Subir Sachdev

Last updated

Subir Sachdev
R36C4122s.jpg
Born2 December 1961
New Delhi, India
Alma mater
Known for Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Condensed matter theory
Thesis Frustration and Order in Rapidly Cooled Metals  (1985)
Doctoral advisor D. R. Nelson
Website sachdev.physics.harvard.edu

Subir Sachdev is Herchel Smith Professor of physics [1] at Harvard University specializing in condensed matter. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2014, received the Lars Onsager Prize from the American Physical Society and the Dirac Medal from the ICTP in 2018, and was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society ForMemRS in 2023. He was a co-editor of the Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics 2017–2019, [2] [3] and is Editor-in-Chief of Reports on Progress in Physics since 2022.

Contents

Sachdev's research describes the consequences of quantum entanglement on the macroscopic properties of natural systems. He has described diverse varieties of entangled states of quantum matter, and of their behavior near quantum phase transitions. Many of these contributions have been linked to experiments, especially to the rich phase diagrams of the high temperature superconductors. Sachdev's research has exposed connections between the nature of quantum entanglement in certain laboratory materials, and the quantum entanglement in astrophysical black holes, and these connections have led to insights on the entropy and radiation of black holes.

Career

Sachdev attended school at St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore and Kendriya Vidyalaya, ASC, Bangalore. He attended college at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi for a year. He transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a B.S. in Physics. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Harvard University. He held professional positions at Bell Labs (1985–1987) and at Yale University (1987–2005), where he was a Professor of Physics, before returning to Harvard, where he is now the Herchel Smith Professor of Physics. He has also held visiting positions as the Cenovus Energy James Clerk Maxwell Chair in Theoretical Physics [4] at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Dr. Homi J. Bhabha Chair Professorship [5] at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Flatiron Institute since 2019, and Miguel Virasoro Visiting International Chair, at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics since 2024. He has also been on the Physical Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize from 2018. [6]

Research

Sachdev has studied the nature of quantum entanglement in two-dimensional antiferromagnets, as reviewed in his book Quantum Phases of Matter. [7] This work introduced

Sachdev has developed the theory of quantum criticality, elucidating its implications for experimental observations on materials at non-zero temperature. In this context, he proposed a solvable model of complex quantum entanglement in a metal which does not have any particle-like excitations in 1993: [8] an extension of this is now called the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model (SYK). These works have led to a theory of quantum phase transitions in metals in the presence of impurity-induced disorder, and a universal theory of strange metals.

Sachdev's theories apply to a variety of correlated electron materials, including the copper-oxide materials exhibiting high temperature superconductivity. Features of the `pseudogap' phase of these materials are addressed by his works on the interplay between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity, using the theory of critical quantum spin liquids without quasiparticles.

A connection between the structure of quantum entanglement in the SYK model and in black holes was first proposed by Sachdev in 2010, [9] and these connections have led to developments in the quantum theory of black holes.

Awards and honors

Publications

Books

References

  1. "Subir Sachdev. Herchel Smith Professor of Physics, Harvard University". Official website.
  2. "Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Planning Editorial Committee – Volume 8, 2017". Annual Reviews Directory. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  3. "Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Planning Editorial Committee – Volume 10, 2019". Annual Reviews Directory. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  4. "Subir Sachdev, Perimeter Institute".
  5. "Endowment Chairs at TIFR".
  6. "Infosys Prize – Jury 2020". www.infosys-science-foundation.com. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  7. Sachdev, Subir. "Quantum Phases of Matter". Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
  8. Sachdev, Subir; Ye, Jinwu (24 May 1993). "Gapless spin-fluid ground state in a random quantum Heisenberg magnet". Physical Review Letters. 70 (21): 3339–3342. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.3339.
  9. Sachdev, Subir (4 October 2010). "Holographic Metals and the Fractionalized Fermi Liquid". Physical Review Letters. 105 (15): 151602. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.151602.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  10. "LeRoy Apker Award Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  11. "Past Fellows". sloan.org. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  12. "APS Fellow archive". APS. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  13. "All Fellows – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  14. "Nine Leading Researchers Join Stephen Hawking as Distinguished Research Chairs at PI". Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
  15. "Condensed matter physicist Subir Sachdev to deliver Salam Distinguished Lectures 2014".
  16. "Lorentz Chair".
  17. "Subir Sachdev NAS member".
  18. "Dirac Medal awarded to Professor Subir Sachdev".
  19. "2018 Lars Onsager Prize Recipient".
  20. "ICTP – Dirac Medallists 2018". www.ictp.it.
  21. "INSA Foreign Fellows elected".
  22. "New 2019 Academy Members Announced". 17 April 2019.
  23. "IAS honorary fellows".
  24. "Solvay Institutes". www.solvayinstitutes.be. Archived from the original on 27 January 2025. Retrieved 19 September 2025.
  25. "Raman Chair | About IASc | Indian Academy of Sciences". www.ias.ac.in. Retrieved 19 September 2025.