Hermann Nicolai (born 11 July 1952 in Friedberg) is a German theoretical physicist and director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam-Golm. In the mid 1980s, Nicolai and Bernard de Wit developed the "N = 8 supergravity theory", which arises from the dimensional reduction of the maximally supersymmetrical d = 11 supergravity to four space-time dimensions (d = 4) and for which, from many plausible viewpoints, a maximal supersymmetry has a supergravity theory with a graviton and no particle with a spin greater than 2.
In the 2000s, Nicolai and colleagues investigated the behavior of gravitational equations close to a gravitational singularity such as the Big Bang; these investigation lead to models with chaotic dynamical billiards, in the case of classical general relativity theory in three dimensions. In the case of eleven-dimensional supergravity, these investigations to ten-dimensional "cosmological billiards", and the infinite-dimensional hyperbolic Kac Moody algebra E 10 appears as a symmetry. E 10 contains the largest finite-dimensional exceptional semi-simple complex Lie algebra E 8 , which has been studied as a candidate for a grand unified theory. Nicolai proposed a purely algebraic description of the universe in cosmological space-time regions near the singularity (within the Planck time) using the E 10-symmetry, whereby the space-time dimensions result as an emergent phenomenon.
Nicolai has also done research on a special role for E 10 in M-Theory.
He and de Wit also constructed maximally gauged (N = 16) supergravity theories in three dimensions and their symmetries. Furthermore, Nicolai and colleagues examined generalizations of the variables of loop quantum gravity to supergravity / string theory.
The lectures are intended to provide an introduction to Quantum Field Theory at an elementary level. In particular, the following topics will be treated: 1, Basic principle of QFT; 2, Representation theory of the Poincaré group; 3, The free scalar field; 4, The free Dirac field 5, Interacting field theories; 6, Supersymmetry; 7, S-Matrix. The emphasis will be more on general concepts than on specific applications. Therefore, for most of the lectures, only a knowledge of quantum mechanics and special relativity will be assumed.
1997- Cern Geneva
