John E. Roberts

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John Elias Roberts (born November 20, 1939 in New Malden ; † August 3, 2015 ) was a British theoretical physicist and mathematician who dealt with axiomatic quantum field theory ( local quantum physics according to Rudolf Haag ).

Roberts had an English father and an Austrian mother. He studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge , where he received his doctorate in 1965 under Richard J. Eden (second advisor was Res Jost from ETH Zurich , where he was in 1963/64). As a post-doctoral student he was with Rudolf Haag at the University of Hamburg , where his collaboration with Sergio Doplicher began. With Haag and Doplicher a series of papers appeared up to 1974. After that he was at the Center for Theoretical Physics of the University of Marseille-Luminy and the CNRS . In 1977 he became a professor at the University of Osnabrück . From 1992 he was professor at the University of Rome (Tor Vergata), where he met colleagues such as Sergio Doplicher, Roberto Longo and Claudia Pinzari .

Roberts worked with Doplicher and Haag on superselection rules in algebraic QFT and with Doplicher on a reconstruction theorem of the fields of gauge groups from observable algebras (1990). In doing so, he introduced little-used mathematical concepts in this area, such as category theory (tensor categories), formulation of the structure theory of super-selection sectors as cohomology theory and Cuntz algebras. Together with colleagues in Rome, he also applied sector theory to curved space-times.

In 2002 he was awarded a Humboldt Research Prize with Detlev Buchholz at the University of Göttingen. He went there after his retirement in Rome in 2012.

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personal data
SURNAME Roberts, John E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roberts, John Elias (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British theoretical physicist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH New Malden
DATE OF DEATH 3rd August 2015