physics

Savas Dimopoulos

Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos rather than just read about it. In short: Savas Dimopoulos (; Greek: Σάββας Δημόπουλος; born 1952) is a particle physicist at Stanford University. He worked at CERN from 1994 to 1997.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Savas Dimopoulos (; Greek: Σάββας Δημόπουλος; born 1952) is a particle physicist at Stanford University. He worked at CERN from 1994 to 1997. Dimopoulos is well known for his work on constructing theories beyond the Standard Model.

Life He was born an ethnic Greek in Istanbul, Turkey and later moved to Athens due to ethnic tensions in Turkey during the 1950s and 1960s.

Education and career Dimopoulos studied as an undergraduate at the University of Houston. He went to the University of Chicago and studied under Yoichiro Nambu for his doctoral studies. After completing his Ph.D. in 1979, he briefly went to Columbia University before taking a faculty position at Stanford University in 1980. During 1981 and 1982 he was also affiliated with the University of Michigan, Harvard University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1994 to 1997 he was on leave from Stanford University and was employed by CERN. Dimopoulos is well known for his work on constructing theories beyond the Standard Model, which are currently being searched for and tested at particle colliders like the LHC at CERN and at experiments all over the world. For example, in 1981 he proposed a softly broken SU(5) GUT model with Howard Georgi, which is one of the foundational papers of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). He also proposed the ADD model of large extra dimensions with Nima Arkani-Hamed and Gia Dvali.

Awards In 2006, the American Physical Society awarded Dimopoulos the Sakurai Prize, "For his creative ideas on dynamical symmetry breaking, supersymmetry, and extra spatial dimensions, which have shaped theoretical research on TeV-scale physics, thereby inspiring a wide range of experiments." In 2006, he received the Caterina Tomassoni and Felice Pietro Chisesi Prize at the University of Rome, Italy. "The prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in physics. Dimopoulos was lauded by the Tomassoni Committee as "one of the leading figures in theoretical particle physics. His proposal of the supersymmetric standard model has aided the understanding of high-energy physics mechanisms." He appeared in the 2013 documentary film Particle Fever, about the work of the Large Hadron Collider. He is a member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences.

Work Baryogenesis at the GUT scale Early work on technicolor Early work on soft supersymmetry breaking and Gauge coupling unification in the MSSM Moduli-mediated millimeter scale forces "ADD model" of large extra dimensions, with Nima Arkani-Hamed and Gia Dvali Split supersymmetry

References

External links Papers in the INSPIRE-HEP database. Faculty page at Stanford.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Savas Dimopoulos

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos

In research: Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos 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: Savas Dimopoulos is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1952 births, 20th-century Greek physicists, Academics from Istanbul, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Savas Dimopoulos in simple terms?

Savas Dimopoulos (; Greek: Σάββας Δημόπουλος; born 1952) is a particle physicist at Stanford University. He worked at CERN from 1994 to 1997.

Why does Savas Dimopoulos 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 Savas Dimopoulos?

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 Savas Dimopoulos.