Warren Siegel ( ) is a theoretical physicist specializing in supersymmetric

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 ...

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 ...

. He is a professor at the

C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics __NOTOC__ The C. N. Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics (YITP) is a research center at Stony Brook University. 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 th ...

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 New York.

Background

Siegel did his undergraduate and graduate work at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, graduating with a PhD in 1977. Following his graduation he worked at several postdoctoral appointments at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(7/77-7/79),

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

(3/79-6/79), the

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 ...

(8/79-8/80),

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

(8/80-8/82) and

(8/82-8/85). He served as an assistant professor at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

from 1985 to 1987 before becoming a professor at Stony Brook University in 1987.

Research

His early work involved the use of superspace to treat supersymmetric theories, including supergravity. Along with S.J. Gates, M.T. Grisaru, and M. Rocek he discovered methods for both deriving classical actions, and performing Feynman graph calculations more simply than those in nonsupersymmetric theories. He discovered a new version of dimensional regularization ("dimensional reduction") which preserves supersymmetry, and is also commonly used in

quantum chromodynamics In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type ...

(QCD). The first supersymmetric nonrenormalization theorem was introduced by Grisaru, Siegel and Rocek in their 1979 paper "Improved methods for supergraphs", which has close to 700 citations. During the 1980s, Siegel invented covariant string field theory and began to pioneer research in string field theory. With

Barton Zwiebach Barton Zwiebach (born ''Barton Zwiebach Cantor'', October 4, 1954) is a Peruvian string theorist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Work Zwiebach's undergraduate work was in Electrical Engineering at the Universidad Nac ...

he generalized methods outside of string theory to give a universal free field theory action for arbitrary representations of the Poincaré group in arbitrary dimensions. He also introduced new gauge symmetries of classical mechanics useful for strings. In subsequent work, Siegel made contributions to physicist's understanding of duality, conformal invariance,

AdS/CFT In theoretical physics, the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence, sometimes called Maldacena duality or gauge/gravity duality, is a conjectured relationship between two kinds of physical theories. On one side are anti-de Sitter s ...

, the

random matrix In probability theory and mathematical physics, a random matrix is a matrix-valued random variable—that is, a matrix in which some or all elements are random variables. Many important properties of physical systems can be represented mathemat ...

approach to string theory, twistor superstrings, and other topics in string theory. His most recent work has been on N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills.

Textbooks

Siegel authored an extensive (1078pg) textbook called ''Fields'', now in its 4th edition. It is notable in that it follows a very modern approach and incorporates many topics (including string theory) not found in other field theory textbooks. He advocates a "symmetry-based" approach and uses this in his Quantum Field Theory I & II classes. The textbook is also notable in that it is completely an "electronic book" and can be downloaded for free from Siegel's website. He also offers his 1988 textbook ''Introduction to String Field Theory'' for free online. Along with S.J. Gates, M.T. Grisaru and M. Rocek he co-authored the 1983 textbook ''Superspace, or One thousand and one lessons in supersymmetry''. It can now be downloaded for free from

arXiv.org arXiv (pronounced "archive"—the X represents the Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not peer review. It consists of s ...

. He served as a co-editor of the '' Concise Encyclopedia of Supersymmetry and Noncommutative Structures in Mathematics and Physics''.

References

External links

Siegel's homepageSiegel's papers on INSPIRE-HEPExtensive summary of his research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegel, Warren Living people 21st-century American physicists American string theorists Stony Brook University faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni Year of birth missing (living people)