Laboratory of Theoretical Physics
Gravitation and cosmology, black holes, particles and fields, quantum computing, mathematical physics
In particular:
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extensions of Einstein's general relativity, geometric foundations of gravity, theoretical cosmology: inflation, dark energy, dark matter, gravitational waves;
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phenomenology of electroweak and strong interactions in the Standard Model and beyond, taking into account mass and polarisation effects; group theoretical foundations and chaotic chains;
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quantum computing.
- Center of excellence "Foundations of the universe" (2024-2030) TK202 T. Koivisto, M. J. Guzman, M. Hohmann, D. Iosifidis, L. Järv, P. Kuusk, M. Saal.
- Team grant "Space-time-matter" (2025-2029) PRG2608 T. Koivisto, M. Hohmann, L. Järv, P. Kuusk, M. Saal.
- Starting grant "Theoretical Frameworks for Numerical Modified Gravity" (2024-2028) PSG910 M. J. Guzmán.
- Postdoc grant "Inflationary Nonminimal Models: An Investigative Exploration" (2024-2026) MOB3JD1233 S. Karamitsos.
- Postdoc grant "On the search of modified images of illuminated compact objects" (2025-2026) MOB3JD1241 M. Guerrero.
- European Quantum Computer Project OpenSuperQ+ (2023-2026) V. Palge.
- R&D project "CERN Science Consortium of Estonia" (2023-2025) RVTT3 S. Groote.
- COST network "Testing Fundamental Physics with Seismology" (FuSe) L. Järv, V. Karanasou, S. Vidal.
- COST network "Bridging high and low energies in search of quantum gravity" (BridgeQG) M. Hohmann, L. Järv, V. Karanasou, M. J. Guzmán.
- COST network "Fundamental challenges in theoretical physics" (THEORY-CHALLENGES), M. Hohmann, L. Järv, V. Karanasou, T. Koivisto.
- COST network "Cartan geometry, Lie, Integrable Systems, quantum group Theories for Applications" (CaLISTA), S. Groote, M. Hohmann.
- COST network "Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics" (CosmoVerse) M. Hohmann, M. J. Guzmán, L. Järv, T. Koivisto, L. Pati.
- COST network "Relativistic Quantum Information" (RQI) S.Groote, V. Palge
- Collaboration network CERN Baltic Group (CBG) S. Groote, L. Järv.
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| Laur Järv Head of the Laboratory Associate Professor in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 53416324 Office: B308 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE, Google Scholar, Publons Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace |
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| Tomi Sebastian Koivisto Visiting Professor in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 737 4749 Office: B315 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE, Google Scholar, Scopus Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace |
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| Stefan Groote Associate Professor in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 737 5573 Office: B319 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE, Google Scholar, Publons Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace Links: Personal homepage |
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| María José Guzmán Research Fellow in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Office: B303 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE, Google Scholar Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace Links: Personal homepage |
| Manuel Hohmann Associate Professor in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 737 4749 Office: B320 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace Links: Personal homepage | |
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| Piret Kuusk Associate Professor E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 737 4621 Office: B318 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace |
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| Margus Saal Associate Professor in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 5094875 Office: B307 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace |
| Matti Selg Associate Professor E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 737 4789 Office: B322 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: Researchgate Teaching: TÜ ÕIS | |
| Priidik Gallagher Research Fellow in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Office: B314 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE | |
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| Mercè Guerrero Román Research Fellow in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Office: B314 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE |
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| Damianos Iosifidis Research Fellow in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE Teaching: TÜ ÕIS |
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| Sotirios Karamitsos Research Fellow in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Office: B314 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE |
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| Veiko Palge Research Fellow in Theoretical Physics E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +372 737 4761 Office: B308 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: Google Scholar Teaching: TÜ ÕIS Supervision: UT DSpace |
| Armin van de Venn Visiting Research Fellow E-mail: [email protected] Office: B314 Publikatsioonid: inSPIRE | |
| João Luís de Figueiredo Rosa Visitor Publikatsioonid: inSPIRE | |
| Purnendu Karmakar Visitor Publikatsioonid: inSPIRE | |
| Laxmipriya Pati Visitor Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Ilaria Andrei Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B321 Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Arpan Chatterjee Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B321 Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Roald Heinrich Ivask Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B302 | |
| Vasiliki Karanasou Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B312 Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Paul Martin Kull Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B302 Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Joosep Lember Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B302 Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Maria Naeem Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B312 CV, projects: ETIS Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Konstantinos Pallikaris PhD student in Physics Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Sofía Vidal Junior research fellow in Physics (PhD student) Office: B312 Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Luxi Zheng PhD student in Physics Office: B321 Publications: inSPIRE | |
| Marie Femke Jaarma MSc student in Physics Office: B310 | |
| Mattias Märka MSc student in Physics Office: B310 | |
| Bert Siimon MSc student in Physics Office: B310 | |
| Hanna Liis Tamm MSc student in Physics Office: B302 Publications: inSPIRE |
- L. Järv, P. Kuusk, M. Saal, O. Vilson, "Invariant quantities in the scalar-tensor theories of gravitation", Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 024041 [at inSPIRE].
