Giovanni Jona-Lasinio

Giovanni Jona- Lasinio (* 1932 in Florence ) is an Italian theoretical physicist.

Jona- Lasinio was from 1970 to 1974 professor of electrical dynamics at the University of Padua and from 1974 professor of mathematical methods of physics at the University of Rome La Sapienza.

He is known for the Nambu -Jona - Lasinio model, which he examined in 1961 with Yoichiro Nambu. The quantum field theoretical model is modeled on the theory of superconductivity (formation of Cooper pairs ) and describes interacting Dirac fermions with chiral symmetry of the Lagrangian. It shows dynamic symmetry breaking ( chiral symmetry ), ie a fraction originally present in the Lagrangian symmetry by the interaction. Thus, it was the model for a whole series of later theories with dynamic symmetry breaking in particle physics (as in Technicolor or models for the study of quantum chromodynamics ).

A proposal by Di Castro and Jona- Lasinio 1969 to apply the theory of the renormalization group to the theory of phase transitions had an impact on the work of Kenneth Wilson in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, he examined the semiclassical limit of quantum mechanics. He also examined models of statistical mechanics for nonequilibrium systems.

He was a visiting scientist 1959/60 at the University of Chicago, 1964/65 at CERN, 1965/66 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1980/81 at the IHES and 1983/ 84 at the University of Paris VI (Pierre et Marie Curie ).

In 2006 he was awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize -. To him, the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics in 2012 and the Boltzmann Medal for 2013 was awarded.

Writings

• With Nambu: Dynamical model of elementary particles based on on analogy with superconductivity, Part 1, Physical Review, Bd.122, 1961, S.345 -358, Part 2, Bd.124, 1962, p.246 -254