George Chapline, Jr.

Who is George Chapline, Jr.?

George Frederick Chapline, Jr. is an American theoretical physicist, based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His most recent interests have mainly been in quantum information theory, condensed matter, and quantum gravity. In 2003 he received the Computing Anticipatory Systems award for a new interpretation of quantum mechanics based on the similarity of quantum mechanics and Helmholtz machines. He was awarded the E. O. Lawrence Award in 1982 by the United States Department of Energy for leading the team that first demonstrated a working X-ray laser. In the field of condensed matter physics Chapline is best known as the originator of the concept of a gossamer metal; i.e. a metal where the density of states at the Fermi surface is depressed because of pairing correlations. Both the actinides and high Tc superconductors are examples of gossamer metals.

Chapline is known for his work with Nick S. Manton on finding the classical equations which unify supergravity and Yang–Mills gauge theories. These equations play an important role in superstring theory. Chapline was also the first person to point out that the anomaly cancellation condition for superstrings in 10 dimensions could be satisfied by E8 x E8, and the first person to suggest that the 24-dimensional Leech lattice might play a central role in a theory unifying gravity and elementary particle physics.