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François Englert

Nobel Prize Laureate François Englert during press conference in

Stockholm, December 2013

François Baron Englert   (French:   [ɑ̃ɡlɛʁ]; born 6November 1932) is a Belgian theoretical physicist and2013 Nobel prize laureate (shared with Peter Higgs). Heis Professor emeritus at the Université libre de Bruxelles(ULB) where he is member of the Service de PhysiqueThéorique. He is also a Sackler Professor by Special Ap-pointment in the School of Physics and Astronomy at TelAviv University and a member of the Institute for Quan-tum Studies at   Chapman University   in California. Hewas awarded the 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoreti-

cal Particle Physics (with Gerry Guralnik, C. R. Hagen,Tom Kibble, Peter Higgs, and Robert Brout), the WolfPrize in Physics in 2004 (with Brout and Higgs) and theHigh Energy and Particle Prize of the European PhysicalSociety (with Brout and Higgs) in 1997 for the mecha-nism which unifies short and long range interactions bygenerating massive gauge vector bosons. He has madecontributions in statistical physics, quantum field theory,cosmology, string theory and supergravity.[4] Heis the re-cipient of the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award in technicaland scientific research, together with Peter Higgs and theCERN.

Englert was awarded the 2013  Nobel Prize in Physics,together with Peter Higgs for the discovery of the Higgsmechanism.[5]

1 Early life

François Englert is a Holocaust survivor.[6] He was bornin a Belgian Jewish family. During the German occu-pation of Belgium in World War II, he had to concealhis Jewish identity and live in orphanages and children’shomes in the towns of Dinant, Lustin, Stoumont and, fi-nally,  Annevoie-Rouillon. These towns were eventuallyliberated by the US Army.

2 Academic career

He graduated as an electromechanical engineer in 1955from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) where hereceived his PhD in physical sciences in 1959. From1959 until 1961, he worked at  Cornell University, firstas a research associate of Robert Brout and then as as-sistant professor. He then returned to the ULB where hebecame a university professor and was joined there byRobert Brout who, in 1980, with Englert coheaded thetheoretical physics group. In 1998 Englert became pro-

fessor emeritus. In 1984 Professor Englert was first ap-pointed as a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment inthe School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel-Aviv Univer-sity. Englert joined Chapman University’s Institute forQuantum Studies in 2011, where he serves as a Distin-guished Visiting Professor.

3 The Brout–Englert–Higgs–

Guralnik–Hagen–Kibble

mechanism[7]

Brout and Englert showed in 1964[8] that gauge vec-tor fields, abelian and non-abelian, could acquire massif empty space were endowed with a particular type ofstructure that one encounters in material systems. Fo-cusing on the failure of the Goldstone theorem for gaugefields,[9] Higgs reached essentially the same result.[10] Athird paper on the subject was written later in the sameyear by Gerald Guralnik,  C. R. Hagen, and Tom Kib-ble.[11] The three papers written on this boson discov-ery by Higgs, Englert and Brout, and Guralnik, Hagen,Kibble were each recognized as milestone papers for this

discovery by Physical Review Letters  50th anniversarycelebration.[12] While each of these famous papers tooksimilar approaches, the contributions and differences be-

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2   5 REFERENCES 

tween the 1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers is note-worthy.

To illustrate the structure, consider a ferromagnet whichis composed of atoms each equipped with a tiny magnet.When these magnets are lined up, the inside of the fer-

romagnet bears a strong analogy to the way empty spacecan be structured. Gauge vector fields that are sensitive tothis structure of empty space can only propagate over a fi-nite distance. Thus they mediate short range interactionsand acquire mass. Those fields that are not sensitive tothe structure propagate unhindered. They remain mass-less and are responsible for the long range interactions.In this way, the mechanism accommodates within a sin-gle unified theory both short and long-range interactions.

Brout  and Englert, Higgs, and  Gerald Guralnik,  C. R.Hagen, and Tom Kibble introduced as agent of the vac-uum structure a scalar field (most often called the Higgs

field) which many physicists view as the agent respon-sible for the masses of fundamental particles. Broutand Englert also showed that the mechanism may remainvalid if the scalar field is replaced by a more structuredagent such as a fermion condensate. Their approach ledthem to conjecture that the theory is renormalizable.[13]

The eventual proof of renormalizability, a major achieve-ment of twentieth century physics, is due to  Gerardus 'tHooft and Martinus Veltman who were awarded the 1999Nobel Prize  for this work. The Brout–Englert–Higgs–Guralnik–Hagen–Kibble mechanism is the building stoneof the electroweak theory of elementary particles and laidthe foundation of a unified view of the basic laws of na-

ture.

4 Major awards

•   1978 First Prize in the International Gravity Contest(with R. Brout andE. Gunzig), awarded by the Grav-ity Research Foundation for the essay “The CausalUniverse”.[14]

•   1982   Francqui Prize, awarded by the   FrancquiFoundation   once every four years in exact sci-ences “For his contribution to the theoretical un-derstanding of spontaneous symmetry breaking inthe physics of fundamental interactions, where, withRobert Brout, he was the first to show that spon-taneous symmetry breaking in gauge theories givesmass to the gauge particles, for his extensive contri-butions in other domains, such as solid state physics,statistical mechanics, quantum field theory, generalrelativity and cosmology, for the originality and thefundamental importance of these achievements”.

