Rudolf Haag

Rudolf Haag (* 17th August 1922 in Tübingen, Germany) is a German physicist. He is best known for his contributions to the algebraic formulation of axiomatic quantum field theory, namely the Haag-Kastler axioms, and a central no-go theorem in QFT, Haag's theorem, which demonstrates the nonexistence of a unitary time-evolution operator in the interaction picture.

Haag studied Physics at Technische Hochschule Stuttgart, now the University of Stuttgart, from 1948 to 1954 and then worked on his dissertation in Munich. His supervisor was Fritz Bopp. From 1956 to 1957 he was at Max Planck Institute in Göttingen. After doing one year each as visiting professor at Princeton University and University of Marseille, he was professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for six years until 1966.

After that and until his retirement he held a chair for theoretical physics at the University of Hamburg.

In 1965 he founded the journal Communications in Mathematical Physics.

He was awarded the Max Planck medal in 1970 and the Poincaré Prize of the International Association of Mathematical Physics in 1997.

See also

* Haag-Lopuszanski-Sohnius theorem

* Haag-Kastler axioms

* Haag's theorem

References

* An algebraic approach to quantum field theory by Rudolf Haag, Daniel Kastler (Illinois U., Urbana), J.Math.Phys.5:848-861,1964

Links

A picture of Rudolf Haag at II. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Hamburg University (Photographer: Ralf D. Tscheuschner, a pupil of Haag)

Further reading

* Kastler, Daniel (2003): "Rudolf Haag - Eighty Years". Communications in Mathematical Physics (ISSN 0010-3616), Vol 237, No 1, pp 3-6. (doi:10.1007/s00220-003-0829-1)