John Iliopoulos

John Iliopoulos
Ιωάννης Ηλιόπουλος
John Iliopoulos at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, 2009.
Born1940 (age 83–84)
Kalamata, Greece
Scientific career
FieldsParticle physics
Thesis Théorème de basse énergie et algèbre des courants  (1968)

John (Jean) Iliopoulos (Greek: Ιωάννης Ηλιόπουλος; 1940) is a Greek physicist. He is the first person to present the Standard Model of particle physics in a single report.[1] He is best known for his prediction of the charm quark with Sheldon Glashow and Luciano Maiani (the "GIM mechanism").[2] Iliopoulos is also known for demonstrating the cancellation of anomalies in the Standard model.[3] He is further known for the Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term formula, which was introduced in 1974. He is currently an honorary member of Laboratory of theoretical physics of École Normale Supérieure, Paris.

Biography

Iliopoulos graduated from National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 1962 as a Mechanical-Electrical Engineer. He continued his studies in the field of Theoretical Physics in University of Paris, and in 1963 he obtained the D.E.A, in 1965 the Doctorat 3e Cycle, and in 1968 the Doctorat d' Etat titles. Between the years 1966 and 1968 he was a scholar at CERN, Geneva. From 1969 till 1971 he was a Research Associate in Harvard University.[4] In 1971 he returned in Paris and began working at CNRS. He also held the director position of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of Ecole Normale Superieure between the years 1991-1995 and 1998-2002. In 2002, Iliopoulos was the first recipient of the Aristeio prize, which has been instituted to recognize Greeks who have made significant contributions towards furthering their chosen fields of science. Iliopoulos and Maiani were jointly awarded the 1987 Sakurai Prize for theoretical particle physics.[5] In 2007 Iliopoulos and Maiani received the Dirac Medal of the ICTP "(f)or their work on the physics of the charm quark, a major contribution to the birth of the Standard Model, the modern theory of Elementary Particles." And in 2011, Glashow, Iliopoulos, and Maiani received the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize, awarded by the European Physical Society (EPS), "(f)or their crucial contribution to the theory of flavour, presently embedded in the Standard Theory of strong and electroweak interactions."[6]

Scientific work

Iliopoulos is a specialist in high energy theoretical physics and elementary particle physics. In 1970, in collaboration with Sheldon Glashow and Luciano Maïani, he introduced the so-called "GIM mechanism" (named after the three authors) which is an essential element of the theory of fundamental interactions known as the "Standard Model ".[7] This mechanism postulates the existence of a new elementary particle, the "charmed" quark, a prediction that was confirmed by experience. In 1972, in collaboration with Claude Bouchiat and Philippe Meyer,[8] he demonstrated that the mathematical coherence of the Standard Model requires symmetry between the elementary constituents of matter, namely quarks (which form hadrons such as proton and neutron) and leptons (such as electron, muon and neutrinos). This symmetry is also verified experimentally.

Iliopoulos was one of the pioneers of supersymmetry, the hypothetical symmetry that links fermions and bosons. He showed that it has remarkable convergence properties and, in collaboration with P. Fayet,[9] he proposed a mechanism that leads to its spontaneous breakage. He also studied some aspects of the quantum theory of gravitation as well as the mathematical properties of invariant gauge theories formulated in a non-commutative geometric space.

Most significant publications

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ Veltman, Martinus J. G. (2018-03-21). Facts And Mysteries In Elementary Particle Physics (Revised Edition). World Scientific. p. 399. ISBN 978-981-323-707-0.
  2. ^ S. L. Glashow; J. Iliopoulos; L. Maiani (1970). "Weak Interactions with Lepton-Hadron Symmetry". Phys. Rev. D2 (7): 1285. Bibcode:1970PhRvD...2.1285G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.2.1285.
  3. ^ Bouchiat, Cl, Iliopoulos, J, and Meyer, Ph (1972) . "An anomaly-free version of Weinberg's model." Physics Letters B38, no. 7 (1972) 519-523.
  4. ^ Hoddeson, Lillian; Brown, Laurie; Riordan, Michael; Dresden, Max (1997-11-13). The Rise of the Standard Model: A History of Particle Physics from 1964 to 1979. Cambridge University Press. p. 447. ISBN 978-0-521-57816-5.
  5. ^ "Prize Recipient". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  6. ^ "High Energy Particle Physics Board". eps-hepp.web.cern.ch. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  7. ^ Glashow, S. L.; Iliopoulos, J.; Maiani, L. (1970-10-01). "Weak Interactions with Lepton-Hadron Symmetry". Physical Review D. 2 (7). American Physical Society (APS): 1285–1292. Bibcode:1970PhRvD...2.1285G. doi:10.1103/physrevd.2.1285. ISSN 0556-2821.
  8. ^ Bouchiat, C.; Iliopoulos, J.; Meyer, Ph. (1972). "An anomaly-free version of Weinberg's model". Physics Letters B. 38 (7). Elsevier BV: 519–523. Bibcode:1972PhLB...38..519B. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(72)90532-1. ISSN 0370-2693.
  9. ^ Fayet, P.; Iliopoulos, J. (1974). "Spontaneously broken supergauge symmetries and goldstone spinors". Physics Letters B. 51 (5). Elsevier BV: 461–464. Bibcode:1974PhLB...51..461F. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(74)90310-4. ISSN 0370-2693.
  10. ^ "Members of the First Section". Academy of Athens. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  11. ^ French Academy of Sciences.
  12. ^ École normale supérieure (Paris, France).
  13. ^ "Αναγόρευση του Ακαδημαϊκού Ιωάννη Ηλιόπουλου, ως Επίτιμου Διδάκτορα του Ε.Μ.Π. (Σ.Ε.Μ.Φ.Ε.) (πρόσκληση) - ΣΕΜΦΕ". semfe.ntua.gr (in Greek). 2017-04-24. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  14. ^ "I premi Feltrinelli edizione 2023 | Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei". www.lincei.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-03-27.