I was born in 1974 in Barcelona. I obtained my PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Barcelona in 2000. After that I enjoyed many years of wonderful postdoctoral life at Cambridge University, UK (2 years), Perimeter Institute, Canada (3 years) and University of California at Santa Barbara, USA (3 years). I am an ICREA Research Professor at the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Barcelona since July 2008. In 2012 I was awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (1.4 M€).
Research interests
My main goal is to understand the physics of the Universe at the most fundamental level. Our present understanding is based on two theories. General relativity is a classical theory that provides a good description of gravitational interactions at large, macroscopic scales. The other three interactions, the electromagnetic, the strong and the weak interactions, are unified in a quantum theory, the so-called Standard Model of elementary particles. The answers to many important questions in fundamental physics require a unified, quantum theory of all interactions; these questions include the quantum properties of black holes, cosmology and the origin of the Universe, particle physics beyond the Standard Model, etc. For this reason I work on string theory, a quantum theory that has the potential to describe all forces and particles in Nature in a single, unified framework.
Selected publications
- Ecker C, van der Schee W, Mateos D & Casalderrey-Solana J 2022, 'Holographic evolution with dynamical boundary gravity', Journal of High Energy Physics, 03, 137.
- Bea Y, Casalderrey-Solana J, Giannakopoulos T, Jansen A, Mateos D, Sanchez-Garitaonandia M & Zilhao M 2022, 'Holographic bubbles with Jecco: expanding, collapsing and critical', Journal of High Energy Physics, 09, 008.
- Bea Y, Casalderrey-Solana J, Giannakopoulos T, Mateos D, Sanchez-Garitaonandia M & Zilhao M 2022 'Domain collisions', JHEP 06,025.
Selected research activities
CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
"AdS/CAP", From Holography to Machine Learning, Helsinki, Findland (Oct 2022).
"AdS/CAP", Holography for Astrophysics and Cosmology, Nordita, Sweden (Oct 2022).
"Dynamical Aspects in AdS/CFT", Geometry, Representation theory and Physics, U Barcelona (Jul 2022).
"A holographic Approach to Cosmology and Astrophysics", New Frontiers in Strong Gravity, Benasque, Spain (Jul 2022).
"Holography in the Gravitational Wave Era", Strong and Electroweak Matter 2022), Paris (June 2022).
"Holography in the Gravitational Wave Era", Gauge Topology, Flux Tubes And Holographic Models, Trento (May 2022).
OTHER INVITED TALKS
"Holography in the Gravitational Wave Era", U Santiago de Compostela (Jul 2022), U Barcelona (May 2022), Kentucky U (Feb 2022), Wurzburg U (Jan 2022) and U Oviedo (Jan 2022).
"Mega-Hertz Gravitational Waves from Neutron Star Mergers", U Barcelona (Nov 2022).
"Cosmological Phase Transitions in the Early Universe", U Barcelona (May 2022).
PhD THESIS
Mikel Sanchez-Garitaonandia, "Holographic phase transitions and gravitational waves", U Barcelona (July 2022).
CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION
Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for "Iberian Strings 2022", Gijon, Spain (March 2022).
TEACHING
"Frontiers of Theoretical Physics", Master's course, U Barcelona (Feb-March 2022).
MANAGERIAL
Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Cosmos Sciences at U Barcelona (since 2012).