- L. Järv, K. Kannike, L. Marzola, A. Racioppi, M. Raidal, M. Rünkla, M. Saal, H. Veermäe, "Frame-Independent Classification of Single-Field Inflationary Models", Phys. Rev. Lett. 118 (2017) 151302 [at inSPIRE].
- M. Hohmann, L. Järv, U. Ualikhanova, "Covariant formulation of scalar-torsion gravity", Phys. Rev. D 97 (2018) 104011 [at inSPIRE].
- L. Järv, M. Rünkla, M. Saal, O. Vilson, "Nonmetricity formulation of general relativity and its scalar-tensor extension", Phys. Rev. D 97 (2018) 124025 [at inSPIRE].
- M. Hohmann, L. Järv, M. Krššák, C. Pfeifer, "Modified teleparallel theories of gravity in symmetric spacetimes", Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 8, 084002, [at inSPIRE].
- V. Palge, J. Dunningham, S. Groote, H. Liivat, "Relativistic entanglement of two particles driven by continuous product momenta" Phys. Rev. A 98 (2018) 052322 [at inSPIRE].
- M. Frasca, A. Ghoshal, S. Groote, "Confinement in QCD and generic Yang-Mills theories with matter representations", Phys. Lett. B 846 (2023) 138209 [at inSPIRE].
- J. Beltrán Jiménez, L. Heisenberg, T. Koivisto, S. Pekar, "Cosmology in f(Q) geometry", Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 103507 [at inSPIRE]
- D. Aguiar Gomes, J. Beltrán Jiménez, A. Jiménez Cano, T. Koivisto, "On the pathological character of modifications of Coincident General Relativity: Cosmological strong coupling and ghosts in f(Q) theories", Phys. Rev. Lett. (2024) [at inSPIRE].
Almost all of our recent papers are listed at the inSPIRE database.
