Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan was born in Pallom, Kottayam, Travancore, British India. He was raised in a Syrian Christian family, but later left the religion and converted to Hinduism following his marriage.[5]: 243[5]: 243[5]: 250 He married Lalita Rau on December 20, 1954, and they have three sons, Alexander, Arvind (deceased) and Ashok.[6] George and Lalita were divorced in 1990 and he married Bhamathi Gopalakrishnan in Austin, Texas.[6]
Dr. Sudarshan made significant contributions to several areas of physics. He was the originator (with Robert Marshak) of the V-A theory of the weak force (later propagated by Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann), which eventually paved the way for the electroweak theory. Feynman acknowledged Sudarshan's contribution in 1963 stating that the V-A theory was discovered by Sudarshan and Marshak and publicized by Gell-Mann and himself.[8] He also developed a quantum representation of coherent light later known as Glauber–Sudarshan representation (for which controversially Glauber was awarded the 2005 Nobel prize in Physics ignoring Sudarshan's contributions).
George Sudarshan and Steven Weinberg at Austin.
Sudarshan's most significant work may have been his contribution to the field of quantum optics. His theorem proves the equivalence of classical wave optics to quantum optics. The theorem makes use of the Sudarshan representation. This representation also predicts optical effects that are purely quantum, and cannot be explained classically. Sudarshan was also advocate for the existence of tachyons, particles that travel faster than light.[9] He developed a fundamental formalism called dynamical maps to study the theory of open quantum system. He, in collaboration with Baidyanath Misra, also proposed the quantum Zeno effect.[10]
Sudarshan and collaborators initiated the "Quantum theory of charged-particle beam optics", by working out the focusing action of a magnetic quadrupole using the Dirac equation.[11][12]
Sudarshan began working on quantum optics at the University of Rochester in 1960. Two years later, Glauber criticized the use of classical electromagnetic theory in explaining optical fields, which surprised Sudarshan because he believed the theory provided accurate explanations. Sudarshan subsequently wrote a paper expressing his ideas[15] and sent a preprint to Glauber. Glauber informed Sudarshan of similar results and asked to be acknowledged in the latter's paper, while criticizing Sudarshan in his own paper.[16] "Glauber criticized Sudarshan’s representation, but his own was unable to generate any of the typical quantum optics phenomena, hence he introduces what he calls a P-representation, which was Sudarshan’s representation by another name", wrote a physicist. "This representation, which had at first been scorned by Glauber, later becomes known as the Glauber–Sudarshan representation."[17]
Sudarshan was passed over for the Physics Nobel Prize on more than one occasion, leading to controversy in 2005 when several physicists wrote to the Swedish Academy, protesting that Sudarshan should have been awarded a share of the Prize for the Sudarshan diagonal representation (also known as Glauber–Sudarshan representation) in quantum optics, for which Roy J. Glauber won his share of the prize.[18] Sudarshan and other physicists sent a letter to the Nobel Committee claiming that the P representation had more contributions of "Sudarshan" than "Glauber".[19] The letter goes on to say that Glauber criticized Sudarshan's theory—before renaming it the "P representation" and incorporating it into his own work. In an unpublished letter to The New York Times, Sudarshan calls the『Glauber–Sudarshan representation』a misnomer, adding that "literally all subsequent theoretic developments in the field of Quantum Optics make use of" Sudarshan's work— essentially, asserting that he had developed the breakthrough.[20][21]
In 2007, Prof.Sudarshan told the Hindustan Times, "The 2005 Nobel prize for Physics was awarded for my work, but I wasn't the one to get it. Each one of the discoveries that this Nobel was given for work based on my research."[22] Sudarshan also commented on not being selected for the 1979 Nobel, "Steven Weinberg, Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam built on work I had done as a 26-year-old student. If you give a prize for a building, shouldn’t the fellow who built the first floor be given the prize before those who built the second floor?"[22]
1999: (with Tony Rothman) Doubt and Certainty: The celebrated academy debates on science, mysticism, and reality, Basic Books ISBN0738201693
2004: (with Giampiero Esposito and Giuseppe Marmo) From Classical to Quantum Mechanics: An Introduction to the Formalism, Foundations and Applications, Cambridge University Press ISBN1139450549Google Books preview
2014: (with Giampiero Esposito, Giuseppe Marmo, and Gennaro Miele) Advanced Concepts in Quantum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press ISBN9781107076044
^The beat of a different drum: The life and science of Richard Feynman by J. Mehra Clarendon Press Oxford (1994), p. 477, and references 29 and 40 therein
^Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction, p. 346, by Paul J. Nahin
^"First Runner-up". seedmagazine.com. 20 December 2018. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
