Joël Scherk
Joël Scherk (1946 – 16 May 1980) (often cited as Joel Scherk) was a French theoretical physicist who studied string theory and supergravity[1]. Together with John H. Schwarz, he figured out that string theory was a theory of quantum gravity in 1974. In 1978, together with Eugène Cremmer and Bernard Julia, Scherk constructed the Lagrangian and supersymmetry transformations for supergravity in eleven dimensions[2], which is one of the foundations of M-theory.
He died unexpectedly, and in tragic circumstances, months after the supergravity workshop at the State University of New York at Stony Brook that was held on 27-29 September 1979. The workshop proceedings were dedicated to his memory, and stated that he suffered from diabetes, and got stuck somewhere without his insulin, and went into a coma.[3]
The high-energy theory library of the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique at École Normale Supérieure (Paris) is dedicated in his honor. A conference in Paris, on 16-20 October 2006, celebrating 30 years of Supergravity[4], was dedicated to Scherk.
[edit] Sources & references
- ^ SPIRES list of Joël Scherk's scientific publications: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?AUTHOR=Joel+Scherk&FORMAT=WWW
- ^ Supergravity Theory In Eleven Dimensions. E. Cremmer, B. Julia, and J. Scherk (Ecole Normale Superieure). LPTENS-78-10, Mar 1978. Published in Phys. Lett. B76 (1978) 409-412. Scanned version (KEK Library) http://ccdb4fs.kek.jp/cgi-bin/img_index?7805106
- ^ Supergravity. Proceedings of a Workshop at Stony Brook, 27–29 September 1979. P. Van Nieuwenhuizen, D.Z. Freedman (SUNY, Stony Brook), editors. Amsterdam, Netherlands: North-holland (1979) 341 pages.
- ^ 30 Years of Supergravity
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