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BARTON ZWIEBACH, Professor
of Physics
Research Interests
Professor Zwiebach¹s specialties are String Theory and Theoretical
Particle Physics. His central contributions have been in the area
of String Field Theory, where he did the early work on the construction
of open string field theory and then developed the field theory
of closed strings.
Zwiebach has also made important contributions to the subject of
D-branes with exceptional
symmetry and to the subject of tachyon
condensation.
In 1999, Ashoke Sen
and Zwiebach showed that open string field theory can be used to
calculate the tachyon
potential and to confirm the existence of a critical point at
the expected depth. The developments that followed led to vacuum
string field theory, a new version of open string field theory
based on the vacuum of the tachyon. More recently Zwiebach studied the cosmology of closed string tachyons
and, together with Okawa and Berkovits, developed heterotic string field theory. Zwiebach is currently working on exact analytic solutions in open string field theory.
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Teaching Interests
Professor Zwiebach designed and taught a new course in the MIT
undergraduate curriculum:
String Theory for Undergraduates [8.251], first
offered in the 2002 Spring term. This course gives a serious introduction
to string theory, geared at the level of juniors and seniors. Based
on the lectures from this course, Zwiebach wrote an undergraduate
textbook, A First
Course in String Theory, published by Cambridge University
Press.
Professor Zwiebach was awarded the MIT School of Science 2003 Teaching
Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. His citation read:
"[for] making a topic as complex as string theory accessible
to undergraduates; for his uncompromising commitment to clarity
and organization in his classroom; and for his ability to provide
a truly transforming experience to his students."
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Biographical Sketch
Barton Zwiebach is presently Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Zwiebach was born in Lima, Peru. His undergraduate
work was done in Peru, where he obtained a degree in Electrical
Engineering from the Universidad
Nacional de Ingenieria in 1977.
His graduate work was in Physics, at the California Institute of
Technology. Zwiebach obtained his Ph.D. in 1983, working under the
supervision of Murray
Gell-Mann. He has held postdoctoral positions at the University
of California, Berkeley, and at MIT, where he became an Assistant
Professor of Physics in 1987, and a permanent member of the faculty
in 1994.
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Selected Publications
Professor Zwiebach'spublications are available on the SPIRES
HEP Literature Database.
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