Steven Frautschi
Encyclopedia
Steven Frautschi is an American theoretical physicist, Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology
. He is known for his contributions to the bootstrap theory
of the strong interactions.
In 1960 Frautschi, along with Geoffrey Chew
, discovered that the meson
s fall into straight-line Regge trajectories, and the two of them introduced the Pomeron
into the western literature. Frautschi's most well known contribution to strong-interaction theory was the statistical bootstrap, a prediction that the number of hadronic states grows exponentially with energy. This is nowadays understood as a manifestation of the deconfinement phase tradition. The exponential growth is incorporated into string theory
, where it is known as the Hagedorn temperature
.
This S-matrix approach to the strong interactions was largely abandoned by the particle physics community in the 1970s in light of quantum chromodynamics
.
He has worn Converse for the last 40 years (quoted during lecture).
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
. He is known for his contributions to the bootstrap theory
Bootstrap model
In physics, the term bootstrap model is used for a class of theories that use very general consistency criteria to determine the form of a quantum theory from some assumptions on the spectrum of particles...
of the strong interactions.
In 1960 Frautschi, along with Geoffrey Chew
Geoffrey Chew
Geoffrey F. Chew is an American theoretical physicist.He has worked as a professor of physics at the UC Berkeley since 1957 and has been an emeritus since 1991. Chew holds a PhD in theoretical particle physics from the University of Chicago. Between 1950 and 1956, he was a physics faculty member...
, discovered that the meson
Meson
In particle physics, mesons are subatomic particles composed of one quark and one antiquark, bound together by the strong interaction. Because mesons are composed of sub-particles, they have a physical size, with a radius roughly one femtometer: 10−15 m, which is about the size of a proton...
s fall into straight-line Regge trajectories, and the two of them introduced the Pomeron
Pomeron
In physics, the pomeron is a Regge trajectory, a family of particles with increasing spin, postulated in 1961 to explain the slowly rising cross section of hadronic collisions at high energies.-Overview:...
into the western literature. Frautschi's most well known contribution to strong-interaction theory was the statistical bootstrap, a prediction that the number of hadronic states grows exponentially with energy. This is nowadays understood as a manifestation of the deconfinement phase tradition. The exponential growth is incorporated into string theory
String theory
String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything , a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system...
, where it is known as the Hagedorn temperature
Hagedorn temperature
The Hagedorn temperature in theoretical physics is the temperature above which the partition sum diverges in a system with exponential growth in the density of states. It is named after German physicist Rolf Hagedorn.Phase transitions The Hagedorn temperature in theoretical physics is the...
.
This S-matrix approach to the strong interactions was largely abandoned by the particle physics community in the 1970s in light of quantum chromodynamics
Quantum chromodynamics
In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics is a theory of the strong interaction , a fundamental force describing the interactions of the quarks and gluons making up hadrons . It is the study of the SU Yang–Mills theory of color-charged fermions...
.
He has worn Converse for the last 40 years (quoted during lecture).