Res Jost

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Res Jost

| image = ETH-BIB-Jost,_Res_(1918-1990)-Portr_12948_(cropped).tif

| awards = Max Planck medal (1984)

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|01|10|df=y}}

| birth_place = Bern, Switzerland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1990|10|03|1918|01|10|df=y}}

| death_place = Zurich, Switzerland

| nationality = Swiss

| fields = Theoretical physics

| workplaces = ETH Zurich

| alma_mater = University of Zurich

| thesis_title = Zur Ladungsabhängigkeit der Kernkräfte in der Vektormesontheorie ohne neutrale Mesonen

| thesis_year = 1946

| thesis_url = http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-111700

| doctoral_advisor = Gregor Wentzel

| doctoral_students = {{Unbulleted list|Sergio Albeverio|Klaus Hepp|Walter Hunziker|Konrad Osterwalder|David Ruelle|Eduard Zehnder}}

| known_for = Jost function

}}

Res Jost (10 January 1918 – 3 October 1990) was a Swiss theoretical physicist, who worked mainly in constructive quantum field theory.{{cite journal|last1=Kohn|first1=Walter|last2=Ruelle|first2=David|last3=Wightman|first3=Arthur|title=Obituary: Res Jost|journal=Physics Today|date=February 1992|volume=45|issue=2|pages=120–121|url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.2809552|doi=10.1063/1.2809552|url-access=subscription}}

Biography

Res Jost was born on January 10, 1918, in Bern. He is the son of the physics teacher Wilhelm Jost and Hermine Spycher. In 1949 Jost married the Viennese physicist Hilde Fleischer. Jost studied in Bern and at the University of Zurich, where he received his doctorate in 1946 under the supervision of the German physicist Gregor Wentzel.The doctoral thesis is {{cite thesis|last=Jost|first=Res|date=1946|title=Zur Ladungsabhängigkeit der Kernkräfte in der Vektormesontheorie ohne neutrale Mesonen|lang=de|url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=hpa-001:1946:19::576|place=Zurich}} He then spent half a year with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, where he introduced the Jost function into scattering theory. Afterwards, he worked as an assistant of Wolfgang Pauli in Zurich. From 1949 to 1955 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he worked with Walter Kohn, Joaquin Mazdak Luttinger and Abraham Pais among others. From 1955, he was associate professor for theoretical physics at ETH and starting from 1959 full professor. In 1964, he and Rudolf Haag created the journal Communications in Mathematical Physics.{{cite web|first=Arthur|last=Jaffe|url=https://www.arthurjaffe.com/Assets/documents/CMPFounding.htm|title=Haag's visit in honor of 40 years of Communications in Mathematical Physics|website=arthurjaffe.com|access-date=February 9, 2021}}{{cite journal|last=Jaffe|first=Arthur|title=50 Years of Communications in Mathematical Physics|journal=News Bulletin, International Association of Mathematical Physics|pages=15–26|year=2015|url=http://www.iamp.org/bulletins/old-bulletins/Bulletin-July2015-print.pdf}} He died on October 3, 1990, in Zurich.{{HLS|28862|Jost, Res|author=Günter Scharf}}

Jost researched quantum-mechanical scattering theory (also inverse scattering theory: Reconstruction of potentials from scattering data) and the mathematical quantum field theory, where he in 1958 with the methods of Arthur Strong Wightman proved the PCT theorem and in 1957 introduced the Jost–Lehmann–Dyson representation,{{Cite journal|last1=Jost|first1=Res|last2=Lehmann|first2=Harry|title=Integral-Darstellung kausaler Kommutatoren|journal=Nuovo Cimento|volume=5|pages=1598–1610|year=1957|issue=6|doi=10.1007/bf02856049|bibcode=1957NCim....5.1598J|s2cid=123500326|language=de}} {{Cite journal|last=Dyson|first=Freeman J|title=Integral representations of causal commutators|journal=Physical Review|volume=110|page=1460|year=1958|issue=6|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.110.1460|bibcode=1958PhRv..110.1460D}} an integral representation of the expectancy value of the commutator of two field operators.

Honors and awards

Since 1977 Jost was corresponding member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.{{cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/46001.html|title=National Academy of Sciences member page of Res Jost|website=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=March 6, 2021}} In 1984 Jost received the Max Planck Medal for outstanding achievements in theoretical physics.{{cite web |url=https://www.dpg-physik.de/auszeichnungen/dpg-preise/max-planck-medaille/preistraeger|title=Max Planck Medal Prize winners|website=German Physical Society|language=de|access-date=March 6, 2021}}

Selected works

{{cite book|last=Jost|first=Res|date=1965|title=The general theory of quantized fields|publisher=American Mathematical Society|volume=4|asin=B0007DUAUK}}
{{cite book|last=Jost|first=Res|editor1-first=Klaus|editor1-last=Hepp|editor2-first=Walter|editor2-last=Hunziker|editor3-first=Walter|editor3-last=Kohn|date=1995|title=Das Märchen vom Elfenbeinernen Turm. Reden und Aufsätze|series=Lecture Notes in Physics Monographs|volume=34|language=de|publisher=Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg|doi=10.1007/978-3-540-49276-4|isbn=978-3540492764}}
{{cite book|last1=Jost|first1=Res|last2=Schneider|first2=Walter|date=1969|title=Quantenmechanik: nach Vorlesungen im Wintersemester 1966/67|publisher=Vereins der Mathematiker und Physiker an der ETH Zürich|language=de}}
{{cite book|volume=45|editor1-last=Jost|editor1-first=Res|editor2=Italian Physical Society|date=1969|title=Local quantum theory|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=9780123688453}}
{{cite journal|last=Jost|first=Res|title=Erinnerungen: Erlesenes und Erlebtes|journal=Physikalische Blätter|volume=40|pages=178–181|year=1984|issue=7|doi=10.1002/phbl.19840400706|language=de|doi-access=free}}

References

External links

{{MathGenealogy|id=55304|title=Res Jost}}.
{{DNB-Portal|119291959}}.
{{zbMATH|id=jost.res}}.
{{HLS|28862|Jost, Res|author=Günter Scharf}}
{{cite web|url=http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/~streater/jost.html|title=Ray Streater's tribute to Jost's lectures at the IAS in 1960|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608021251/http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/~streater/jost.html|access-date=March 7, 2021|archive-date=2011-06-08}}

Category:1918 births

Category:1990 deaths

Category:Theoretical physicists

Category:Mathematical physicists

Category:Swiss physicists

Category:Academic staff of ETH Zurich

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

Category:University of Zurich alumni

Category:20th-century Swiss physicists

Category:Quantum physicists

Category:Swiss science writers

Category:20th-century Swiss non-fiction writers