Kenneth G. Wilson
| Kenneth G. Wilson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Kenneth Geddes Wilson June 8, 1936 Waltham, Massachusetts |
| Died | June 15, 2013 (aged 77) Saco, Maine |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
| Institutions |
Cornell University (1963–1988) Ohio State University (1988–2008) |
| Alma mater |
Harvard University (B.A.) Caltech (Ph.D.) |
| Thesis | An investigation of the Low equation and the Chew-Mandelstam equations (1961) |
| Doctoral advisor | Murray Gell-Mann |
| Doctoral students |
H. R. Krishnamurthy Roman Jackiw Paulo Caldas Michael Peskin Serge Rudaz Paul Ginsparg Ray Renken Steven R. White |
| Known for |
Renormalization group Phase transitions Wilson loops |
| Notable awards |
Heineman Prize (1973) Wolf Prize in Physics (1980) Nobel Prize in Physics (1982) Eringen Medal (1984) Dirac Medal (1989) |
Kenneth Geddes Wilson (June 8, 1936 – June 15, 2013) was an American theoretical physicist and a pioneer in leveraging computers for studying particle physics. He was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on phase transitions—illuminating the subtle essence of phenomena like melting ice and emerging magnetism. It was embodied in his fundamental work on the renormalization group.
His work in physics involved formulation of a comprehensive theory of scaling: how fundamental properties and forces of a system vary depending on the scale over which they are measured. He devised a universal "divide-and-conquer" strategy for calculating how phase transitions occur, by considering each scale separately and then abstracting the connection between contiguous ones, in a novel appreciation of renormalization group theory. This provided profound insights into the field of critical phenomena and phase transitions in statistical physics enabling exact calculations. One example of an important problem in solid-state physics he solved using renormalization is in quantitatively describing the Kondo effect.
He then extended these insights on scaling to answer fundamental questions on the nature of quantum field theory and the operator product expansion and the physical meaning of the renormalization group.
He also pioneered our understanding of the confinement of quarks inside hadrons, utilizing lattice gauge theory, and initiating an approach permitting formerly foreboding strong-coupling calculations on computers. On such a lattice, he further shed light on chiral symmetry, a crucial feature of elementary particle interactions.
Wilson was born on June 8, 1936, in Waltham, Massachusetts, the oldest child of Emily Buckingham Wilson and E. Bright Wilson, a prominent chemist at Harvard University, who did important work on microwave emissions. His mother also trained as a physicist. He attended several schools, including Magdalen College School, Oxford, England, ending up at the George School in eastern Pennsylvania.
...
Wikipedia