Thomas Spencer (mathematical physicist)

Thomas C. Spencer (born 24 December 1946 in New York City ) is an American mathematical physicist who works mainly in constructive quantum field theory and mathematical statistical mechanics.

Spencer made in 1968 at the University of California, Berkeley with a BA and received his doctorate in 1972 at the New York University with James Glimm ( perturbation of the quantum field Hamiltonian ). He was then to 1975 at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University and 1974/75 Fellow at Harvard University. 1975 to 1977 he was Associate Professor at the Rockefeller University, 1978-1980 Professor at Rutgers University, and thereafter until 1986 at the Courant Institute. 1972 to 1974 he was at Princeton, where he is a professor since 1987 at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Spencer is known for his mathematical studies of the theory of phase transitions, partly in collaboration with Barry Simon and Jürg Fröhlich ( eg existence of the Kosterlitz - Thouless transition in two-dimensional models such as the " planar rotator " and the Coulomb gas, with Cheerful Simon and existence of phase transitions in systems with continuous symmetry and at least three dimensions). Spencer and co-workers were able to prove mathematically "universality" (independence of some critical exponents of disorders of the model parameters ) in the two-dimensional Ising model. He also studied stochastic partial differential equations, worked for over turbulent, chaotic dynamical systems, random matrices and supersymmetric path integrals, which are in disordered solids applications (localization theory).

In 1987 he held the Gibbs Lecture of the American Mathematical Society ( Schrödinger operators and dynamical systems ). In 1997 he received the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics with Jürg Fröhlich. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1999. In 1986 he was invited speaker at the ICM, Berkeley (random and quasiperiodic Schrödinger operators ).