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André Neveu (; born 28 August 1946) is a French
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
working on
string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...
and
quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...
who coinvented the Neveu–Schwarz algebra and the Gross–Neveu model.


Biography

Neveu studied in Paris at the
École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
(ENS). In 1969, he received his diploma (Thèse de troisième cycle) at University of Paris XI in Orsay with and Claude Bouchiat and in 1971 he completed his doctorate (
Doctorat d'État Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellen ...
) there. In 1969, he and his classmate from ENS and Orsay, Joël Scherk, together with John H. Schwarz and
David Gross David Jonathan Gross (; born February 19, 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. ...
at Princeton University, examined divergences in one-loop diagrams of the
bosonic string theory Bosonic string theory is the original version of string theory, developed in the late 1960s. It is so called because it contains only bosons in the spectrum. In the 1980s, supersymmetry was discovered in the context of string theory, and a new ve ...
(and discovered the cause of
tachyon A tachyon () or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels Faster-than-light, faster than light. Physicists posit that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are inconsistent with the known Scientific law#L ...
divergences). From 1971 to 1974, Neveu was at the Laboratory for High Energy Physics of the University of Paris XI where he and Scherk showed that spin-1 excitations of strings could describe Yang–Mills theories. In 1971, Neveu with John Schwarz in Princeton developed, at the same time as Pierre Ramond (1971), the first string theory that also described fermions (called RNS formalism after its three originators). This was an early appearance of the ideas of
supersymmetry Supersymmetry is a Theory, theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between Particle physics, particles with integer Spin (physics), spin (''bosons'') and particles with half-integer spin (''fermions''). It propo ...
which were being developed independently at that time by several groups. A few years later, Neveu, working in Princeton with David Gross, developed the Gross–Neveu model. With Roger Dashen and Brosl Hasslacher, he examined, among other things, quantum-field-theoretic models of extended hadrons and semiclassical approximations in quantum field theory which are reflected in the DHN method of the quantization of
solitons In mathematics and physics, a soliton is a nonlinear, self-reinforcing, localized wave packet that is , in that it preserves its shape while propagating freely, at constant velocity, and recovers it even after collisions with other such locali ...
. From 1972 to 1977, Neveu was at the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
while spending half of the time in Orsay. From 1974 to 1983, he was at the Laboratory for Theoretical Physics of the ENS and from 1983 to 1989 in the theory department at
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
. From 1975, he was ''Maitre de recherche'' in the
CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...
and from 1985 ''Directeur de recherche''. From 1989, he was at the Institute (Laboratory) for Theoretical Physics of the University of Montpellier II (now L2C, Laboratory Charles Coulomb). From 1994 to 1995, he was a visiting professor in the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
, Berkeley. In 1973, Neveu received the Paul Langevin Prize of the Société Française de Physique. In 1988, he received the Gentner-Kastler Prize awarded jointly by the Société Française de Physique and the
Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. As of 2022, the DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 52,220, making it one of the largest national physics societies in the world. The DPG's membership peaked ...
(DPG). In 2020m he was awarded the Dirac Medal of the ICTP.Dirac Medal 2020 of ICTP
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Writings

* (On the occasion of the awarding of the Gentner-Kastler Prize) *


Notes


External links


Some of my recollections about Joël ScherkScientific publications of André Neveu
on
INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neveu, Andre 1946 births Living people Scientists from Paris French string theorists People associated with CERN Paris-Sud University alumni