Orfeu Bertolami ( São Paulo, Brazil, 1959) is a theoretical physicist who works in problems of

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

, cosmology, general relativity and

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vi ...

. He worked at Instituto Superior Técnico in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal from 1991 to 2010. He is currently professor at Departamento de Física e Astronomia of the Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto. He is the author of a book to raise the awareness of the public on science about the history of ideas in astronomy, cosmology and theories of gravity (in Portuguese) and of a technical text on the aspects of gravity and propulsion in space published by the European Space Agency: * ''O Livro das Escolhas Cósmicas'', Editora Gradiva 2006 * ''Gravity Control and Possible Influence on Space Propulsion: A Scientific Study'', European Space Agency 2002 In particular, Bertolami studie
baryogengesis
th
cosmological constant problem
and its connection with th
equivalence principle
th
generalized Chaplygin gas model
of unification of Dark Energy (to explain the cosmic acceleration) and Dark Matter (to explain the flattening of the rotation curves of galaxies) and some

Modified models of gravity Modified may refer to: * ''Modified'' (album), the second full-length album by Save Ferris *Modified racing, or "Modifieds", an American automobile racing genre See also * Modification (disambiguation) Modification may refer to: * Modification ...

wit
non-minimal coupling between curvature and matter
He has also worked on the Pioneer Anomaly, which was shown to be most likely due to
on-board thermal effects
an
reflection of the generated radiation
Most recent work concern
extensions of quantum mechanics based on phase-space noncommutativity

External links

Publications according to the INSPIRE High Energy Physics Database
* Contributors to Physical cosmology Brazilian physicists Cosmologists Jewish Brazilian writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Physicist-stub