Ulf Lindstrom
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
theoretical physicist working in the fields of string theory
String theory
String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything , a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system...
, supersymmetry
Supersymmetry
In particle physics, supersymmetry is a symmetry that relates elementary particles of one spin to other particles that differ by half a unit of spin and are known as superpartners...
, and general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
.
He earned his fil. kand. university degree at Stockholm University
Stockholm University
Stockholm University is a state university in Stockholm, Sweden. It has over 28,000 students at four faculties, making it one of the largest universities in Scandinavia. The institution is also frequently regarded as one of the top 100 universities in the world...
in 1972 and continued under the supervision of Bertel Laurent with doctoral studies. The title of his PhD thesis was "Extensions of general relativity: scalar tensor theory, topology of space-time and supergravity."
He spent the year 1978-1979 at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
as a post-doc working with Stanley Deser
Stanley Deser
Stanley Deser is an American physicist known for his contributions to general relativity. Currently, he is the Ancell Professor of Physics at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts....
, and after getting his doctoral degree, became a docent in Stockholm. During 1986-1987, he spent time as a research fellow at Stony Brook University.
In 2002 he moved from Stockholm University to Uppsala University where he is now the chairman of the theoretical physics department.
His most well known contributions to theoretical physics is in the field of supersymmetry where he was one of the first people to discuss the hyper-Kähler quotient construction which was later generalized and discussed in full detail by Hitchin, Karlhede, Lindström and Roček. Also, together with Martin Rocek
Martin Rocek
Martin Rocek is a professor of theoretical physics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a member of the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics. He received A.B. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University in 1975 and 1979...
, he has developed the notion of "Projective superspace". Another important result was the construction (together with Paul Howe) of an eight-loop counterterm in N=8 Supergravity
Supergravity
In theoretical physics, supergravity is a field theory that combines the principles of supersymmetry and general relativity. Together, these imply that, in supergravity, the supersymmetry is a local symmetry...
which became part of the motivation to consider String Theory
String theory
String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything , a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system...
as the major candidate for a finite quantum theory of gravity.
He was also among the first to discuss the zero tension limit of String Theory
String theory
String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything , a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system...
and has lately been involved in developing the notion (introduced by Nigel Hitchin
Nigel Hitchin
Nigel Hitchin is a British mathematician working in the fields of differential geometry, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics.-Academic career:...
) of Generalized complex geometry.
He has for many years been the chairman of the Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture
Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture
The Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture at Stockholm University, dedicated to the memory of the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein , is held annually since 1988 by a prominent physicist, who also receives the Oskar Klein Medal...
committee. A conference was held in honor of his 60th birthday in November 2007.