Wolfhart Zimmermann
Wolfhart Zimmermann (17 February 1928 – 18
September 2016) was a German theoretical physicist, Wolfhart Zimmermann
known for his contribution in quantum field theory. He Born 17 February 1928
is one of the developers of the LSZ reduction formula. Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Died 18 September 2016 (aged 88)
Hamburg, Germany
Biography Known for LSZ reduction formula
BPHZ Renormalization scheme
Zimmermann was born in Freiburg im Breisgau.
Awards Max Planck Medal (1991)
Zimmermann attained a doctorate in 1950 at Albert Scientific career
Ludwig University of Freiburg in topology.[1] Fields Quantum field theory
In 1952, he joined the group of Werner Heisenberg at Institutions Max Planck Institute
the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen.[1] There he New York University
became one of the pioneers of the mathematical University of Hamburg
quantum field theory. He developed the LSZ theory Thesis Eine Kohomologietheorie
with Kurt Symanzik and Harry Lehmann. Their topologischer Räume (1950)
research group was referred as the Field Club
(German: Feldverein) by Wolfgang Pauli.[2]
From 1962 to 1974 he was a professor at the New York University. From 1974 to 1996 he was a director
at the Max Planck Institute for physics in Munich, later becoming the "Director Emeritus".[3]
Since 1977 he was an honorary professor ("Honorarprofessor") at TU Munich. He took a year-long
sabbatical stay at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1957/8 and 1960/1), at the Courant
Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University, at the University of Chicago and at IHES in
Paris. In addition to his work on the LSZ formalism he is also known for the development of Bogolyubov
- Parasiuk renormalization schema (also BPHZ Renormalization schema named after Klaus Hepp and
Zimmermann).[4] Along with Kenneth G. Wilson he was one of the pioneers in applications of operator
product expansion in quantum field theory.[5] With Reinhard Oehme of the Enrico Fermi Institute in
Chicago (with whom he already collaborated in Göttingen in the 1950s), he worked on the reduction of
coupling parameters with group renormalization methods[6] and introduced superconvergence relations
for the propagator (gauge field propagator) into Yang–Mills theory, to establish connections between the
borders of high energy (e.g. asymptotic freedom) and low energy (confinement).[7]
In 1991 he received the Max Planck medal.[3]
References
1. Sibold, Klaus (2019). "Wolfhart Zimmermann: Life and work" (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.n
uclphysb.2018.01.022). Nuclear Physics B. 941: 900–910. Bibcode:2019NuPhB.941..900S
(https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019NuPhB.941..900S).
doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2018.01.022 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.nuclphysb.2018.01.022).
2. Mack, Gerhard (1 May 1984). "Kurt Symanzik" (https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/37/
5/102/403511/Kurt-Symanzik). Physics Today. 37 (5): 102–103.
Bibcode:1984PhT....37e.102M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984PhT....37e.102M).
doi:10.1063/1.2916220 (https://doi.org/10.1063%2F1.2916220). ISSN 0031-9228 (https://se
arch.worldcat.org/issn/0031-9228).
3. München, Max-Planck-Instituts für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut). "Max-Planck-Institut
für Physik - Gedenken an Professor Dr. Wolfhart Zimmermann" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20170202010050/https://wwwold.mpp.mpg.de/pr/medienarchiv/03_print/pressemeldunge
n/pressemeldungen2016/160921_Nachruf_Zimmermann/index.html). mpg.de. Archived
from the original (https://wwwold.mpp.mpg.de/pr/medienarchiv/03_print/pressemeldungen/pr
essemeldungen2016/160921_Nachruf_Zimmermann/index.html) on 2 February 2017.
Retrieved 22 January 2017.
4. Zimmermann: Convergence of Bogoljubows Method of renormalization in momentum
space, Communications in mathematical physics, Vol. 15, 1969, p. 208
5. K. Wilson and W. Zimmermann: Operator product expansions and composite field operators
in the general framework of quantum field theory , Commun. Math. Phys. 24 (1972) 87
6. Zimmermann (1985), "Reduction in the number of coupling parameters" (https://projecteucli
d.org/journals/communications-in-mathematical-physics/volume-97/issue-1-2/Reduction-in-t
he-number-of-coupling-parameters/cmp/1103941987.pdf) (PDF), Communications in
Mathematical Physics, 97 (1–2): 211–225, Bibcode:1985CMaPh..97..211Z (https://ui.adsab
s.harvard.edu/abs/1985CMaPh..97..211Z), doi:10.1007/bf01206187 (https://doi.org/10.100
7%2Fbf01206187), S2CID 123276494 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:12327649
4),
Oehme, Zimmermann: Relations Between Effective Couplings for Asymptotically Free
Models, ibid. p. 586
7. Oehme, Zimmermann (1980), "Quark and Gluon Propagators in Quantum
Chromodynamics, Gauge field propagator and the number of fermion fields", Physical
Review D, 21: 471, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.21.471 (https://doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevD.2
1.471)
Sources
Peter Breitenlohner (Ed.) "Quantum Field Theory- Proceedings on the Ringberg Workshop,
Tegernsee 1998, On the Occasion of Wolfhart Zimmermann´s 70. Birthday", Lecture Notes
in Physics 558, Springer, 1998.
Zimmermann "Local operator products and renormalization in Quantum Field Theory",
Brandeis Summer Institute in Theoretical Physics Lectures 1970, pp. 399–589
External links
Quantum field theory/BPHZ - Physics wiki - TheTangentBundle (https://web.archive.org/web/
20110724103119/http://www.physics.thetangentbundle.net/wiki/Quantum_field_theory/BPH
Z)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolfhart_Zimmermann&oldid=1266618955"
