In its first edition, the Galileo Galilei Medal is for the Argentine physicist Juan Martín Maldacena

Everything in the idyllic Arcetri, located in the hills near the center of Florence, Italy, is imbued with the spirit of the eminent astronomer, physicist, engineer and mathematician Galileo Galilei. Where the house in which he died three hundred and seventy-seven years ago (January 8, 1642) is still preserved, a prize will be awarded to his name to the Argentinean Juan Martín Maldacena, l & # 39; one of the most outstanding figures of the global physics of the last decades.

According to the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) of Italy, Maldacena will receive on May 2 the first edition of the Galileo Galilei Medal, a distinction that begins in 2019 every two years.

The distinction will be offered to one or more three scientists who have achieved significant results in the field of theoretical physics in the 25 years preceding the date of award. Thus, the Lorentz Medal, awarded last year, earned Maldacena all the highest distinctions awarded to a researcher, with the exception of the Nobel Prize, which is only granted to experienced advances, which, in The case of his Theories proved particularly difficult.

"Professor Maldacena was the first to propose in 1997 a precise holographic correspondence between the theory of gravity and that of the fields", explains the INFN in his statement, "in the image of a hologram which, even if it is two-dimensional, contains all the information relating to the three-dimensional object that Thus, a quantum field theory defined at the edge of the space-time makes it possible to obtain information on the gravity present everywhere ". And further, he adds: "It is a great honor to organize in Arcetri the Galileo Galilei medal ceremony for such an outstanding researcher." The Galileo Galilei Institute, now called the National Center for Advanced Studies, is the first in Europe to have been created to organize advanced workshops in theoretical physics of fundamental interactions. He organizes meetings on the theory of strings and fields, the theoretical physics of elementary and nuclear particles, statistical mechanics, astroparticle physics and cosmology.

"This distinction has a special flavor," says Maldacena, a native of Princeton, "Galileo is considered the father of modern science.
Dialogue on the two systems of the worldIt's very interesting because of his clear way of discussing. This is a window to the thought of this time. "

"It's a great recognition," says Esteban Roulet, a researcher with the particle and field physics group at the Bariloche Atomic Center. "This is the first time this medal has been awarded." It should be noted that Juan Martin was the natural candidate for this award and he greatly contributed to the understanding of the different interactions between particles, including establishing a deep relationship between how gravity is described (curvature of space – time) and how others are described interactions (resulting from the exchange of certain mediators between charged particles, such as that photons between electrons, against an electromagnetic force, or gluons between quarks, against a powerful force.) "In addition to its famous conjecture, Roulet emphasizes, Maldacena also made a fundamental contribution" to the study of black holes and the fate of information likely to be conveyed by the objects that fall into it ". His works are a source of permanent inspiration for researchers from all walks of life. the world and have had a profound impact in many areas of physics ".

Born in 1968, in the Caballito district of Buenos Aires, and trained at the UBA and the Balseiro Institute, Maldacena obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University and then did postdoctoral studies. at Rutgers and Harvard, where he became a professor of physics for life. the youngest in the history of this last university. Since 2001, he is a professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), the same school where Einstein worked.

In 1997, he was the first to propose a fundamental relationship between the two theories governing modern physics: quantum field theory and quantum gravity. The mathematical shortcut presented at a scientific meeting that year (a book published under the title:
The big limit in N of superconformal field theories and supergravity) is what is now called "conjecture (or duality) of Maldacena". Only between sending for publication in
arXiv.org, November 27, 1997, and the following year, at the time of the congress, triggered more than 100 "replicas". Today, this signed work (like the Theory of Relativity) holds the theoretical physics record with over 15,000 citations, about two per day over the last twenty years.

The two major advances in theoretical physics of the 20th century are quantum theory, which explains the subatomic world, and Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes gravitation and the dynamics of the universe, the Big Bang, galaxies and black holes. The duality of Maldacena allowed us to begin to understand the strange world of quantum gravity with known tools, such as quantum physics without gravity, and to unify the central branches of theoretical physics.

In the words of Maldacena himself, "A simple way to explain this correspondence in certain specific cases is that there is a correct theory to describe them, but it is difficult to do the calculations." Then, we replace it with another one where it is easy to make the calculations thanks to Sometimes, in physics, we use models "toys" or "approximation of the spherical cow", although in this case, it This is the approach of "hyperbolic cow" – he jokes – since we work in a five-dimensional space, which is hyperbolic. "

With his usual humility, he explains that, to continue working, "the biggest problem is perhaps to be able to study and understand the ideas of others, without believing that you all know them." Young people are generally better at this. Another important element is that most of the progress of science is to progress gradually, it is like climbing a mountain, sometimes on the road, you have a very spectacular view, then you point this place on the road. as a special point. But we get there by the road, and when we continue, it may or may not be another spectacular show … In this badogy, the spectacular point of view is what we could call a "masterful idea" ".

At present, the scientist is advancing on a very complex area that he describes as "the relationship between quantum space-time and particle theories". To understand it, he proposes an badogy: "Imagine a liquid," he explains. "We would normally describe it with the help of hydrodynamics, but a more fundamental and microscopic description involves the molecules that make up the fluid." These molecules are governed by very different laws of hydrodynamics. In this badogy, liquid is space-time and molecules are the particles that live on the boundary of this space-time. My research revolved around this relationship. He adds, "I'm still trying to understand the compatibility of black holes with quantum mechanics." Recently, a group of physicists studying condensed matter have discovered a very simple model of strongly interacting particles with similar characteristics. at some holes, I've studied it to better understand it and see what lessons can be learned. "

Among the other distinctions, Maldacena was one of nine winners of the first edition of the Yuri Milner Prize for Fundamental Physics (endowed with three million dollars, which he generously donated to Balseiro), the Dannie Heineman Research Prize mathematical. Physics, the Paul Dirac medal, the Pius XI medal awarded by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to physicists under 45 and the Lorentz Medal, of which eleven were subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize. In 2016, the Thomson Reuters Science and Intellectual Property Unit included it in a study on "The World's Most Influential Scientists".