•  1997 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize (with

R. Brout and P.W. Higgs), awarded by the EuropeanPhysical Society “For formulating for the first timea self-consistent theory of charged massive vector

bosons which became the foundation of the elec-troweak theory of elementary particles”.[15]

•   2004 Wolf Prize in Physics (with R. Brout and P.W.Higgs), awarded by the Wolf Foundation “For pio-neering work that has led to the insight of mass gen-

eration, whenever a local gauge symmetry is real-ized asymmetrically in the world of sub-atomic par-ticles”.

•   2010   J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical ParticlePhysics (with Guralnik, Hagen, Kibble, Higgs, andBrout) awarded by The American Physical Society“For elucidation of the properties of spontaneoussymmetry breaking in four-dimensional relativisticgauge theory and of the mechanism for the consis-tent generation of vector boson masses”.[16]

•   By Royal Decree of 8 July 2013 François Englert

was ennobled a baron by King Albert II of Belgium.

•   2013 Nobel prize in physics. On 8 October 2013,it was announced that Peter Higgs and François En-glert would share the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics“for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism thatcontributes to our understanding of the origin ofmass of subatomic particles, and which recently wasconfirmed through the discovery of the predictedfundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS ex-periments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider”.[17]

5 References

[1]   “CV”. Francquifoundation.be. 1982-04-17. Retrieved

2013-10-08.

[2]   Tel Aviv U. affiliated prof. who is a Holocaust survivor

wins Nobel for physics, The Jerusalem Post , Danielle Ziri,

10/08/2013

[3]   Tel Aviv University professor shares Nobel for physics,

Haaretz, 8 October 2013

[4]  Publication list

[5]   “The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013” (PDF) (Press release).

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 8 October 2013.

Retrieved 8 October 2013.

[6]  USC Shoah Foundation Institute testimony of Francois

Englert - USHMM Collections Search

[7]   “Higgs–Brout–Englert–Guralnik–Hagen–Kibble Mecha-

nism on Scholarpedia”. Scholarpedia.org. Retrieved

2013-10-08.

[8] F. Englert and R. Brout Phys.Rev.Lett.  13 321 (1964).

[9] P. W. Higgs Physics Letters  12  132 (1964).

[10] P. W. Higgs Phys.Rev.Lett.  13  508 (1964).

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[11] Guralnik, G.; Hagen, C.; Kibble, T. (1964). “Global Con-

servation Laws and Massless Particles”.   Physical Review

Letters   13   (20): 585.   Bibcode:1964PhRvL..13..585G.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.585.

[12]   “Physical Review Letters - 50th Anniversary Milestone

Papers”. Prl.aps.org. Retrieved 2013-10-08.

[13]   Fundamental Problems in Elementary Particle Physics ,

Proceedings of the 14th Solvay Conference, Universityof Brussels, 2–7 October 1967 (John Wiley, New York,

1968) page 18.

[14]   “Gravity Research Foundation Awards”. Gravityre-

searchfoundation.org. Retrieved 2013-10-08.

[15]  EPS High Energy Prize Laureates

[16]   “American Physical Society - J. J. Sakurai Prize Win-

ners”. Aps.org. Retrieved 2013-10-08.

[17]   “Press release from Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”

(PDF). 8 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.

6 External links

•   François Englert’s personal webpage

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4   7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES 

7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1 Text

•   François Englert Source:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Englert?oldid=660035134 Contributors:  Tpbradbury, Bearcat,Timrollpickering, Edcolins, Xtreambar, Engti, David Schaich, Bender235, Kwamikagami, Fdewaele, Emerson7, Rjwilmsi, Eamon-nPKeane, Wester, Pnicolet, David Biddulph, SmackBot, Ephraim33, GRuban, John, Gobonobo, RandomCritic, Eastfrisian, Dl2000,

Cydebot, Gonzo fan2007, Headbomb, Pvosta, Ceancata, Hans Dunkelberg, Haydarhan, Gaussgauss, Moose-32, SieBot, BotMultichill,Afernand74, Sean.hoyland, RS1900, Frmorrison, Alexbot, Muro Bot, RogDel, Addbot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, ArthurBot, Omnipaedista, ,Gershonavi, Arbero, Lightlowemon, Mary at CERN, RjwilmsiBot, EmausBot, Kercker, Bengt Nyman, Sergent perkins, ZéroBot, BabbaQ,ClueBot NG, Ypnypn, Muon, Julesjulian, Widr, Bibcode Bot, EuroAgurbash, Athos, Prav001, Brad7777, Helihax, Eakopskvm, VIAF-bot, YvelinesFrance, Jamesx12345, Backendgaming, RaphaelQS, Pengolodhlerner, Atotalstranger, Hgt001, Chausssettte, Jonarnold1985,KasparBot and Anonymous: 45

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