Res Jost
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Res Jost (10 January 1918 – 3 October 1990) was a Swiss theoretical physicist, who worked mainly in
constructive quantum field theory In mathematical physics, constructive quantum field theory is the field devoted to showing that quantum field theory can be defined in terms of precise mathematical structures. This demonstration requires new mathematics, in a sense analogous to ...
.


Biography

Res Jost was born on January 10, 1918, in
Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
. He is the son of the physics teacher Wilhelm Jost and Hermine Spycher. In 1949 Jost married the Viennese physicist Hilde Fleischer. Jost studied in Bern and at the
University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...
, where he received his doctorate in 1946 under the supervision of the German physicist Gregor Wentzel. He then spent half a year with
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
, where he introduced the Jost function into
scattering theory In physics, scattering is a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including particles and radiat ...
. Afterwards, he worked as an assistant of
Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...
in Zurich. From 1949 to 1955 he was at the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
in Princeton, where he worked with Walter Kohn, Joaquin Mazdak Luttinger and
Abraham Pais Abraham Pais (; May 19, 1918 – July 28, 2000) was a Dutch- American physicist and science historian. Pais earned his Ph.D. from University of Utrecht just prior to a Nazi ban on Jewish participation in Dutch universities during World War II ...
among others. From 1955, he was
associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...
for theoretical physics at
ETH Eth ( , uppercase: ⟨Ð⟩, lowercase: ⟨ð⟩; also spelled edh or eð), known as in Old English, is a letter used in Old English, Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called ), and Elfdalian. It was also used in Sca ...
and starting from 1959
full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...
. In 1964, he and Rudolf Haag created the journal ''
Communications in Mathematical Physics ''Communications in Mathematical Physics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Springer. The journal publishes papers in all fields of mathematical physics, but focuses particularly in analysis related to condensed matter physics, sta ...
''. He died on October 3, 1990, in
Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
. Jost researched quantum-mechanical scattering theory (also inverse scattering theory: Reconstruction of potentials from scattering data) and the mathematical
quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...
, where he in 1958 with the methods of Arthur Strong Wightman proved the PCT theorem and in 1957 introduced the Jost–
Lehmann Lehmann is a German surname. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 75.3% of all bearers of the surname ''Lehmann'' were residents of Germany, 6.6% of the United States, 6.3% of Switzerland, 3.2% of France, 1.7% of Australia and 1.3% of Poland. ...
Dyson Dyson may refer to: * Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson * Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson * Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon * Dyson (operating system), a Unix general- ...
representation, an integral representation of the expectancy value of the commutator of two field operators.


Honors and awards

Since 1977 Jost was corresponding member of the
United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
. In 1984 Jost received the
Max Planck Medal The Max Planck Medal is the highest award of the German Physical Society , the world's largest organization of physicists, for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics. The prize has been awarded annually since 1929, with few exceptions ...
for outstanding achievements in theoretical physics.


Selected works

* * * * *


See also

*
Axiomatic quantum field theory Axiomatic quantum field theory is a mathematical discipline which aims to describe quantum field theory in terms of rigorous axioms. It is strongly associated with functional analysis and operator algebras, but has also been studied in recent years ...
*
Communications in Mathematical Physics ''Communications in Mathematical Physics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Springer. The journal publishes papers in all fields of mathematical physics, but focuses particularly in analysis related to condensed matter physics, sta ...
*
Constructive quantum field theory In mathematical physics, constructive quantum field theory is the field devoted to showing that quantum field theory can be defined in terms of precise mathematical structures. This demonstration requires new mathematics, in a sense analogous to ...
*
CPT symmetry Charge, parity, and time reversal symmetry is a fundamental symmetry of physical laws under the simultaneous transformations of charge conjugation (C), parity transformation (P), and time reversal (T). CPT is the only combination of C, P, and ...
* Edge-of-the-wedge theorem *
Inverse scattering transform In mathematics, the inverse scattering transform is a method that solves the initial value problem for a Nonlinear system, nonlinear partial differential equation using mathematical methods related to scattering, wave scattering. The direct scatte ...
* Jost function *
Quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines Field theory (physics), field theory and the principle of relativity with ideas behind quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct phy ...


References


Further reading

* *


External links

* . * . * . * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jost, Res 1918 births 1990 deaths Theoretical physicists Mathematical physicists Swiss physicists Academic staff of ETH Zurich Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences University of Zurich alumni 20th-century Swiss physicists Quantum physicists Swiss science writers 20th-century Swiss non-fiction writers Scientists from Bern Swiss theoretical physicists Winners of the Max Planck Medal