Klaus Hepp (born 11 December 1936) is a German-born Swiss theoretical physicist working mainly in
quantum field theory. Hepp studied mathematics and physics at
Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität in
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...
and at the Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule (
ETH
(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
, a ...
) in
Zurich, where, in 1962, with
Res Jost
Res Jost (10 January 1918 – 3 October 1990) was a Swiss theoretical physicist, who worked mainly in constructive quantum field theory.
Biography
Res Jost was born on January 10, 1918, in Bern. He is the son of the physics teacher Wilhelm ...
as thesis first advisor and
Markus Fierz
Markus Eduard Fierz (20 June 1912 – 20 June 2006) was a Swiss physicist, particularly remembered for his formulation of spin–statistics theorem, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, particle physics, and statistic ...
as thesis second advisor, he received a doctorate for the thesis ("Kovariante analytische Funktionen“) and at ETH in 1963 attained the rank of
Privatdozent. From 1966 until his retirement in 2002 he was professor of theoretical physics there. From 1964 to 1966 he was at the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...
in
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
. Hepp was also Loeb Lecturer at
Harvard and was at the
IHÉS near
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
.
Hepp worked on relativistic quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics, and theoretical laser physics. In quantum field theory he gave a complete proof of the
Bogoliubov–Parasyuk renormalization theorem (Hepp and
Wolfhart Zimmermann, called in their honor the BPHZ theorem).
Since a research stay 1975/6 at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
he also worked in neuroscience (for example, reciprocal effect between movement sensors, visual sense and eye movements with V. Henn in Zurich).
In 2004 he received the
Max Planck Medal
The Max Planck medal is the highest award of the German Physical Society , the world's largest organization of physicists, for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics. The prize has been awarded annually since 1929, with few exceptions, ...
.
Selected works
*“Renormalisaton Theory“, in de Witt, Stora „Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory“, Gordon and Breach, New York 1971
*“Progress in Quantum Field Theory“, Erice Lectures 1972
*“Theorie de la Renormalisation“, Springer 1970
*“On the quantum mechanical N-body problem“, Helvetica physica Acta, Bd.42, 1969, S.425
*“On the connection between Wightman and LSZ quantum field theory“, in Chretien, Deser „Axiomatic Quantum Field Theory“, New York 1966
"Quantum mechanics in the brain"(with
Christof Koch
Christof Koch ( ; born November 13, 1956) is a German-American neurophysiologist and computational neuroscientist best known for his work on the neural basis of consciousness. He is the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for B ...
) in ''Nature'' 440(611), 2006
See also
*
Gell-Mann and Low theorem
The Gell-Mann and Low theorem is a theorem in quantum field theory that allows one to relate the ground (or vacuum) state of an interacting system to the ground state of the corresponding non-interacting theory. It was proved in 1951 by Murray Gell ...
*
Mean-field particle methods Mean-field particle methods are a broad class of ''interacting type'' Monte Carlo algorithms for simulating from a sequence of probability distributions satisfying a nonlinear evolution equation. These flows of probability measures can always be int ...
*
Superradiant phase transition
*
Wightman axioms
In mathematical physics, the Wightman axioms (also called Gårding–Wightman axioms), named after Arthur Wightman, are an attempt at a mathematically rigorous formulation of quantum field theory. Arthur Wightman formulated the axioms in the ear ...
References
External links
*
Hepp Biographie an der ETH
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hepp, Klaus
1936 births
Living people
Swiss physicists
Theoretical physicists
ETH Zurich faculty
Winners of the Max Planck Medal