George Sudarshan
Ennakkal Chandy George Sudarshan (
September 16,
1931,
Pallam, in
Kottayam district of
Kerala) is a prominent
Indian-
American physicist, author, and professor at the
University of Texas at Austin.
Sudarshan graduated with honors from the
Madras Christian College in 1951. He did his master's at the
University of Madras, India, in 1952. In 1958, he received his Ph.D. from the
University of Rochester, New York.
Sudarshan has made significant contributions to several areas of physics. He was the originator (with
Robert Marshak) of the V-A theory of the
weak force (also done independently later by
Richard Feynman and
Murray Gell-Mann), which eventually paved the way for the electroweak theory. He also developed a quantum representation of coherent light, which is now known as the
Sudarshan-Glauber representation.
Sudarshan's most significant work might be his contribution to the field of
quantum optics. His theorem proves the equivalence of classical wave optics to quantum optics. The theorem makes use of the Sudarshan-Glauber representation. This representation also predicts optical effects that are puerly quantum, and cannot be explained classically.
Sudarshan has made significant contribution to many other fields of physics. He was the first to propose the existence of
tachyons, particles that travel faster than light. He developed formalism called
dynamical maps that is one of the most fundamental formalism to study the theory of
open quantum system. He, in collaboration with
Baidyanaith Misra, also proposed the
quantum Zeno effect.
He has taught at the
Tata Institute Of Fundamental Research (
TIFR), University Of Rochester,
Syracuse University, and
Harvard. From 1969 onwards, he has been a Professor of Physics at the University Of Texas, Austin and a Senior Professor at the
Indian Institute of Science.
His areas of interest include
elementary particle physics,
quantum optics,
quantum information,
quantum field theory,
gauge field theories,
classical mechanics and foundations of physics. He is also deeply interested in
Vedanta, on which he lectures frequently.
There was a controversy involving Sudarshan and the
Nobel Prize in physics for 2005. A representation was made to the Swedish Academy by several leading physicists that Sudarshan should have been awarded a share of the Prize for the Sudarshan-Glauber representation (or Sudarshan diagonal representation) in quantum optics for which
Roy J. Glauber won the prize.
Doubt and Certainty with
Tony RothmanClassical Dynamics with
N. MukundaFundamentals of Quantum Optics with
John Klauder Introduction to Elementry Particle Physics with
Robert Marshak*
Padma Bhushan decoration by President of
India, 1976.
* First
Prize in
Physics,
Third World Academy of Sciences, 1985.
*
Quantum open system*
Quantum optics*
Quantum Zeno effect*
Tachyon*
Weak interaction*
Home page with vita and publications*[
1] Publications on
ArXiv *[
2] Collected works
*
ECG Sudarshan on Keral.com*
Harvard Crimson account of 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics controversy
