Kurt Symanzik (November 23, 1923 – October 25, 1983) was a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

working in quantum field theory.

Life

Symanzik was born in Lyck (Ełk), East Prussia, and spent his childhood in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

. He started studying physics in 1946 at

Universität München The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

but after a short time moved to

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent serie ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. There also the fruitful collaboration with Wolfhart Zimmermann and

Harry Lehmann Harry Lehmann (21 March 1924 in Güstrow22 November 1998 in Hamburg) was a German physicist. Biography Lehmann studied physics at Rostock and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In 1952 he worked at the Max-Planck-Institut in Göttingen, and ...

started. In 1954 he earned his PhD for his thesis ''The Schwinger functional in quantum field theory''. After teaching at Princeton and CERN he gained a full professorship at the New York

Courant Institute The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...

, which he left 1968 for the

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

DESY. He died in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Work

Symanzik is most well known for

LSZ reduction formula In quantum field theory, the LSZ reduction formula is a method to calculate ''S''-matrix elements (the scattering amplitudes) from the time-ordered correlation functions of a quantum field theory. It is a step of the path that starts from the L ...

and the

Callan–Symanzik equation In physics, the Callan–Symanzik equation is a differential equation describing the evolution of the Correlation function (quantum field theory), ''n''-point correlation functions under variation of the energy scale at which the theory is define ...

. His early work in non- perturbative quantum field theory together in a circle with other researches nicknamed " Feldverein" (Field Club) led to now classic results. He also contributed to the Euclidean quantum field theory ansatz. Since 1970 his interests shifted to

lattice gauge theory In physics, lattice gauge theory is the study of gauge theories on a spacetime that has been discretized into a lattice. Gauge theories are important in particle physics, and include the prevailing theories of elementary particles: quantum elec ...

. In 1981 he was awarded 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, ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Symanzik, Kurt 1923 births 1983 deaths People from Ełk 20th-century German physicists Quantum physicists People from East Prussia University of Göttingen alumni People associated with CERN Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty Winners of the Max Planck Medal German expatriates in the United States Academic staff of the University of Hamburg