Rafael Dolnick Sorkin is an Americanphysicist. He isprofessor emeritus ofphysics atSyracuse University and thePerimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and a Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society. He is best known as the initiator and main proponent of thecausal sets approach toquantum gravity. He is also known for introducingentanglement entropy as a source forblack hole entropy.[1][2]
Sorkin grew up inChicago, Illinois, and was educated at theNew Trier Township High School (valedictorian, 1963),Harvard University (A.B., Summa Cum Laude,Phi Beta Kappa, 1966), andCalifornia Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1974). He is the son of the American violinistLeonard Sorkin.
Sorkin believes that the successful solution ofquantum gravity will involve both a reevaluation ofgravity in terms of a discrete structure underlying continuousspacetime, and also a reformulation ofquantum mechanics. He also hypothesises that the phenomena of topology change and thethermodynamics of theblack hole structure provide important clues to the formation of the final synthesis. In this framework he has examined the quantum properties of topologicalgeons (particles created directly from the spacetimetopology). His findings include that the topological geons can exhibit remarkable statistical properties. He also discovered evidence that topology change is a required feature of any consistentquantum gravity theory. He has hunted the origin of ablack hole's entropy to discover more about how it relates to the synthesis ofquantum mechanics and the theory ofgeneral relativity.
He also introducedanhomomorphic logic, a new interpretation of quantum theory.
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