Claus Kalevi Montonen (born 1946) is a Finnish theoretical physicist, most known for his work with British physicist

David Olive David Ian Olive ( ; 16 April 1937 – 7 November 2012) was a British theoretical physicist. Olive made fundamental contributions to string theory and duality theory, he is particularly known for his work on the GSO projection and Montonen–Ol ...

in proposing the

Montonen–Olive duality Montonen–Olive duality or electric–magnetic duality is the oldest known example of strong–weak duality or S-duality according to current terminology. It generalizes the electro-magnetic symmetry of Maxwell's equations by stating that magne ...

Life

Claus Montonen received his MSc from the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

in 1968 and his PhD at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1974, where he was taught by David Olive before he left for CERN. He held research fellowships at Orsay,

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

and

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

. From 1974 he has held various research and teaching positions at the

and

Helsinki Institute of Physics The Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP, fi, Fysiikan tutkimuslaitos, sv, Forskningsinstitutet för fysik) is a physics research institute operated jointly by University of Helsinki, Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä, Lappeenranta Univer ...

Publications

In 1977 while at CERN Montonen, together with Olive, made the remarkable conjecture that there should exist an electromagnetic dual theory in which the roles of

magnetic monopoles In particle physics, a magnetic monopole is a hypothetical elementary particle that is an isolated magnet with only one magnetic pole (a north pole without a south pole or vice versa). A magnetic monopole would have a net north or south "magneti ...

and

gauge bosons In particle physics, a gauge boson is a bosonic elementary particle that acts as the force carrier for elementary fermions. Elementary particles, whose interactions are described by a gauge theory, interact with each other by the exchange of gauge ...

are interchanged. The Montonen-Olive duality was later found to emerge from a deeper web of dualities underlying

M-theory M-theory is a theory in physics that unifies all consistent versions of superstring theory. Edward Witten first conjectured the existence of such a theory at a string theory conference at the University of Southern California in 1995. Witten's ...

, ushering in the second superstring revolution of the mid 1990s, through the work of

Ed Witten Edward Witten (born August 26, 1951) is an American mathematical and theoretical physicist. He is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Witten is a researcher in string theory, q ...

and others.

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Claus Montonen, University of Helsinki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montonen, Claus 1942 births 20th-century Finnish physicists Theoretical physicists People associated with CERN Academic staff of the University of Helsinki String theorists Alumni of the University of Cambridge Living people