Matthew Headrick

I am a member of the Brandeis Quantum and Gravitational Theory Group. My research spans a variety of areas of theoretical and mathematical physics, including string theory, quantum field theory, quantum gravity, general relativity, holography, geometry, quantum information theory, statistical mechanics, and convex optimization. Recently, the main focus of my work has been on the use of concepts and tools from quantum information theory, such as entanglement entropies, to better understand field theories, gravitational theories, and holographic dualities connecting them.

My work is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Unfortunately, due to uncertainties in the long-term funding situation, I will not be accepting any new Ph.D. students for 2027 admissions.

I am also currently serving as chair of the Brandeis Physics Department (Martin Fisher School of Physics)..

More about me and my work:

• • My C.V. (including a list of my publications)

  • My publications on arXiv and Inspire

  • My Brandeis Physics Department page

  • My Brandeis University page

  • My YouTube page

On this website you can find:

• Presentations of my research area and my own work, at levels ranging from popular science to research seminars

• My useful Mathematica packages

Also perhaps of interest:

• My compendium of useful formulas

• My lecture notes, for first-year graduate students, on scaling, dimensional analysis, and rough physical reasoning