[ Bern University | Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics | Institute for Theoretical Physics | Gravity and String Theory Group]

Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics

Gravity and String Theory Group

Welcome to the homepage of Matthias Blau

I am Professor for Theoretical Physics at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Bern and Head of the Gravity and String Theory Group.
I am also Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science of the University of Neuchâtel, where I continue to teach at the Institut de Physique (the Neuchâtel theory and particle physics groups having moved to Bern in August 2008).

Research Interests

My research interests include, in general,

String Theory and Quantum Gravity
General Relativity
Topological Field Theory
Geometrical and Topological Aspects of QFT

and more recently, and specifically,

Plane Waves and Penrose Limits in Supergravity and String Theory
Singularities and Time-dependent Backgrounds in Quantum Gravity

Publications and Lecture Notes

If you want to know more about this, take a look at my

List of Publications

and/or at the recent review article

String theory as a theory of quantum gravity: a status report

I have written lecture notes on a variety of different topics over the years. Since some of them appear to be quite popular (in particular the lecture notes on General Relativity) I am making them available again:

Lecture Notes

Teaching

Autumn 2008: Bern
- General Relativity: The course follows, with jumps and omissions, my lecture notes.
Spring 2009: Neuchâtel
- Classical Field Theory: Topics to be covered: Differential Equations (Frobenius), Legendre, Bessel, Hypergeometric etc.; Distributions; Classical Field Theory proper (Variational Calculus for Fields, Noether's Theorem, Energy, Solitons, ...)
- Quantum Mechanics II: Topics to be covered: Magnetic Field, Spin and Angular Momentum, Addition of Angular Momenta, Stationary and Time-dependent Perturbation Theory etc.
Autumn 2009: Bern
- General Relativity: The course will follow, with jumps and omissions, my lecture notes.
  Webpage with further information: Exercises, Solutions, Recommended Literature etc. (internal link).
- Note: to access a UniBe internal link from outside UniBe, connect to webvpn.unibe.ch, sign in with your campus account username and password, and start Network Connect. This will assign you a UniBe-domain IP number which allows you to access such internal pages.
- Special Topics Course: Introduction to Quantum Field Theory in Curved Space-Time
  Webpage with further information: Prerequisites, Timetable, Outline, Literature etc.
Spring 2010: ~~Neuchâtel~~ Bern
- Géométrie et Symétries en Physique (Geometry and Symmetries in Phyics): Elements of Differential Geometry; Matrix Lie groups and Lie algebras
- Attention: le cours aura lieu a Berne les mardi 14h -- 16h (salle B78)
Spring 2010: Bern
- Klassische Feldtheorie (Classical Field Theory): Geometry of Minkowski Space, Covariant Formulation of Special Relativity and Electrodynamics, Scalar Fields, Noether Theorem for Field Theories, Energy-Momentum Tensor, maybe some elements of Cosmology and General Relativity
- Vorlesung Mittwoch 10h -- 12h; Übungen Dienstag 13h -- 14h