Physicum seminars
- Tomi Koivisto, On the physical foundation of geometry, 07.12.2023 [video]
Public talks at the Tartu gravity conference
- Dr. Aneta Wojnar (Wroclaw) From stars and seismic waves to the fundamentals of gravity 01.07.2025 [UTTV video]
- Dr. Christian Pfeifer (Bremen) The final frontier: the search for quantum gravity on the smallest and largest scales 18.06.2024 [UTTV video]
- Prof. Mairi Sakellariadou (London) Early Universe cosmology: a primer 20 June 2023 [UTTV video]
- Prof. Davi Rodrigues (Espírito Santo) Why do galaxies rotate? 28 June 2022 [BBB recording]
- Prof. Escamilla Rivera (Mexico) How a dispute over a single number became a cosmological crisis 29 June 2021 [BBB recording]
- Prof. Emmanuel Saridakis (Athens) Black holes and gravitational waves 16 June 2020 [BBB recording]
Videos
- Women in physics - Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of University of Tartu, Youtube 09.02.2024
Writings
- Piret Kuusk, Mihkel Rünkla, Margus Saal, Ott Vilson, Scalar-tensor cosmology: inflation and invariants, CQG+ Insight 05.10.2016
- Konstantinos Pallikaris 2026
- Maria Naeem 2026
- Ernest Michael Priidik Gallagher 2026
- Débora Aguiar Gomes 2025
- Laxmipriya Pati 2025
- Ulbossyn Ualikhanova 2021 (Antonia Ferrín Moreiras–ACEBaltic Award for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics 2026)
- Daniel Kristoffer Blixt 2021
- Sergey Koshkarev 2020
- Ott Vilson 2019
- Lauri Kaldamäe 2017
- Hardi Veermäe 2017
- Tanel Mullari 2010
- Hannes Liivat 2010
- Margus Saal 2004
- Tõnu Laas 2002
- Jüri Örd 1998
- Geometric Foundations of Gravity 2025
- Metric-Affine Frameworks for Gravity 2024
- Geometric Foundations of Gravity 2023
- Metric-Affine Frameworks for Gravity 2022
- Geometric Foundations of Gravity 2021
- Teleparallel gravity Workshop-Seminar 2021
- Teleparallel Gravity workshop 2020
- Geometric Foundations of Gravity 2019
- Teleparallel Gravity workshop 2018
- Geometric Foundations of Gravity 2017
- 3rd Tallinn Symposium on Neutrino Physics (Lohusalu 1995)
- 2nd Tallinn Symposium on Neutrino Physics (Lohusalu 1993)
- International Tallinn Symposium on Neutrino Physics (1990)
Facebook @geomgravtartu.
- The mailing list fyysika.fundamentaal distributes announcements on the seminars in theoretical and mathematical physics, high energy physics, cosmology and astrophysics, as well as solid state theory in Tartu and Tõravere. Everybody who is interested can join.
- Seminars that are broadcast online are also announced at the INSPIRE-HEP and researchseminars.org portals.
- Recordings of the recent seminars can be seen at the university BigBlueButton server.
- Stylianos Papadopoulos 2026, internship
- Jean Thibaut (Aix-Marseille) 2025, BridgeQG STSM grant
- Sinah Legner (Cambridge) 2025, CosmoVerse STSM grant
- Carmen Ferrara (Napoli) 2025, Italian scholarship
- Filip Hejda (Lissabon) 2025, Czech grant
- Sante Carloni (Genova) 2025, PhD defense
- Adrián Casado-Turrión (Vilnius) 2025, Lithuanian grant
- Syksy Räsänen (Helsinki), PhD defense
- Mindaugas Karčiauskas (Vilnius) 2024, Center of Excellence invitation
- Lea Johanna Zybur (Hannover) 2024, Erasmus scholarship
- Quentin Vigneron (Nicolaus Copernicus University) 2024
- Purnendu Karmakar (Tokyo) 2022, 2023
- Jibitesh Dutta (NEHU Shillong) 2023, Erasmus Mundus staff exchange
- Orest Hrycyna (Warsaw) 2023, Polish grant
- Ulbossyn Ualikhanova (Astana/Nursultan) 2022
- Adrián Casado-Turrión (Madrid) 2022, Spanish scholarship
- Laxmipriya Pati (BITS-Pilani Hyderabad) 2022, DoRa+ scholarship
- Gerardo García-Moreno (Granada), Spanish scholarship
- Alice Boldrin (Warsaw) 2022, DoRa+ scholarship
- Johann Chevrier (Paris) 2022, French internship
- Débora Aguiar Gomes (Ceará) 2022, DoRa+ scholarship
- Sree Kanth Hari Kumar (Warsaw) 2022, DoRa+ scholarship
- Erik Jensko (University College London) 2021, DoRa+ scholarship
