Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Kohei Kawabata Receives the 12th (FY2021) JSPS Ikushi Prize
Masahito Ueda, Professor, Department of Physics
Dr. Kohei Kawabata was awarded the 12th (FY2021) JSPS Ikushi Prize.
In quantum mechanics textbooks, it is written that because observables are real numbers, the operators describing them must have Hermitian properties. However, there have long been known phenomena in nature, such as the decay of atomic nuclei, that have finite lifetimes and whose energies take complex values. Quantum mechanics based on non-Hermitian operators has been actively studied in recent years as a theory to describe such phenomena. Kohei Kawabata has tackled the problem of how the fundamental concepts of symmetry and topology can be understood in non-Hermitian physical systems, and has succeeded in constructing a fundamental theory. The series of research results achieved by Dr. Kawabata are important not only from the viewpoint of fundamental physics, providing a theoretical framework for understanding various physical phenomena described by non-Hermitian operators, but also in terms of providing guiding principles for designing topological devices.
Dr. Kawabata is also active internationally, collaborating with many researchers in Japan and abroad. Dr. Kawabata's sharp ideas and research ability to link them to concrete results are outstanding, and we can expect more and more of his work.
We would like to congratulate Dr. Kawabata on receiving the Ikushi Prize.
Faculty of Science News, March 2022