Carlo Maria Becchi (; born 20 October 1939) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

. Becchi studied at the

University of Genoa The University of Genoa () is a public research university. It is one of the largest universities in Italy and it is located in the city of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguria region of northwestern Italy. The original university was fou ...

, where he received his university degree in physics in 1962. In 1976, he became full professor for theoretical physics at the

. Twice (first in 1983), he was chairman of the physics faculty there. From 1997 to 2003 he was the chairman of the theory committee of the

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN; "National Institute for Nuclear Physics") is the coordinating institution for nuclear, particle, theoretical and astroparticle physics in Italy. History INFN was founded on the 8th of August 1 ...

(INFN). Becchi began by looking into the

photoelectric effect The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physi ...

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...

(topic of his thesis). In the 1960s he worked on

quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei ...

s and the associated unitary symmetries. Since 1971 he has done work on

renormalization Renormalization is a collection of techniques in quantum field theory, statistical field theory, and the theory of self-similar geometric structures, that is used to treat infinities arising in calculated quantities by altering values of the ...

theory. Becchi became known for his development around 1975 with

Raymond Stora Raymond Félix Stora (18 September 1930 – 20 July 2015) was a French theoretical physicist. He was a researcher at Service de Physique Théorique at CEA Saclay, then a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research ...

and

Alain Rouet Alain Rouet (born 1942 in France) is a French theoretical physicist, entrepreneur, poet, and novelist. Education and career At the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Rouet graduated in 1969 with an engineering degree and in 1974 with a doct ...

of the BRST formalism (independently done by

Igor Tyutin Igor Viktorovich Tyutin (, transliteration: '; born 24 August 1940) is a Russian theoretical physicist, who works on quantum field theory. Tyutin is a professor at the Lebedev Institute in Moscow. In an unpublished Lebedev Institute report, he de ...

), which is a method of quantization of systems with secondary conditions like

gauge theory In physics, a gauge theory is a type of field theory in which the Lagrangian, and hence the dynamics of the system itself, does not change under local transformations according to certain smooth families of operations (Lie groups). Formally, t ...

. In 2009 as recognition for the BRST formalism, he received the

Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics is an award given each year since 1959 jointly by the American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics. It is established by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Heineman. As of 201 ...

with Stora, Rouet, and Tyutin. Since 1991 he is supervisory editor of the journal ''

Nuclear Physics B Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics *Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

''.

Selected publications

* with Giovanni Ridolfi: ''Introduction to relativistic processes and the standard model of electroweak interactions'', Springer 2005; * with Rouet, Stora: ''The Abelian Higgs-Kibble-Model. Unitarity of the S-Operator'', ''Physics Letters B'', Vol.52, 1974, pp. 344–346

References

External links

Homepage at the University of Genova with lecture texts and publications list
* Carlo Becchi and Camillo Imbimbo
Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin symmetry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becchi, Carlo 20th-century Italian physicists 1939 births Living people Academic staff of the University of Genoa Italian mathematical physicists 21st-century Italian physicists