- María José Guzmán (La Serena) 2021, Chile postdoc grant
- Mercè Guerrero (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) 2021, DoRa+ scholarship
- Aleksander Kozak (Wrocław) 2021 DoRa+ scholarship, 2019 Polish grant
- Adam Zadrożny (Warsaw) 2021 Center of Excellence invitation
- Pavel Fadeev (Mainz) 2020
- Teodor Borislavov Vasilev (Madrid) 2020 Spanish scholarship
- Nicoleta Voicu (Brasov) 2020, 2018 CANTATA short term scientific mission
- Vladimir Mostepanenko (St. Petersburg) 2020
- Galina Klimchitskaya (St Petersburg) 2020
- Alejandro Jiménez Cano (Granada) 2019
- Alexey Golovnev (Cairo) 2019 Center of Excellence invitation
- Tom Złośnik (Praha) 2019 Center of Excellence invitation
- Kai Flathmann (Oldenburg) 2019 DoRa+ scholarship
- Sergey Vernov (Moskva) 2019
- Elena Emtsova (Moskva) 2019 DoRa+ scholarship
- Orville Damaschke (Oldenburg) 2018
- Kevin Croker (Hawaiʻi) 2015-2016 Fulbright U.S. Student Program
- Alexey Toporensky (Moscow) 2015
- Alejandro Jiménez-Cano (2024)
- Francisco José Maldonado Torralba (2024 → UT computer science)
- Jorge G. Valcárcel (2023 → Tokyo, postdoc)
- Aneta Magdalena Wojnar (2022 → Madrid Complutense, postdoc)
- João Luís de Figueiredo Rosa (2022 → Gdansk, postdoc)
- Daniel Kristoffer Blixt (2022 → Napoli, postdoc)
- Adrià Delhom I Latorre (2022 → Louisiana, postdoc)
- Sebastián Bahamonde (2021 → Tokyo, postdoc)
- Christian Pfeifer (2020 → Bremen, postdoc)
- Martin Krššák (2019 → Yangzhou, postdoc)
- Hannes Liivat
- Martti Raidal
- Peeter Tenjes
- Rein Saar
- Ene Ergma
- Elmar Vesman
- Ilmar Ots
- Risto Tammelo
- Jaak Lõhmus
- Laur Palgi
- Paavo Helde
- Hannes Uibo
- Kaupo Palo
- Madis Kõiv
- Vladimir Rosenhaus
- Rein Männik
- Peeter Müürsepp
(aastast 1990)
The history of science and physics in Tartu go back a long time. In 1690s Sven Dimberg was perhaps the first in the world to give a regular university lecture course on Newton’s Principia, just a few years after the publication of the seminal book. In the early 19th century, astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve pioneered to measure accurately the distance to the nearby stars, working with the most powerful telescope of the time at Tartu Observatory. His contemporary Johann Christian Martin Bartels introduced the notion of local frames and torsion to differential geometry. Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz and Erhard Schmidt who were born and studied in Tartu, later made outstanding contributions to the study of electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. Tartu professor Aleksandr Sadowsky calculated the transfer of angular momentum of light to matter, an effect that bears his name. In the beginning of the 20th century Ernst Öpik estimated the distance of Andromeda Galaxy, thus paving the way for modern cosmology. In 1929 Wilhelm Anderson combined quantum theory and relativity to obtain Stoner-Anderson equation of state of white dwarfs. Rigorous research in Tartu on general relativty was started by Harald Keres and on quantum field theory by Paul Kard in 1940s.
The forerunner of the Laboratory was the theoretical physics research group in the Institute of Physics, Mathematics, and Mechanics of the ESSR Academy of Sciences, founded in 1947. In the 1960s the expanding group formed a sector of the Institute of Physics and Astronomy. The Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of the Institute of Physics was created in 1986. The Institute of Physics was under the Estonian Academy of Sciences until 1997, and then joined the University of Tartu.
In 2015 the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics merged with a part of the Laboratory of Field Theory, formerly the Chair of Theoretical Physics in the Department of Physics of the University of Tartu, thus uniting the research and teaching units of theoretical physics.
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