Olaf Hohm

Olaf Hohm is a German theoretical physicist and professor at Humboldt University of Berlin. He has worked on massive gravity, double field theory, exceptional field theory and applications of ${\displaystyle L_{\infty }}$-algebras in field theory.^[1]

Education

Hohm earned his PhD from the University of Hamburg in 2006, where his advisor was Henning Samtleben.^[2]

Career

Following his PhD, Hohm conducted research at Utrecht University, University of Groningen, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[3] In 2009, together with Eric Bergshoeff [de] and Paul Townsend, he developed a consistent non-linear theory of massive gravity in 2+1 dimensions, called "New Massive Gravity", extending the linear theory of Fierz and Pauli from 1939.^[4]

In 2010, together with Chris Hull and Barton Zwiebach, he co-developed double field theory.^[5]

From 2011 to 2013, Hohm served as Akademischer Rat at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, after which he was awarded a Heisenberg Fellowship and returned to work at MIT and the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.^[6][7] In 2013, he and Samtleben formulated exceptional field theory.^[8]

In 2018, he received an ERC Consolidator Grant and joined Humboldt University of Berlin, where he became a professor in 2022.^[9]

References

1. "Olaf Hohm". INSPIRE. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
2. Hohm, (TYPE=name) Olaf. "Massive Kaluza-Klein-Theorien und ihre spontan gebrochenen Symmetrien". www2.physnet.uni-hamburg.de.
3. "Members - Gravity, Quantum Field Theory & Mathematical Physics - HU Berlin - Institute of Physics". www2.physik.hu-berlin.de. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
4. Bergshoeff, Eric A.; Hohm, Olaf; Townsend, Paul K. (21 May 2009). "Massive Gravity in Three Dimensions". Physical Review Letters. 102 (20) 201301. arXiv:0901.1766. Bibcode:2009PhRvL.102t1301B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.201301. PMID 19519014.
5. Hohm, Olaf; Hull, Chris; Zwiebach, Barton (August 2010). "Generalized metric formulation of double field theory". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2010 (8) 8. arXiv:1006.4823. Bibcode:2010JHEP...08..008H. doi:10.1007/JHEP08(2010)008.
6. "Auszeichnung - Vier Consolidator-Grants für LMU". Informationsdienst Wissenschaft. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
7. "DFG - GEPRIS - String-Dualitäten und verallgemeinerte Raumzeiten". gepris.dfg.de.
8. Hohm, Olaf; Samtleben, Henning (27 March 2014). "Exceptional field theory. I.${\displaystyle {\mathrm {E} }_{6(6)}}$-covariant form of M-theory and type IIB". Physical Review D. 89 (6) 066016. arXiv:1312.0614. Bibcode:2014PhRvD..89f6016H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.89.066016.
9. "ERC Grants". Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

External links

• Olaf Hohm's homepage at Humboldt University of Berlin