Dominique Vautherin

Dominique Vautherin (October 30, 1941, Bois-Colombes – December 7, 2000, Paris) was a French theoretical physicist, specializing in nuclear physics.

Education and career Dominique Vautherin studied from 1961 to 1963 at the École polytechnique and then, beginning in 1964, did research for the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS ). From 1969, he worked at the Université Paris-Sud in Orsay with Marcel Vénéroni (1929–2015) on the Hartree–Fock calculations for a finite range interaction with saturation in closed-shell nuclei. For this work Vautherin received the degree of Doctor of Science with Vénéroni as supervisor. and such calculations were then extended to deformed nuclei by Vautherin. Later, with colleagues, he carried out calculations with Skyrme interactions, and such calculations were then extended by Vautherin to deformed kernels. Later, with colleagues, he carried out calculations with Skyrme interactions for giant resonances and nuclear fission. in nuclear structure studies. The density matrix expansion "linked the Skyrme interaction with more conventional two-body forces." Vautherin studied hot nuclei with Paul Bonche and Shimon Levit. and with Arthur Kerman and other colleagues, on solutions of Yang-Mills theory using variational methods.

He received in 1975 the Prix Paul Langevin, in 1991 the Grand Prix Jean Richard, and in 2000 the Gay-Lussac-Humboldt Prize. In 1999 he became the chair of the board of directors of the European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) in Trento, Italy.

Selected publications