Michel Gaudin (born 2 December 1931) is a French physicist, known for the

Gaudin model In physics, the Gaudin model, sometimes known as the ''quantum'' Gaudin model, is a model, or a large class of models, in statistical mechanics first described in its simplest case by Michel Gaudin. They are exactly solvable models, and are also ...

, in which a central spin is coupled to many surrounding spins. After graduating with the degree of ''ingénieur des ponts et chaussées'' (civil engineer), Gaudin joined in 1956 the CEA in

Saclay Saclay () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It had a population of 3,067 in 2006. It is best known for the large scientific facility CEA Saclay, mostly dealing with nuclear and pa ...

to work on neutron experiments. Two years later, he joined

Claude Bloch Claude Bloch (18 March 1923 – 29 December 1971) was a French theoretical nuclear physicist. He authored over 60 published articles and made significant impact on the fields of quantum field theory, nuclear physics, and the many-body problem. Bl ...

's theorists' working group, to which he belonged for the rest of his career. In 1967 he received from the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

in Orsay his doctoral degree in physics with thesis ''Étude d'un modèle à une dimension pour un système de fermions en interaction''. Gaudin's research deals with, among other topics, the quantum-mechanical description of many-body systems, in particular, spin systems. With M. L. Mehta in 1960 he published ''On the density of eigenvalues of a random matrix'', an important paper on

random matrices In probability theory and mathematical physics, a random matrix is a matrix-valued random variable—that is, a matrix in which some or all elements are random variables. Many important properties of physical systems can be represented mathemat ...

. Gaudin received the Fondation Saintour Prize, awarded every two years since 1889 by the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...

. In 2019, he received, with two other physicists, the

Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics is an award given each year since 1959 jointly by the American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics. It is established by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Heineman. As of 2010 ...

from the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

Publications

M. Gaudin, '' Modèles exactement résolus ''
EDP Sciences (1996) .
M. Gaudin, '' La Fonction d'onde de Bethe ''
Masson, Paris (1983) . **

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaudin, Michel French physicists Paris-Sud University alumni 1931 births Living people