Steven C. Frautschi (/ˈfraʊtʃi/; born December 6, 1933) is an Americantheoretical physicist, currently professor of physics emeritus at theCalifornia Institute of Technology (Caltech). He is known principally for his contributions to thebootstrap theory of the strong interactions and for his contribution to the resolution of theinfrared divergence problem inquantum electrodynamics (QED). He was named a Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society in 2015 for "contributions to the introduction ofRegge poles into particle physics, elucidation of the role of infrared photons in high energy scattering, and for seminal contributions to undergraduate physics education".[1]
Frautschi graduated fromHarvard College in 1954 and received his PhD fromStanford University in 1958, having written his dissertation onPC conservation in strong interactions and wide angle pair production and quantum electrodynamics at small distances, under the supervision ofSidney Drell. Frautschi worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the groups ofHideki Yukawa atKyoto University and later ofGeoffrey Chew at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. He was an assistant professor atCornell University before moving to Caltech in 1962. At Caltech he was the Executive Officer for Physics in 1988-97, and Master of Student Houses in 1997-2002. He received the Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2014.[2]
In 1961, Chew and Frautschi discovered that themesons fall into straight-lineRegge trajectories[3] (in their scheme,spin is plotted against mass squared on a so-calledChew–Frautschi plot), and the two of them introduced thepomeron into the western literature. Frautschi's most well known contribution to strong-interaction theory was thestatistical bootstrap, a prediction that the number of hadronic states grows exponentially with energy. This is nowadays understood as a manifestation of the deconfinement phase transition. The exponential growth is incorporated intostring theory, where it is known as theHagedorn temperature. (ThisS-matrix approach to the strong interactions was largely abandoned by the particle physics community in the 1970s in light ofquantum chromodynamics.)
In 1961, withDonald R. Yennie andHiroshi Suura, he elucidated the role of infrared photons properly summed in high-energyQED.[4] This work was one of the keys to solving the problem ofinfrared divergences ingauge theories.
One of Frautschi's doctoral students at Caltech wasRoger Dashen.
His daughters,Jennifer and Laura, are both professional violinists.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
