Tonatiuh Matos Chassin
Investigador Cinvestav 3E
SNII Emérito
E-mail: tonatiuh.matos@cinvestav.mx
Teléfono: +52 (55) 5747 3800 extensión 3834
Oficina: 7A
Semblanza
Tonatiuh Matos studied for a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics and then for a master's degree in physics at the Escuela Superior de Física y Matemáticas of the IPN. He received his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1987 at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Germany and obtained his Habilitation in Astrophysics in 1998 at the same university. He completed postdoctoral stays at the University of Vienna and the Technical University of Vienna. He has carried out research stays at the Albert Einstein Institute of the Max-Planck Foundation in Germany and at German and American universities. He has been a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
He was Founding Vice President of the Gravitation and Mathematical Physics Division of the Mexican Physical Society (SMF) in 1992 and then President of the same in 1995. He has also been founder and co-organizer of the Mexican School of Astrophysics (EMA) since 1998 and was Founding Secretary General of the Advanced Institute of Cosmology (IAC), from 2007-2015, President of the SMF 2019-2021.
He has published more than 220 articles, of which 150 are in indexed journals of Mathematical and Theoretical Physics with more than 4,500 citations, several of which have deserved to be on the list of Highlight papers of the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity or have been extraordinarily cited, another 6 are in book chapters, more than 49 are conference proceedings and more than a dozen in scientific journals.
He published the popular books: What is the Universe Made Of? and in 2024 Wormholes and Propulsion by Curvature, co-authored with Miguel Alcubierre, both in the “Science for All” series of the “Fondo de Cultura Económica”, the novel “The Treasure of Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin” in the Colofón publishing house, the book “Cosmic Radiation of the Universe” published by Colofón, the monograph “Mathematical Principles for the Exact Sciences” published by the IAC, edited by Colofón, and the videos: “What is the Universe Made Of?”, with more than 11,500 visits and “The Scientific Version of Genesis” with more than 5,500 visits, both on YouTube.
He has edited 7 specialized books and participated in the organization of 50 conferences on gravitation, cosmology and astrophysics in Mexico and abroad. He has graduated 23 PhD students, two of whom received the Arturo Rosenblueth award from Cinvestav and another the Weizmann award from the Mexican Academy of Sciences, each for the best doctoral thesis. In addition, 3 of them have been awarded the Marcos Moshinsky Chair at IF UNAM. He has also directed 39 master's theses and
10 bachelor's theses, several of which have also received awards. These students have also advised multiple bachelor's and master's theses and more than 40 doctoral theses, two of which also received the Weizmann Prize. Currently, practically all of his graduate students are members of the SNI, 3 of them are level III. He has advised 20 postdocs.
He has participated in more than 150 conferences as a speaker and has been invited to more than 60 international conferences as an exhibitor.
He has been the founder of 3 research groups. In 2001, together with Miguel Alcubierre and Darío Núñez of the ICN, he founded the “Astrophysical Supercomputing Laboratory” (LaSumA) at Cinvestav, a cluster of 64 processors for heavy work in numerical relativity, the first of its kind in Latin America.
He has taught dozens of undergraduate, master's and doctoral courses at Mexican, German, Austrian and Canadian universities.
He is a member of the SMF since 1982, of the Mexican Academy of Sciences (AMC) since 1992, of the National System of Researchers level III since 2003, of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society since 2004, of the New York Academy of Science, since 2007, by invitation, of the American Physical Society since 2013, Scientific Research Award of the Mexican Society of Physics 2007, Marcos Moshinsky Medal of the Institute of Physics of the UNAM (2022).
He has been a member of the AMC Admission Committee 2006-2010, the UNAM Mathematics Institute Review Committee 2008-2014, the UNAM Astronomy Institute PRIDE Committee 2010-2014, the UNAM National Research System Review Commission 2010-2012, by election, the PRIDE Special Committee for the area of Physics and Mathematics 2014-2016, awarded by the UNAM rector, the AMC Awards Committee 2014-2016 by election, the SNI Appeals Committee 2015, the Conacyt Presidents Evaluation Committee 2017 and 2020, the Marcos Moshinsky Chairs Awards Committee 2021, of the Review Committee 2017-2022 from the Institute of Nuclear Sciences at UNAM.
His work now focuses on finding the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which account for more than 96% of the matter in the universe. In 1998 he proposed that dark matter could be a spinless particle with ultra-light mass, and initiated the first systematic study of this paradigm in the world. This model is now one of the most popular and favorite models for dark matter, which accounts for 25% of the matter in the universe. See for example: Front. Astron. Space Sci. 11 (2024) 1347518.
Líneas de Investigación
- Formación de Estructura del Universo.
Proyectos relevantes
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Formación galáctica usando materia oscura escalar (SFDM), desde 1998.
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Formación de estructura del Universo y Cosmología con SFDM.
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Cuantización estocástica alternativa usando el Fondo de Ondas Gravitacionales (GWB).
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Soluciones exactas de Agujeros de Gusano en teorías de Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton.
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Modelo de Energía Oscura tomando en cuenta la energía del GWB.
Publicaciones recientes y/o relevantes