Christof Wetterich

Christof Wetterich ( born April 12, 1952 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) is a German theoretical physicist.

Life and work

Christof Wetterich studied physics in Paris, Cologne and Freiburg, where he also received his diploma in 1978. He received his doctorate in 1979 and his habilitation in 1983 in Freiburg. From 1981 to 1983 he worked at CERN in Geneva and in the following years until 1985 as Assistant Professor in Bern, from March to August 1985, he was again at CERN, as Heisenberg Fellow. From 1984 to 1992 he worked at DESY in Hamburg. Since 1992 Wetterich is professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg.

He was from 1996 to 1998 Member of the Scientific Council of DESY and since 1998 a member of the selection committee for award winners of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Quintessence

Wetterich research in the astrophysics and particle physics. He struck the first the existence of a " dynamic dark energy ", which quintessence. His quintessence model provides a popular explanation for the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Free expansion of the universe

In contrast to the prevailing opinion Wetterich sees the cosmic expansion is not as fact, but only has as a possible interpretation of the observed redshift. An equivalent view is to interpret them as an increase of all masses in the universe. Distant objects would thus appear to us as red-shifted due to their lower masses in the past.

An expansion of the universe would have taken place only in the inflation phase. This would now be static or befände even in the state of contraction. The model is consistent with all observations and also avoids the problem of big bang singularity, since this delay infinitely far into the past.

Awards and prizes

  • 2005 - Max Planck Research Prize jointly with Christopher Carilli
  • In the summer semester 2014 the holder of the 15 Johannes Gutenberg Endowed Professorship at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
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