Christof Wetterich (born April 12, 1952) is a German

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 ...

. He is a professor of theoretical physics at the

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

. He is known for his works in Seesaw mechanism in GUT,

quintessence Quintessence, or quintessential, or fifth essence, may refer to: Cosmology * Aether (classical element), in medieval cosmology and science, the fifth element that fills the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere * Quintessence (physics), a hypo ...

, Wetterich equation for

functional renormalization group In theoretical physics, functional renormalization group (FRG) is an implementation of the renormalization group (RG) concept which is used in quantum and statistical field theory, especially when dealing with strongly interacting systems. The met ...

asymptotic safety in quantum gravity Asymptotic safety (sometimes also referred to as nonperturbative renormalizability) is a concept in quantum field theory which aims at finding a consistent and predictive quantum theory of the gravitational field. Its key ingredient is a nontrivi ...

Early life and education

Wetterich was born in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

on April 12, 1952. He studied physics in University of Paris VII,

University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...

and

Freiburg University The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, where he received his PhD in 1979 and

habilitated Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellen ...

in 1983.

Research and career

His major research interests are

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

and

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 ...

. The wetterich’s two representative developments of the theoretical method are

and

Functional renormalization group In theoretical physics, functional renormalization group (FRG) is an implementation of the renormalization group (RG) concept which is used in quantum and statistical field theory, especially when dealing with strongly interacting systems. The met ...

. These Method have found applications in many areas of physics. In functional renormalization, it provides a suitable framework to study

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics. It deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the v ...

(

asymptotic safety Asymptotic safety (sometimes also referred to as nonperturbative renormalizability) is a concept in quantum field theory which aims at finding a consistent and predictive quantum theory of the gravitational field. Its key ingredient is a nontrivi ...

), Yang–Mills theories and it was also useful in non-relativistic quantum systems like the

BCS BCS may refer to: American football * Bowl Championship Series, a system that selected matchups for major college football bowl games between 1998 and 2013 * BCS conferences, the six FBS conferences with automatic major bowl bids under that sys ...

to BEC crossover where it ''bridges'' the two theories in a unified theoretical language. In 1977-1986, He has done fundamental calculative work for the theoretical understanding of tiny masses of neutrinos in GUT. This work is integrated to Type II seesaw mechanism in later works. In 1987-2001, he has done his two works which are best known in all of his theoretical proposals. the dynamical

dark energy In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...

or quintessence is worked at 1987. This could explain the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe. The functional renormalization group, relates macro physical structures to micro physical law through to an renormalization group of effective average action. Its formula derived as Wetterich equation(or FRG Flow Equation). This is worked at 1993. The review of FRG is published at 2001. In 2013, based on dilatation symmetry, he proposed the cosmon field model which planck mass is only increased but has not big bang singularity. He worked at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

in Geneva and

DESY DESY, short for Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (English: ''German Electron Synchrotron''), is a national research centre for fundamental science located in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin in Germany. It operates particle accelerators used to ...

in Hamburg. Since 1992 he has a chair for theoretical physics at

Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

Honours and awards

Wetterich received the Max-Planck Research Prize in 2005. Since 2006 he is member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.Portrait
at th

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References

External links

Christof Wetterich's homepage at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Heidelberg University

Scientific publications of Christof Wetterich
on

INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wetterich, Christof 1952 births Living people 20th-century German physicists German theoretical physicists German cosmologists People associated with CERN