Rodney Baxter | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Baxter in 1999 | |
| Born | (1940-02-08)8 February 1940 (age 85) |
| Education | Bancroft's School |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge(BA, MA) Australian National University(PhD) |
| Known for | Yang-Baxter equation Yang-Baxter operator |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical Physics |
| Institutions | Iraq Petroleum Company(1964-1965) Massachusetts Institute of Technology(1968-1970) Isaac Newton Institute,Cambridge(1992) Australian National University(1970-2002) |
Rodney James BaxterFRSFAA (born 8 February 1940 inLondon,United Kingdom) is an Australianphysicist, specialising instatistical mechanics. He is well known for his work inexactly solved models, in particularvertex models such as thesix-vertex model andeight-vertex model, and thechiral Potts model andhard hexagon model. A recurring theme in the solution of such models, theYang–Baxter equation, also known as the "star–triangle relation", is named in his honour.
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Baxter was educated atBancroft's School andTrinity College,Cambridge (BA, MA), before relocating to theAustralian National University inCanberra to complete hisPhD. He was among the first doctoral graduates in theoretical physics from the ANU, graduating in 1964. Then, in 1964 and 1965, he worked for theIraq Petroleum Company. He worked as an assistant professor at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology from 1968 until 1970, when he took up a position at the ANU, and served a term as the Head of the Department of Theoretical Physics in the Institute of Advanced Study, until he retired in 2002. He is currently theEmeritus Professor of Physics. In 1984, he was awarded aDoctor of Science by Cambridge. He is a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of Science,Royal Society of London, and theIsaac Newton Institute,Cambridge, where he was Royal Society Research Professor in 1992. In 1980 he was awarded theBoltzmann Medal, the main recognition for research contribution concerningstatistical mechanics. In 2006, he was awarded theLars Onsager Prize"For his original and groundbreaking contributions to the field of exactly solved models in statistical mechanics, which continue to inspire profound developments in statistical physics and related fields".
Baxter gained recognition in 1971 when he used the star-triangle relation to calculate thefree energy of the eight-vertex model, and went on to similarly solve thehard hexagon model (1980) and thechiral Potts model in 1988. He also developed thecorner transfer matrix method for calculating theorder parameters of the eight-vertex and similar models. In 2005 he used the method ofMichio Jimbo,Tetsuji Miwa and Nakayashiki to verify Albertini, McCoy, Perk and Tang's conjecture for the order parameter of thechiral Potts model.
His use of the Yang–Baxter equation led to the formulation and the study of representations of thequantum group byVladimir Drinfeld in the 1980s, and quantum generalisations ofaffine algebras, and they arequasi-triangular Hopf algebras which yield solutions of theYang–Baxter equation and provide insight into the properties of corresponding statistical models.
His book,Exactly solved models in statistical mechanics, has received over 4000 citations (according toWeb of Science) in subsequent work in statistical mechanics and the study of quantum groups, and is used widely in teaching at universities.
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