Johann Rafelski

Johann Rafelski
Born (1950-05-19) 19 May 1950 (age 74)
Kraków, Poland
NationalityUS, German
Alma materJohann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Known forStructure of the Vacuum State and Energy in Strong External Field quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics, Muon-catalyzed fusion, Hadronization and Hagedorn temperature, Deconfinement of quarks (QGP) in relativistic heavy ion collisions, Strangeness as signature of quark–gluon plasma, quark matter
Spouses
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(m. 1973; died 2000)​
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(m. 2003)​
ChildrenMarc Rafelski, Susanne Rafelski
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
InstitutionsUniversity of Arizona
Doctoral advisorWalter Greiner
Johann Rafelski lecturing at the International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter in 2011.

Johann Rafelski (born 19 May 1950) is a German-American theoretical physicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Arizona in Tucson,[1] guest scientist at CERN (Geneva),[2] and has been LMU-Excellent Guest Professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany.

Rafelski's current research interests center around investigation of the vacuum structure of QCD and QED in the presence of strong fields; study of the QCD vacuum structure and deconfinement with strange particle production[3] in deconfined quark–gluon plasma formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions; the formation of matter out of quark–gluon plasma in the hadronization process,[4] also in the early Universe;[5] considering antimatter formation and annihilation. He has also contributed to the physics of table top muon-catalyzed fusion[6] and the ascent of ultrashort laser light pulses[7] as a new tool in this domain of physics. He contributed to understanding of neural nets and artificial intelligence[8] showing importance of neural plasticity and "sleep".

  1. ^ "Faculty Senate roster". The University of Arizona. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  2. ^ "Rafelski's scientific articles published with CERN affiliation". INSPIRE HEP database. 10 March 2020.
  3. ^ Rafelski, Johann; Müller, Berndt (1986). "Strangeness Production in the Quark–Gluon Plasma". Physical Review Letters. 56 (21): 2334. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.2334. ISSN 0031-9007.
  4. ^ Koch, P; Müller, B; Rafelski, J (1986). "Strangeness in relativistic heavy ion collisions". Physics Reports. 142 (4): 167–262. Bibcode:1986PhR...142..167K. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.462.8703. doi:10.1016/0370-1573(86)90096-7. ISSN 0370-1573.
  5. ^ Fromerth, Michael J.; Rafelski, Johann (2003-04-15). "Hadronization of the Quark Universe". arXiv:astro-ph/0211346.
  6. ^ Rafelski, Johann; Jones, Steven E. (1987). "Cold Nuclear Fusion". Scientific American. 257 (1): 84–89. Bibcode:1987SciAm.257a..84R. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0787-84. ISSN 0036-8733. JSTOR 24979424.
  7. ^ Cowen, Ron (2013). "Two-laser boron fusion lights the way to radiation-free energy". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2013.13914. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 137981473.
  8. ^ Clark, John W.; Rafelski, Johann; Winston, Jeffrey V. (1985). "Brain without mind: Computer simulation of neural networks with modifiable neuronal interactions". Physics Reports. 123 (4): 215–273. Bibcode:1985PhR...123..215C. doi:10.1016/0370-1573(85)90038-9. ISSN 0370-1573.