Krzysztof Gawędzki, Antti Kupiainen Share the 2022 Dannie Heineman Prize in Mathematical Physics
Newswise – WASHINGTON, November 24, 2021 – The American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society declare Krzysztof Gawędzk and Antti Kupiainen the 2022 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics. The award is presented annually by the AIP and APS in recognition of their significant contribution to the field of mathematical physics.
“This award is a tribute to the work we did in the 1980s and 1990s,” says Kupiainen, a Finnish professor of mathematics at the University of Helsinki. “This was a very fruitful and inspiring collaboration that meant a lot to me then and laid the foundation for my later career as well. That’s why I’m particularly excited to receive the award.”
Gawędzki, a Polish mathematical physicist at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, and Kupiainen worked together to develop rigorous renormalization group methods in quantum field theory and statistical physics and made significant contributions to conformal field theory and Wess-Zumino-Witten-Novikov. Later in the 1990s, they described and defined abnormal scaling behavior in the turbulent advection of a scalar field.
“We are pleased to announce the election of Krzysztof Gawędzk and Antti Kupiainen to the 2022 Dannie Heineman Prize in Mathematical Physics,” said Michael Moloney, CEO of AIP. “Their work together on constructive quantum field theory and statistical mechanics tuned the field, opening the door to unbalanced statistical mechanics and turbulent flow problems in hydrodynamic models.”
Their award quote quotes: “For the fundamental contribution of quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, and flow dynamics using geometric, probabilistic principles, and renormalization group ideas.” The award will be presented at either the APS March Meeting in Chicago or the APS April Meeting in New York.
Gawędzki was born in Żark, Poland, received his doctorate from the University of Warsaw in 1971 and continued as a researcher at the Department of Mathematical Methods in Physics in Warsaw. He was forced to relocate by the Polish state of war in 1981 and was first called to the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES), where he lived until 1999, and then to the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. .
Born in Varkaus, Kupiainen received his PhD from Princeton University in 1979. After completing his PhD from Harvard University, Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies and IHES, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University in 1988 and in 1991 at the University of Helsinki, where he currently works.
In the early 1980s, Gawędzki and Kupiainen began their collaboration to establish the mathematical foundations of quantum field theory, actively pursued by mathematical physicists. They understood well the so-called superrenormalizing theories that had been achieved through the pioneering work of James Glimm, Arthur Jaffe, Tom Spencer, Barry Simon, and many others. However, the theories of high-energy physics were not superrenormalizable, and existing techniques were not sufficient to understand them.
The duo turned to the renormalization group method used in physics to study phase shifts and developed a mathematically accurate analysis tool for quantum field theory and statistical mechanics, especially for building certain theories to be renormalized.
“The renormalization group is now a standard tool in mathematical physics, and I think our work had a role to play here,” Kupiainen said.
In a later collaboration in the 1990s, Gawędzki and Kupiainen discovered that certain issues related to turbulence were ripe for analysis using quantum field theory techniques. These problems concerned the advection of a passive scalar quantity, such as temperature or impurity concentration, under the influence of eddy current.
They succeeded in showing the methods of quantum field theory that scalar statistics show discontinuous behavior and differ from Kolmogorov-type scaling theory. This was the first such result in a vortex system and affected how people thought about periodicity in a normal fluid vortex.
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ABOUT THE HEINEMAN PRIZE
The Heineman Award is named after Dannie N. Heineman, an engineer, business executive, and science charity sponsor. The award was established in 1959 by the Heineman Foundation for Research, Education, Charitable and Scientific Purposes, Inc. AIP and APS will present the award on behalf of the Heineman Foundation at a forthcoming APS meeting. A special ceremonial session will be held during the meeting, during which Gawędzki and Kupiainen will receive a $ 10,000 prize. http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/heineman.cfm
ABOUT THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is a member association of 501 (c) (3) scientific associations. The AIP carries out its mission – to promote, advance and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humankind – with the unifying power of diversity. In its role, the AIP contributes to the success of its member societies by providing the means to combine, coordinate, and leverage their diverse expertise and contributions toward the common goal of advancing the physical sciences in research and economics. in education and society. In its role as an institute, the AIP acts as a center of excellence that leverages policy analysis, social sciences, and historical research to advance the future development of physics.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
The American Physical Society is a non-profit affiliate that seeks to promote and disseminate knowledge of physics through its excellent research journals, scientific meetings, and its education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists from academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and around the world. https://www.aps.org/
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