Edwin Ernest Salpeter ( born 3.12.1924) is an American theoretical physicist and astrophysicist, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1967). He was born in Vienna. He graduated from the University of Birmingham (1948). Since 1949 he has worked at Cornell University in the USA (professor from 1956).
His research concerned nuclear physics, quantum electrodynamics, the quantum theory of atoms, nuclear theory, plasma physics and relativistic astrophysics. Together with H. Bethe he gave in 1951 the equation of relativistic quantum mechanics for describing bound states (the Bethe — Salpeter equation). He studied the evolution of stars and their sources of energy, the formation of complex molecules in interstellar space, and models of pulsars. He proposed the triple-alpha process as a source of thermonuclear energy in stars with temperatures above 100—200 million degrees. Salpeter's work is of great importance for understanding nucleogenesis in the Universe and the sources of stellar energy.
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1963), R. Oppenheimer Prize (1974).