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Jean-Pierre Vigier (16 January 19204 May 2004) was a French
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 experime ...
, known for his work on the foundations of physics, in particular on his stochastic interpretation of quantum physics.


Education

A native of Paris, Vigier earned his PhD in mathematics from
University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...
in 1946 with a study on ''Infinite Sequences of
Hermitian {{Short description, none Numerous things are named after the French mathematician Charles Hermite (1822–1901): Hermite * Cubic Hermite spline, a type of third-degree spline * Gauss–Hermite quadrature, an extension of Gaussian quadrature m ...
Operators''. In 1948 he was appointed assistant to
Louis de Broglie Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie (, also , or ; 15 August 1892 – 19 March 1987) was a French physicist and aristocrat who made groundbreaking contributions to Old quantum theory, quantum theory. In his 1924 PhD thesis, he pos ...
, a position he held until the latter's retirement in 1962. Vigier was professor emeritus in the Department of Gravitational Physics at ''
Pierre et Marie Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University (french: link=no, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, UPMC), also known as Paris 6, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the L ...
'' in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. He authored more than 300 scientific papers, and co-authored and edited a number of books and conference proceedings. He was a member of the editorial board of ''
Physics Letters A ''Physics Letters'' was a scientific journal published from 1962 to 1966, when it split in two series now published by Elsevier: *''Physics Letters A'': condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, nonlinear science, statistical physics, mathema ...
''. Vigier was a proponent of the stochastic
interpretation of quantum mechanics An interpretation of quantum mechanics is an attempt to explain how the mathematical theory of quantum mechanics might correspond to experienced reality. Although quantum mechanics has held up to rigorous and extremely precise tests in an extraor ...
, which was based on the ideas of de Broglie and
David Bohm David Joseph Bohm (; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American-Brazilian-British scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th centuryPeat 1997, pp. 316-317 and who contributed ...
. Politically, Vigier was an active supporter of
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
throughout his life. Vigier was invited to be
Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for d ...
's assistant; but at the time because of his political controversy related to
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...
the
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
would not allow him entry into the United States. Vigier died in 2004 in Paris.


Family

Vigier's father was a professor of English, such that Vigier became fluent in English and French, his native language.


References


Publications

;Books: * Myron W. Evans, Jean-Pierre Vigier: ''The Enigmatic Photon'' (series in several volumes), Kluwer Academic, 1996, * Louis de Broglie, P A M Dirac, Eugene Paul Wigner, A O Barut, Alwyn Van der Merwe, Jean-Pierre Vigier: ''Quantum, space, and time — the quest continues: studies and essays in honour of Louis de Broglie, Paul Dirac, and Eugene Wigner'', Cambridge Monographs on Physics, . Originally published in Foundations of physics, 1982-1983. * Yann Fitt, Alexandre Faire, Jean Pierre Vigier: ''The world economic crisis: U.S. imperialism at bay'', Zed Press, 1980, * Jean-Pierre Vigier: ''France's May revolution: an analysis of the French May revolt'', Sydney: International Publications, 1968 * Louis de Broglie; Jean Pierre Vigier: ''Introduction to the Vigier theory of elementary particles: with a chapter by Jean-Pierre Vigier'', Elsevier, 1963 * Pierre Hillion, Jean-Pierre Vigier: ''Les Ondes associées à une structure interne des particules. Sur les équations d'ondes associées à la structure des bosons. Sur les équations d'ondes associées à la structure des fermions'' (''On wave equations associated with an internal structure of particles''), Annales de l'Institut Henri Poincaré, vol. 17, no. 3, 1962 * Jean-Pierre Vigier: ''Recherches sur l'interprétation causale de la théorie des quanta'' (''Research on the causal interpretation of quantum theory''), Thèse d'Etat, Université de Paris, Faculté des sciences, 1954. Published by Gauthier-Villars, 1955.


Conference proceedings in honour of Jean-Pierre Vigier

* G. Hunter, S. Jeffers, J. P. Vigier: ''Causality and Locality in Modern Physics'', Proceedings of a symposium held in honour of Jean-Pierre Vigier at York University, Toronto, Canada, in August 1997, Springer, 1998, * S. Jeffers, J. P. Vigier, S. Roy: ''The present status of the quantum theory of light: Proceedings of a symposium in honour of Jean-Pierre Vigier'', Proceedings of a symposium held in honour of Jean-Pierre Vigier in Toronto, Canada, in August 1995, Kluwer Academic, 1996,


Articles (selection)

* * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Peter Holland
''Jean-Pierre Vigier at seventy-five: La lutte continue''
Foundations of Physics, invited papers dedicated to Jean-Pierre Vigier, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 1–4, * Jean-Pierre Vigier, selected and edited by Stanley Jeffers, Bo Lehnert, Nils Abramson, Lev Chebotarev

Apeiron, 2000,


References

*Articles on NASA ADS Abstract
Abstracts

Full text
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigier, Jean-Pierre French physicists Probability theorists 1920 births 2004 deaths French Communist Party members Communist members of the French Resistance