Emil Martinec

Emil John Martinec (born 1958) is an American string theorist, a physics professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, and director of the Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics. He was part of a group at Princeton University that developed heterotic string theory in 1985.^[1]

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Early life and education

Martinec was born October 4, 1958,^[2] in Downers Grove, Illinois. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1979 and earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1984, with a dissertation titled, Quantum Mechanics Versus General Covariance In Gravity And String Models, advised by Michael Peskin.^[3] He worked the last two years of his graduate education at SLAC, following Peskin's move there.

Career

Early in his career, Martinec worked at Princeton University, where he was part of a research group known as the "Princeton string quartet" that also included physicists David Gross, Jeffrey A. Harvey and Ryan Rohm.^[4] The group developed heterotic string theory in 1985.^[5] As its name suggests, heterotic string theory combines elements of multiple versions of string theory to attempt to create a more realistic explanation of elementary particle physics. This work was part of a series of advances that forestalled the predicted merger of cosmology and fundamental physics.^[6]

He is currently a professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago. He directs the university's Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics.^[7]

Selected publications

Martinec is co-author of six papers that SLAC's inSPIRE database classifies as "renowned" (having 500 or more citations apiece):^[8]

Dixon, L.; Friedan, D.; Martinec, E.; Shenker, S. (1987). "The conformal field theory of orbifolds". Nuclear Physics B. 282: 13–73. Bibcode:1987NuPhB.282...13D. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(87)90676-6.
Friedan, D.; Martinec, E.; Shenker, S. (1986). "Conformal invariance, supersymmetry and string theory". Nuclear Physics B. 271 (1): 93. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.470.4038. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(86)90356-1.
- Republished as Friedan, D.; Martinec, E.; Shenker, S. (1986). "Conformal invariance, supersymmetry and string theory". Nuclear Physics B. 271 (3–4): 93. Bibcode:1986NuPhB.271...93F. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.470.4038. doi:10.1016/S0550-3213(86)80006-2.
Callan, C. G.; Friedan, D.; Martinec, E. J.; Perry, M. J. (1985). "Strings in background fields". Nuclear Physics B. 262 (4): 593. Bibcode:1985NuPhB.262..593C. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(85)90506-1.
Gross, D. J.; Harvey, J. A.; Martinec, E.; Rohm, R. (1986). "Heterotic string theory". Nuclear Physics B. 267 (1): 75–124. Bibcode:1986NuPhB.267...75G. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(86)90146-X.
Gross, D. J.; Harvey, J. A.; Martinec, E.; Rohm, R. (1985). "Heterotic string theory (I). The free heterotic string". Nuclear Physics B. 256: 253–284. Bibcode:1985NuPhB.256..253G. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(85)90394-3.
Gross, D. J.; Harvey, J. A.; Martinec, E.; Rohm, R. (1985). "Heterotic String". Physical Review Letters. 54 (6): 502–505. Bibcode:1985PhRvL..54..502G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.54.502. PMID 10031535.