Gerardus 't Hooft

Infobox_Scientist
name = Gerardus 't Hooft


imagesize=190px
caption =Harvard University, December 2003
birth_date = birth date and age|1946|7|5
birth_place = Den Helder, The Netherlands
nationality = Netherlands
field = Theoretical physics
work_institution = Utrecht University
alma_mater = Utrecht University
doctoral_advisor = Martinus J. G. Veltman
doctoral_students = Robbert Dijkgraaf and Herman Verlinde
known_for = Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Gravity
prizes = Nobel Prize in Physics (1999)
Wolf Prize (1981)
Lorentz Medal (1986)
Spinozapremie (1995)

Gerardus 't Hooft (pronounced|xeːrɑrt ət hoːft) (born July 5, 1946, Den Helder) is a professor in theoretical physics at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with Martinus J. G. Veltman "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions". Asteroid 9491 Thooft is named in his honor; he has written a constitution for its future inhabitants. He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1986 and the Spinozapremie in 1995.Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Frits Zernike was his great-uncle.

The name 't Hooft means "the head" or "the main" ('t is short for "het"). He is married to Albertha Schik (Betteke) and has two daughters, Saskia and Ellen. Saskia is currently translating one of her father's popular Dutch fiction books 'Planetenbiljart' into English. The book's title will be 'Playing with Planets' and is expected to be in stores as of December 31, 2008.

Important work

* A proof that gauge theories are renormalizable
* Other results about gauge theory, confinement, and anomalies
* 't Hooft was the first to realise that gauge theories simplify in the large $N$ limit. He solved the theory in 1+1 dimensions, discovering an equation for the meson masses.cite book
last = Coleman
first = Sidney
authorlink = Sidney Coleman
title = Aspects of Symmetry
publisher = Cambridge University Press
date = 1988
id = ISBN 0-521-31827-0 ] This topological expansion of large $N$ gauge theories has proved important in the AdS/CFT correspondence in string theory
* 't Hooft magnetic loop (related to Wilson loop by S-duality)
* Instanton contributions to interactions of fermions ('t Hooft interaction)
* Holographic principle (with Leonard Susskind) and other proposals about quantum gravity
* Recent attempts to revive hidden variables in quantum mechanics

ee also

* 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole
* 't Hooft symbol

References

External links

* [http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1999/index.html Nobel Prize citation]
* [http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1999/thooft-lecture.html Nobel Lecture]
* [http://www.phys.uu.nl/~thooft/ Homepage] of G. 't Hooft.
* [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=author%3A%22G+Hooft%22+OR+author%3A%22G+%27t+Hooft%22&btnG=Search&as_subj=phy Publications] from Google Scholar.
* [http://www.arxiv.org/find/hep-th/1/au:+Hooft_G/0/1/0/all/0/1 Publications] on the Arxiv.
* [http://www.phys.uu.nl/~thooft/theorist.html How To Become a Good Theoretical Physicist, by Gerard 't Hooft]