Elihu Abrahams

Elihu Abrahams (born 3 April 1927 in Port Henry, New York) is a theoretical physicist, specializing in condensed matter physics.

Abrahams received in 1947 his bachelor's degree and in 1952 his PhD, with Charles Kittel as thesis advisor, from the University of California, Berkeley with thesis Spin-lattice relaxation in ferromagnetics. In 1952–1953 he was a research associate in physics at UC Berkeley. He was in 1953–1955 a research associate and in 1955–1956 an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He became in 1956 an assistant professor, then an associate professor, and in 1964 a full professor at Rutgers University.

Abrahams’ research is in theoretical condensed matter physics. His main interests concern the quantum-mechanical many-body problem in the presence of very strong particle-particle interactions. In this area, he has been using the techniques of quantum statistical mechanics and field theory to investigate the phase transitions and the transport and thermodynamic properties of a number of systems, including high-temperature cuprate superconductors, metals at the threshold of breakdown of Fermi-liquid behavior, iron pnictide superconductors, heavy-fermion metals, localized spins in metals, magnets with unusual spin correlations, and the disordered interacting electron fluid in two dimensions.

Abrahams was in 1964 elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1986–1987. In 1987 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.