GPS.
The Giulini group is concerned with problems from General Relativity and relativistic field theory. This involves analytical solutions and their symmetries, the formulation as an initial value problem within a Hamiltonian reformulation, as well as determining asymptotic symmetries, also in gauge theories of the Yang-Mills type. A second main focus relates to the question about the effect of gravity on the dynamics of quantum mechanical systems and the validity of Einstein's equivalence principle for quantum systems.
The Lechtenfeld group analyses the structure of fundamental models of space, time and matter, which unify the established theories of gravitation (Relativity) and elementary particles (Quantum Field Theory). A main focus lies on the study of Superstring theory, specifically the construction and classification of novel compactifications from ten to four spacetime dimensions. A further research area involves »quantum deformed« spacetimes, in particular matter in non-commutative or generalized geometries as realized in string theory and in matrix models.
More (alumni) members
- Prof. Dr. Marco Zagermann
- Prof. Dr. Norbert Dragon (retired since 2016)
- Dr. Werner Theis
- Prof. Dr. Peter U. Sauer
- Prof. Dr. Hermann Schulz
- Prof. Dr. Dietrich Zawischa
