__NOTOC__ The C. N. Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics (YITP) is a research center at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

. In 1965, it was the vision of then University President J.S. Toll and Physics Department chair T.A. Pond to create an institute for theoretical physics and invite the famous physicist

Chen Ning Yang Yang Chen-Ning or Chen-Ning Yang (; born 1 October 1922), also known as C. N. Yang or by the English name Frank Yang, is a Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge the ...

from

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

to serve as its director with the Albert Einstein Professorship of Physics. While the center is often referred to as "YITP", this can be confusing as YITP also stands for the

Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics The is a research institute in the field of theoretical physics, attached to Kyoto University in Japan. It was inaugurated in 1952. While the center is often referred to as "YITP", this can be confusing as YITP also stands for the C. N. Yang Inst ...

in Japan. The active research areas of the institute include:

Quantum Field Theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...

String Theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interac ...

Mathematical Physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and t ...

and

Statistical Mechanics In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic be ...

. The YITP is situated on top of the Math Tower, home to the Department of Mathematics which is connected to the Department of Physics and the

Simons Center for Geometry and Physics The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics is a center for theoretical physics and mathematics at Stony Brook University in New York. The focus of the center is mathematical physics and the interface of geometry and physics. It was founded in 2 ...

—therefore the physicists enjoy intimate interactions with the mathematicians.RTG Program in Geometry and Physics
/ref> This close relationship dates back to the friendship of

C.N. Yang Yang Chen-Ning or Chen-Ning Yang (; born 1 October 1922), also known as C. N. Yang or by the English name Frank Yang, is a Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge t ...

and the mathematician

James Harris Simons James Harris Simons (; born 25 April 1938) is an American mathematician, billionaire hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. He is the founder of Renaissance Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York. He and his f ...

. Founded in 1967, YITP celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017. During the time span, the YITP has produced significant results in different areas, most notably was the discovery of

Supergravity In theoretical physics, supergravity (supergravity theory; SUGRA for short) is a modern field theory that combines the principles of supersymmetry and general relativity; this is in contrast to non-gravitational supersymmetric theories such as ...

in 1976 by

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (; born October 26, 1938) is a Dutch physicist. He is now a distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in the United States. Van Nieuwenhuizen is best known for his discovery of supergravity with Sergio Ferrara ...

Daniel Z. Freedman Daniel Zissel Freedman (born 1939 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an American theoretical physicist. He is an Emeritus Professor of Physics and Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is currently a visiting profe ...

, and

Sergio Ferrara Sergio Ferrara (born May 2, 1945) is an Italian physicist working on theoretical physics of elementary particles and mathematical physics. He is renowned for the discovery of theories introducing supersymmetry as a symmetry of elementary particles ...

, who were all working there at the time.

Directors

- first director (1967-1999) and 1957 Nobel Laureate. *

- second director (1999-2002) and co-discoverer of supergravity. * George Sterman - third director (2002-) and noted field theorist

Notable tenants

Luis Álvarez-Gaumé Luis Álvarez-Gaumé (born 1955 in Madrid) is a Spanish theoretical physicist who works on string theory and quantum gravity. Luis Álvarez-Gaumé obtained his PhD in 1981 from Stony Brook University and worked from 1981 to 1984 at Harvard Unive ...

- string theory *

Gerald E. Brown Gerald Edward Brown (born July 22, 1926 in Brookings, South Dakota; † May 31, 2013 in New York City) was an American theoretical physicist who worked on nuclear physics and astrophysics. Since 1968 he had been a professor at the Stony Brook Un ...

- nuclear physics, theoretical astrophysics *

Michael Creutz Michael John Creutz (born November 24, 1944) is an American theoretical physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory specializing in lattice gauge theory and computational physics. Background Creutz was born in 1944 in Los Alamos, New Mexico. His f ...

- lattice gauge theory, computational physics *

Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AF ...

- string theory *

Vladimir Korepin Vladimir E. Korepin (born 1951) is a professor at the C. N. Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Stony Brook University. Korepin made research contributions in several areas of mathematics and physics. Educational background Korepin c ...

- mathematical physics *

Barry M. McCoy Barry Malcolm McCoy (born 14 December 1940 in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American physicist, known for his contributions to classical statistical mechanics, integrable models and conformal field theories. He earned a B.Sc. from California Instit ...

- statistical mechanics and conformal field theory *

Nikita Nekrasov Nikita Alexandrovich Nekrasov (russian: Ники́та Алекса́ндрович Некра́сов; born 10 April 1973) is a mathematical and theoretical physicist at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics and C.N.Yang Institute for The ...

- mathematical physics *

- field theory, co-discoverer of supergravity. * Martin Roček - mathematical physics, string theory *

Warren Siegel Warren Siegel ( ) is a theoretical physicist specializing in supersymmetric quantum field theory and string theory. He is a professor at the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University in New York. Background Siegel did ...

- field theory, string theory * George Sterman - field theory, quantum chromodynamics *

Alexander Zamolodchikov Alexander Borisovich Zamolodchikov (russian: Алекса́ндр Бори́сович Замоло́дчиков; born September 18, 1952) is a Russian physicist, known for his contributions to condensed matter physics, two-dimensional conformal ...

- condensed matter physics, field theory

References

External links

YITP website 8th Simons Workshop in Mathematics and Physics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, C. N. Physics institutes Stony Brook University Brookhaven, New York Research institutes in New York (state) 1967 establishments in New York (state) Theoretical physics institutes