H. David Politzer

Facts

H. David Politzer

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H. David Politzer
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2004

Born: 31 August 1949, New York, NY, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, USA

Prize motivation: “for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction”

Prize share: 1/3

Work

The atomic nucleus is held together by a powerful, strong interaction that binds together the protons and neutrons that comprise the nucleus. The strong interaction also holds together the quarks that make up protons and neutrons. This interaction is so strong that no free quarks have ever been observed. However, in 1973 David Politzer, David Gross, and Frank Wilczek came up with a theory postulating that when quarks come really close to one another, the attraction abates and they behave like free particles. This is called asymptotic freedom.

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MLA style: H. David Politzer – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Mon. 4 Nov 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2004/politzer/facts/>

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