Mendel Sachs
| Mendel Sachs | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 13, 1927 Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Died | May 5, 2012 (aged 85) Buffalo, New York, United States |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | State University of New York Buffalo |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Known for | Unified field theory |
Mendel Sachs (April 13, 1927 in Portland, Oregon – May 5, 2012 in Buffalo, New York) was an American theoretical physicist who was Professor of Physics at the State University of New York Buffalo (1966–97) (Emeritus since 1997).
Sachs studied for his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D., all in physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Following the award of his PhD he was employed at the University of California Radiation Laboratory (1954–56). Then, he was a Senior Scientist at Lockheed Missiles and Space Laboratory (1956–1961). He was also employed as Assistant Professor of Physics at San Jose State College (1957–1961). In 1961 he became a Research Professor at McGill University; this was followed by a post as Associate Professor of Physics at Boston University (1962–1966). In 1966 he was appointed Professor of Physics at State University of New York at Buffalo. On his retirement in 1997 he was given the title Professor of Physics Emeritus.
Sachs progressed towards completing Albert Einstein's unified field theory, i.e., unifying the fields in general relativity, from which quantum mechanics emerges under certain conditions.
His theory rests on three axioms. The general idea is (1) to make precise the principle of relativity, aka general covariance. To do this, Sachs found, requires (2) generalizing Einstein's Mach principle, positing that all manifestations of matter, not only inertial mass, derive from the interaction of matter. From this, (3) quantum mechanics can be seen to emerge via correspondence principle, as a nonrelativistic approximation for a theory of inertia in relativity.
The result is a continuous quaternion-based formalism modeling all manifestations of matter. Sachs called the transformation symmetry group that Einstein sought in completing general covariance, the Einstein group, which approaches the Poincaré group towards the flat spacetime of special relativity. Sachs described how quantum mechanics, first in relativistic two-component spinor form, and then under low energy-momentum as Schrödinger's equation emerges therefrom.
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