Frank Wilczek, Asymptotic Freedom, and Strong Interaction Photo Credit: Donna Coveney, MIT Resources with Additional Information Frank Wilczek, a winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction", has had multiple connections with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). These include his being the Leland J. Haworth Distinguished Scientist from 1994 - 1997. Wilczek shares the Nobel prize with David J. Gross and H. David Politzer. "Asymptotic freedom is a phenomenon whereby quarks behave as free particles when they are close together, but become more strongly attracted to each other as the distance between them increases. This theory forms the key to the interpretation of almost all experimental studies involving modern particle accelerators." "Wilczek's earliest work, done with Gross at Princeton in the 1970s, concerned the change of fundamental couplings with energy. This work led to the discovery of asymptotic freedom, which makes it possible to understand the behavior of matter under extreme conditions, such as occurred in the earliest moments of the Big Bang. Also, it permits the construction of unified models of particle interactions, which have concrete predictive power. Wilczek has been a leading participant in all these developments. One notable result of the cosmological work is a compelling explanation of the asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the present universe." Wilczek received his B.S. in1970 from the University of Chicago. He received his M.A. in 1971 and his Ph.D. in 1973 from Princeton University. – Edited excerpts from Frank
Wilczek Wins 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics: Theorist has close ties to
Brookhaven, and MIT's
Wilczek wins 2004 Nobel Prize in physics
Resources with Additional InformationAdditional information about Frank Wilczek and his research is available in full-text articles and on the Web. Documents:Ultraviolet Behavior of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories; Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 30, Issue 26; 1973 Asymptotically Free Gauge Theories I; DOE Technical Report; Phys. Rev. D, Vol. 8, Issue 10; 1973 Scaling Deviations for Neutrino Reactions in Asymptotically Free Field Theories; DOE Technical Report; Phys. Rev. D, Vol. 10, Issue 9; 1974 Weak-interaction Models with New Quarks and Right-handed Currents; DOE Technical Report; Phys. Rev. D, Vol. 12, Issue 9; 1975 Inflationary Axion Cosmology; DOE Technical Report Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 66, Issue 1; 1991 Quantum Field Theory; Rev. Mod. Phys., Vol. 71, Issue 2; 1999 Web Pages:DOE-Supported Physicists are Co-Winners of 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics Nobel Focus: Limited Freedom for Quarks Selected Publications of Frank Wilczek, with Brief Commentary Mass without Mass I: Most of Matter, AIP's "Physics Today on the Web" Frank Wilczek on Anyons and their Role in Superconductivity, ScienceWatch Frank Wilczek, Professor of Physics, MIT |
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