Kazuo Fujikawa

Kazuo Fujikawa ( Japanese 藤 川 和 男 , Fujikawa Kazuo ; * 1942 ) is a Japanese theoretical physicist .

Life

Fujikawa studied at the University of Tokyo and received his PhD from Princeton University in 1970 with Sam Treiman . In 1983 he became professor of theoretical physics at Hiroshima University and then at the Yukawa Institute of Kyoto University . He was a professor at the University of Tokyo and most recently at the Institute of Quantum Science at Nihon University until his retirement in 2012 . He is currently (2012) visiting researcher at RIKEN .

Fujikawa is known for his investigation of anomalies in quantum field theory using path integral methods, which enables particularly elegant treatment. These anomalies are violations of a classical symmetry (such as a gauge symmetry ) by the underlying quantum mechanical theory and thus provide information on this theory. The prototype for anomalies is the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly of the 1960s (by Stephen Adler , John Stewart Bell , Roman Jackiw ). They are closely related to topological questions and were intensively investigated , especially in the 1980s, within the framework of string theory (for example, these enabled Michael Boris Green and John Schwarz to predict the permitted symmetry groups in superstring theory).

In the 2000s he also investigated geometric phases in quantum mechanics (the prototype of which, the Berry phase , was examined by Michael Berry) using methods of second quantization and he dealt with aspects of field theories on the lattice (such as chiral anomalies, regularization , Supersymmetry).

In 1986 Fujikawa received the Nishina Prize .

Fonts

• with Hiroshi Suzuki: Path integrals and quantum anomalies. Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Path integral measures for gauge invariant fermion theories. In: Physical Review Letters. Volume 42, 1979, p. 1195.
• Path integral for gauge theory with fermions. In: Physical Review D. Volume 21. 1980, p. 2848.
• with Benjamin W. Lee , Anthony Ichirō Sanda : Generalized renormizable gauge formulation of spontaneously broken gauge theories. In: Physical Review D. Volume 6. 1972, p. 1223.
• with BW Lee, A. Sanda, SB Treiman: Induced neutral current effects in unified models of weak and electromagnetic interactions. In: Physical Review Letters. Volume 29. 1972, pp. 682-684.
• Geometric phases and hidden gauge symmetry. In: Bull. Asian-Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics. 2009.
• Quantum anomalies and some recent developments. In: Int. J. Mod. Phys., A. Volume 24. 2009, pp. 3306-3315.
• Topological properties of geometrical phases. In: Progress Theoretical Physics. Supplementum, Volume 164. 2007, p. 194.

Web links

• Brief biography on the occasion of a lecture given by Fujikawa at Tsinghua University
• Short biography (Japanese) and list of publications