physics

Reinhold Bertlmann

Reinhold Bertlmann is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Reinhold Bertlmann rather than just read about it. In short: Reinhold Anton Bertlmann (born 7 March 1945 in Reutte) is an Austrian-born physicist and professor of physics at the University of Vienna. He is known for his research in particle physics, where he wrote the standard textbook Anomalies in Quantum Field Theory, and in the field of Bell inequalities, in particular from the quantum comparison Bertlmann’s Socks of John Bell.

Key takeaways

Reinhold Bertlmann belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Reinhold Bertlmann to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Reinhold Bertlmann from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Reinhold Anton Bertlmann (born 7 March 1945 in Reutte) is an Austrian-born physicist and professor of physics at the University of Vienna. He is known for his research in particle physics, where he wrote the standard textbook Anomalies in Quantum Field Theory, and in the field of Bell inequalities, in particular from the quantum comparison Bertlmann’s Socks of John Bell.

Education and career Bertlmann studied technical physics at the Vienna University of Technology and Theoretical Physics at the University of Vienna, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1974. He worked as a scientist in Vienna, at the JINR in Dubna and at CERN. After his Habilitation in Theoretical Physics in Vienna 1981 about Duality between resonances and asymptotia, he held visiting professorships in Marseille, at the University Paris-Sud and at the CNRS. From 1987 until his retirement in 2010 he was university professor at the University of Vienna, where he is still lecturing. Reinhold Bertlmann has been married to the artist Renate Bertlmann since 1969.

Physics Bertlmann works in quantum physics; in particular he is occupied with Bell inequalities, entanglement, decoherence and geometry of quantum systems. In addition he is concerned with anomalies in quantum field theory. Bertlmann was a close friend and collaborator of the late John Stewart Bell and worked together with Walter Thirring. Presently, he collaborates with Anton Zeilinger, with whom he organized the celebrated quantum conferences Quantum [Un]Speakables I in 2000 and Quantum [Un]Speakables II in 2014. The resulting collections of the 2000 essays, under the same title Quantum [Un]Speakables, has become seminal for the field. In 2000 he published the textbook Anomalies in Quantum Field Theory, which became a popular introductory text to quantum field theory and differential geometry. In 2023 he published the textbook Modern Quantum Theory, written together with his former student Nicolai Friis, covering quantum mechanics and quantum information theory.

Bertlmann’s socks

In 1978 Bertlmann went to CERN, where he worked together with J. S. Bell. Bertlmann always wore socks of different colours. In 1981 Bell wrote the article "Bertlmann’s socks and the nature of reality", where he compared the EPR paradox with Bertlmann’s socks: if you observe one sock to be pink you can predict with certainty that the other sock is not pink. Thus you might assume that quantum entanglement is just the same. However, this is a non-admissible simplification, and Bell in his article explains why. Bell’s article is reprinted in his book Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics and is discussed in the books of Andrew Whitaker The New Quantum Age, Louisa Gilder's The Age of Entanglement and Nature loves to hide by Shimon Malin. In 2015, Bertlmann wrote a lengthy piece "Bell's Universe: A Personal Recollection", explaining in some detail his amazement at finding out about Bell's paper on the socks.

Literature J.S. Bell: "Bertlmann's socks and the nature of reality". J. Phys. Colloques. 42 (C2), March 1981. Also available online PDF-File J.S. Bell: Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987 ISBN 0-521-52338-9 R.A. Bertlmann: Magic Moments: A collaboration with John Bell, see Reinhold Bertlmann homepage R.A. Bertlmann: Anomalies in Quantum Field Theory, Clarendon Press, Oxford 2000 (paperback), ISBN 0-19-850762-3 R.A. Bertlmann, A. Zeilinger: Quantum [Un]speakables. From Bell to Quantum Information, Springer-Verlag 2002, ISBN 3-540-42756-2 R.A. Bertlmann: John Bell and the Nature of the Quantum World, Journal of Physics A: Math. Theor. 47, 424007 (2014) R.A. Bertlmann, N. Friis: Modern Quantum Theory. From Quantum Mechanics to Entanglement and Quantum Information, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2023, ISBN 9780199683338

See also Anton Zeilinger John Stewart Bell

References

External links Reinhold Bertlmann homepage Scientific publications of Reinhold Bertlmann on INSPIRE-HEP

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Reinhold Bertlmann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Reinhold Bertlmann claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Reinhold Bertlmann before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Reinhold Bertlmann ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Reinhold Bertlmann

In research: Reinhold Bertlmann appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Reinhold Bertlmann in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Reinhold Bertlmann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 20th-century Austrian physicists, 21st-century Austrian physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Reinhold Bertlmann outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Reinhold Bertlmann in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Reinhold Bertlmann means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Reinhold Bertlmann out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Reinhold Bertlmann in simple terms?

Why does Reinhold Bertlmann matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Reinhold Bertlmann?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Reinhold Bertlmann.