E. C. George Sudarshan In A Tryst With Physics

E.C.G. Sudarshan

The physicist Hans Bethe once said, “There are two types of genius. Ordinary geniuses do great things, but they leave you room to believe that you could do the same if only you worked hard enough. Then there are magicians, and you can have no idea how they do it.”

In the world of science, every so often we come across visionaries, ‘magicians’ in the words of Bethe, who dare to perceive the world in ways no one else has before. E.C. George Sudarshan is one of them. 

Born in Kottayam in 1931,  Ennackal Chandy George Sudarsan studied at the CMS College and later at the Madras Christian College, the University of Madras and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

ECG (Ennackal Chandy George) Sudarsan had been nominated nine times for Nobel Prize in physics.

Sudarsan rewrote Albert Einstein's theory through the discovery of Tachyon particles in quantum optics. Famous scientist Vaidyanath Misra was also with Sudarsan in his efforts that led to the discovery of the tachyons. The scientific community called the discovery as 'Quantum Zeno Effect'.

He is also known for  'Optical Coherence' , 'V-A Theory' , 'Open Quantum System', 'Spin Statistics Theorem' and the most controversial 'Sudarshan-Glauber Representation'.

 In 2005 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 Sudarshan–Glauber representation) in quantum optics, for which Roy J. Glauber won his share of the prize. Sudarshan and others physicists sent a letter to the Nobel Committee claiming that the P representation had more contributions of "Sudarshan" than "Glauber". 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. 

Roy J. Glauber

In an unpublished letter to The New York Times, Sudarshan calls the "Glauber–Sudarshan representation" a misnomer, adding that "literally all subsequent theoretic developments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".

In 2007, 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." 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?"

Although not the nobel but Sudarshan recieved many awards for his contribution to Physics including

• Kerala Sastra Puraskaram for lifetime accomplishments in science, 2013
• Dirac Medal of the  ICTP, 2010
• Padma Vibhushan, second highest civilian award from the Government of India, 2007
• Majorana Prize, 2006
• First Prize in Physics, 1985
• TWAS Prize, 1985  Bose Medal, 1977
• Padma Bhushan, third highest civilian award from the Government of India, 1976
• C V Raman Award, 1970.

     ECG Sudarshan passed away in Texas on 13 May 2018.He was 86 years old then.