Robert Griffiths (physicist)

Robert Griffiths ( born February 25, 1937 in Etah, Uttar Pradesh ) is an American physicist who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Life and work

Griffiths studied at Princeton University (Bachelor 1957) and Stanford University (Master 's degree in 1958 ), where he received his doctorate in 1962. From 1964, he was first an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he became professor in 1969. he is there Otto Stern University Professor of Physics since 1979. In 1969 he was a visiting professor at SUNY.

Griffiths is known for his work on mathematical statistical mechanics in the 1960s and 1970s, for example, via the Ising model ( Griffiths inequalities for Ising model correlations )

He developed from 1984 onwards with Roland Omnes, Murray Gell-Mann, James Hartle and others, the "Consistent Histories" (or " Decoherent Histories" ) - interpretation of quantum mechanics. It is based on the Copenhagen interpretation of Niels Bohr, after never more properties of a particle can be measured simultaneously. They must therefore be measured sequentially and merged into a " consistent history ".

In 1984 he received the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics.