Felix Finster (born 6 August 1967, in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

) is a German

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

working on problems in mathematical physics,

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

and

analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

Life and work

Finster studied physics and mathematics at

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

, where he graduated in 1992 with

Franz Wegner Franz Joachim Wegner (born 15 June 1940) is emeritus professor for theoretical physics at the University of Heidelberg. Education Franz Wegner attained a doctorate in 1968 with thesis advisor Wilhelm Brenig at the Technical University Munich with ...

and Claus Gerhardt. In 1992–1995 he wrote his PhD thesis at

ETH Zürich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

with

Konrad Osterwalder Konrad Osterwalder (born June 3, 1942) is a Swiss mathematician and physicist, former Undersecretary-General of the United Nations, former Rector of the United Nations University (UNU), and Rector Emeritus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Techn ...

.Felix Finster
at th
Mathematics Genealogy project
/ref> In 1996–1998 he was post-doc at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. From 1998–2002 he was member of the

Max Planck Institute Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) (1 ...

for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig. He got his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 2000 at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

. Since 2002 he is full professor of mathematics at the

University of Regensburg The University of Regensburg (german: link=no, Universität Regensburg) is a public research university located in the medieval city of Regensburg, Bavaria, a city that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university was founded on 18 ...

. Finster works mainly on mathematical problems in

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

and

quantum theory Quantum theory may refer to: Science *Quantum mechanics, a major field of physics *Old quantum theory, predating modern quantum mechanics * Quantum field theory, an area of quantum mechanics that includes: ** Quantum electrodynamics ** Quantum ch ...

. More specifically, in collaboration with

Niky Kamran Niky Kamran FRSC (born May 22, 1959) is a Belgian-Canadian mathematician whose research concerns geometric analysis, differential geometry, and mathematical physics. He is a James McGill Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics a ...

, Joel Smoller and

Shing-Tung Yau Shing-Tung Yau (; ; born April 4, 1949) is a Chinese-American mathematician and the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. In April 2022, Yau announced retirement from Harvard to become Chair Professor of mathem ...

he studies the dynamics of waves in a

black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

geometry. Moreover, he developed the fermionic projector approach to quantum field theory. In this context, he formulated the

causal action principle The theory of causal fermion systems is an approach to describe fundamental physics. It provides a unification of the weak interaction, weak, the strong interaction, strong and the electromagnetism, electromagnetic forces with gravity at the le ...

. In recent years, the approach was extended to so-called

causal fermion system The theory of causal fermion systems is an approach to describe fundamental physics. It provides a unification of the weak, the strong and the electromagnetic forces with gravity at the level of classical field theory. Moreover, it gives qu ...

s, which form a mathematical framework for describing quantum geometries.

Publications

* The Principle of the Fermionic Projector, AMS/IP Studies in Advanced Mathematics Series 35,

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

, Providence, RI; International Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006,
Online
* Finster, Kamran, Smoller, Yau: Linear waves in the Kerr geometry: A mathematical voyage to black hole physics, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, Volume 46, 2009, 635–659
Online
* Causal variational principles on measure spaces, Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 646,

De Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

2010, 141–194
Online
* A formulation of quantum field theory realizing a sea of interacting Dirac particles, Letters in Mathematical Physics 97,

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

, 2011, 165–183
Online
* Finster, Grotz, Schiefeneder: Causal fermion systems: A quantum space-time emerging from an action principle, in "Quantum Field Theory and Gravity",

Birkhäuser Birkhäuser was a Swiss publisher founded in 1879 by Emil Birkhäuser. It was acquired by Springer Science+Business Media in 1985. Today it is an imprint used by two companies in unrelated fields: * Springer continues to publish science (particu ...

, 2012
Online
* Finster, Müller, Tolksdorf, Zeidler: Quantum Field Theory and Gravity. Conceptual and Mathematical Advances in the Search for a Unified Framework,

, 2012,
Online

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finster, Felix 20th-century German mathematicians 21st-century German mathematicians 1967 births Living people