Göran Lindblad (physicist)
{{Short description|Swedish theoretical physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Göran Lindblad
| image = Goran-Lindblad-photo.gif
| birth_date = {{birth date |1940|7|9|df=y}}
| birth_place = Boden, Sweden
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|11|30|1940|7|9|df=y}}
| known_for = Lindblad equation
data-processing inequality for quantum relative entropy
| footnotes =
| field = Theoretical physics
| work_institution = KTH Royal Institute of Technology
| thesis_title = The concepts of information and entropy applied to the measurement process in quantum theory and statistical mechanics
| thesis_year = 1974
| doctoral_advisor = Bengt Nagel
}}
Göran Lindblad (9 July 1940 – 30 November 2022) was a Swedish theoretical physicist and a professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.{{cite web|last1=Lindblad|first1=Göran|title=Göran Lindblad |url=http://theophys.kth.se/~gli/|publisher=KTH AlbaNova|access-date=22 December 2017}} He made major foundational contributions in mathematical physics and quantum information theory, having to do with open quantum systems, entropy inequalities, and quantum measurements.
Personal life
Lindblad was born in Boden, Sweden on July 9, 1940, and grew up in Örebro, Sweden. Besides physics, he took an interest in history. He died on November 30, 2022, near his home in Johanneshov, Sweden.{{cite web |last1=Bardarson |first1=Jens |title=Göran Lindblad |url=https://www.physics.kth.se/condensed/goran-lindblad-1.1211657 |access-date=December 12, 2022}}
Career
Lindblad spent his entire career, starting from his undergraduate days, at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He defended his PhD thesis, entitled "The concepts of information and entropy applied to the measurement process in quantum theory and statistical mechanics," on May 29, 1974.{{cite book |last1=Lindblad |first1=Göran |title=The concepts of information and entropy applied to the measurement process in quantum theory and statistical mechanics |date=May 1974 |url=https://catalog.crl.edu/Record/e29605c2-2869-5434-a865-9a6f97a09294|publisher=KTH Royal Institute of Technology}} His PhD thesis summarized the contents of some important contributions to quantum information theory, including his proof of the data-processing inequality for quantum relative entropy, communicated in a series of three research publications.{{cite journal |last1=Lindblad |first1=Göran |title=Entropy, information and quantum measurements |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |date=December 1973 |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=305–322 |doi=10.1007/BF01646743 |bibcode=1973CMaPh..33..305L |s2cid=119907001 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01646743}}{{cite journal |last1=Lindblad |first1=Göran |title=Expectations and entropy inequalities for finite quantum systems |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |date=June 1974 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=111–119 |doi=10.1007/BF01608390 |bibcode=1974CMaPh..39..111L |s2cid=120760667 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01608390}}{{cite journal |last1=Lindblad |first1=Göran |title=Completely positive maps and entropy inequalities |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |date=June 1975 |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=147–151 |doi=10.1007/BF01609396 |bibcode=1975CMaPh..40..147L |s2cid=121650206 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01609396}}
Shortly after his PhD thesis work, he derived his most well known scientific contribution, what is known as the Lindblad equation.{{cite journal |last1=Lindblad |first1=Göran |title=On the generators of quantum dynamical semigroups |journal=Communications in Mathematical Physics |date=June 1976 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=119–130 |doi=10.1007/BF01608499 |bibcode=1976CMaPh..48..119L |s2cid=55220796 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/bf01608499}} As the Schrödinger equation describes the evolution of a closed quantum system, the Lindblad equation is a generalization, describing the evolution of an open quantum system, in which a system of interest is interacting with an uncontrollable environment. The Lindblad equation is a significant theoretical contribution and is widely used in many fields of physics, including quantum optics and condensed matter. It is also now the most common method for describing noise that affects various quantum technologies, in the domains of quantum communication and computation.
He published a monograph on two related conceptual problems in the foundations of statistical mechanics, concerning the derivation of the irreversibility of the observed macroscopic behavior from the reversible microscopic laws of motion and the definition of an entropy function on non-equilibrium quantum states.{{cite book |last1=Lindblad |first1=Göran |title=Non-Equilibrium Entropy and Irreversibility |date=August 1983 |publisher=D. Reidel Publishing Company, Member of Kluwer Academic Publishers Group |location=Dordrecht |isbn=978-9027716408 |url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9027716404/}}
He retired on July 1, 2005, and was a professor emeritus since that time.
References
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