Hugh Osborn is a British theoretical high-energy physicist and a professor emeritus at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He is known for his work on

Conformal Field Theory A conformal field theory (CFT) is a quantum field theory that is invariant under conformal transformations. In two dimensions, there is an infinite-dimensional algebra of local conformal transformations, and conformal field theories can sometime ...

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 ...

Education

Osborn obtained his PhD in 1967 from the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. His PhD advisor was

Sigurd Zienau Sigurd Zienau (1921–1976) was a physicist notable for the theory of the polaron. Education His undergraduate studies were in mathematics at Birkbeck, University of London, Birkbeck College. His further studies in physics were very much in the ...

Career and research

After

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

positions at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

and

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

, he became a professor first at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

and then in 1971 moved to the

where he remained ever since. He is a fellow of Trinity College. In April 2020 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

. In 1989, Osborn obtained the first proof of the four-dimensional C-theorem, which was conjectured one year earlier by John Cardy. Osborn's proof was applicable to

renormalization group In theoretical physics, the renormalization group (RG) is a formal apparatus that allows systematic investigation of the changes of a physical system as viewed at different scales. In particle physics, it reflects the changes in the underlying p ...

flows which are perturbative, that is do not deviate far from the free quantum field theories, and was valid to all orders in

perturbation theory In mathematics and applied mathematics, perturbation theory comprises methods for finding an approximate solution to a problem, by starting from the exact solution of a related, simpler problem. A critical feature of the technique is a middle ...

. It provided a strong hint that the four-dimensional C-theorem must be universally valid, but a nonperturbative proof of this fact was found only in 2011 by Zohar Komargodski and Adam Schwimmer. In 2001 and 2004, Osborn, in collaboration with Francis Dolan, obtained explicit expressions for the conformal blocks in four dimensional conformal field theories. Starting from 2008, these results found many important applications within the

conformal bootstrap The conformal bootstrap is a non-perturbative mathematical method to constrain and solve Conformal field theory, conformal field theories, i.e. models of particle physics or statistical physics that exhibit similar properties at different levels of ...

approach to conformal field theories.

Former PhD students

His former PhD students include: * Francis Dolan * Johanna Erdmenger, professor at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...

* Ian Jack, professor at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

* Tassos Petkou, professor at the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ( AUTh; ), often called the University of Thessaloniki, is the second oldest tertiary education institution in Greece. Named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stageira, about east of Thessa ...

* Jeong-Hyuck Park, professor at Sogang University

References

External links

Scientific publications of Hugh Osborn
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:Osborn, Hugh British physicists British quantum physicists Living people British theoretical physicists Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Royal Society