Cecilia Jarlskog

Cecilia Jarlskog (born in 1941) is a Swedish theoretical physicist, working mainly on elementary particle physics.

Jarlskog obtained her doctorate in 1970 in theoretical particle physics at the Technical University of Lund.^[1][2] She is known for her work on CP violation in the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, introducing what is known as the Jarlskog invariant,^[3] and for her work on grand unified theories (see Georgi–Jarlskog mass relation).^[4]

Jarlskog was recognized by the Swedish Academy of Science community and was presented as one of the 5 members of the Swedish Noble Prize Committee of Physics in 1989 - 2000.^[5] Mainly known for her study and expertise in the theoretical particle physics, her studies include the research on sub-atomic and electronic constituents of matter cohere lose in symmetry, matter and antimatter asymmetry, mathematical physics, neutrino physics, and grand unification.^[6]

The Jarlskog Invariant^[7] is an invariant in particle physics. The equation reads as:.J=Im(VusVcbV∗ubV∗cs) and is used in elementary particle physics or quantifying CP violations. This is one of Jarlskog's best contributions to physics, the other being the many years she has spent as a member of CERN.^[8]

Jarlskog was a professor in Bergen, Norway in 1976 and a professor in Sweden in 1985. She is currently a professor of Lund University since 1994. Lund University is the same university which she graduated with a PhD in theoretical particle physics.

Jarlskog worked as a member of CERN in 1970 - 1972. She continued to reprised that role but as a CERN Scientific Policy committee in 1982 - 1988. In her remaining 6 years as a member of CERN, she served as the Advisor to the Director General of CERN in 1998 - 2004.^[9]

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. They use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles. The particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.

She recalls CERN’s(European Organization for Nuclear Research) international atmosphere enormously. Being a part of this community gave her great opportunities to meet and talk with inspiring physicists from across the world. She feels fortunate to have 'lived in a period when the amount of information revealed about the nature of the elementary constituents of matter and their interactions has been mind-boggling'.

Books and Articles

Cecilia Jarlskog wrote the book, Portrait of Gunnar Kallan: A Physics Shooting Star and Poet of Early Quantum Field Theory, while a member of Cern. Here she talks about the accomplishments of a relatively unknown physicist of quantum physics. Jarlskog has written many articles in her lifetime, among them are "Invariations of Lepton Mass Matrices and CP and T violation in Neutrino Oscillations" and "On the Wings of Physics" and "Ambiguities Pertaining to Quark-Lepton Complementarity."

Accomplishments

Honorary Professor at three universities in China Honorary degree from University College Dublin 1998-2004 Advisor to the Director General of CERN on Member States 1989-2000 the Nobel Committee for Physics 1998–2004 Advisor to the Director General of CERN on Member States 1984 Member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences 1987 Member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences 1996 Member of the Board of Trustees of the Nobel Foundation 2005 Member of the Academia Europe

References

1. ↑ Personal page at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
2. ↑ Personal page at Academia Europaea, Graz Information Centre
3. ↑ Jarlskog C. Commutator of the Quark Mass Matrices in the Standard Electroweak Model and a Measure of Maximal CP Violation (1985) Physical Review Letters, 55, pp. 1039-1042.
4. ↑ Georgi H., Jarlskog C. A new lepton-quark mass relation in a unified theory (1979) Physics Letters B, 86 (3-4), pp. 297-300.
5. ↑
6. ↑
7. ↑ http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0104092
8. ↑ Speaker page of the 2011 Conference, Jyväskylä, Finland
9. ↑ Jarlskog, Cecilia. "Viewpoint: Theory at CERN turns 62". CERN Courier.