Zohar Komargodski

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Zohar Komargodski (* 1983 ) is an Israeli theoretical physicist who studies quantum field theory , gauge field theories , supersymmetry, and related theories.

Komargodski received his PhD from the Weizmann Institute in 2008 and then was a post-doctoral student at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was also doing research at CERN . He is group leader at the Weizmann Institute.

In 2011 he and his teacher Adam Schwimmer from the Weizmann Institute proved a long open conjecture in quantum field theory, the a-theorem , conjectured in 1988 by John Cardy . Cardy's conjecture was a generalization of Alexander Zamolodchikov's (1986) c-theorem for two-dimensional quantum field theories to higher dimensions. The c-theorem ensures the existence of a function that decreases monotonically with the flow of the renormalization group (RG) (a function of the coupling constants and energy scale), which assumes constant values ​​independent of the energy scale at the fixed points of the RG. This means that cycles in the flow of the RG are excluded in two dimensions, the flow is irreversible. The theorem also makes statements about the number of degrees of freedom in quantum field theory depending on the energy scale. In 1988 Cardy proposed the existence of an analogous function (a-function, as the integral of the expected value of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor over the four-dimensional sphere) in four dimensions. Komargodski and Schwimmer proved the existence of such a function for four dimensions. After a counterexample was reported in 2008 that later turned out to be faulty, the evidence was examined particularly critically by Komargodski and Schwimmer, but gained acceptance by 2012. The application of the theorem makes it possible to make connections from predictions of a quantum field theory at low (observable) energies to high energies in the four-dimensional case relevant for physics.

In 2012 he received the New Horizons in Physics Prize and in 2013 the Gribov Medal . For 2018 he was awarded the Sackler Prize in Physics.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Komargodski, Schwimmer On renormalization group flows in four dimensions , Journal of High Energy Physics 2011, [On Renormalization Group Flows in Four Dimensions Arxiv Preprint]
  2. ↑ Zamolodchikov Irreversibility of the flux of the renormalization group in two dimensions , JETP Letters, Volume 43, 1986, pp. 730-732
  3. ↑ Cardy Is there ac theorem in four dimensions? , Phys. Letters B 215, 1988, pp. 749-752
  4. ↑ Shapere, Tachikawa, J. High Energy Phys. 0812, 020 (2008). Davide Gaiotto , Nathan Seiberg and Tachikawa later found an error in this, as did Gaiotto, Seiberg, Tachikawa, J. High Energy Phys. 1001, 078 (2010)
  5. ↑ Eugenie Reich Proof found for unifying quantum principle , Nature News
personal data
SURNAME Komargodski, Zohar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli physicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1983