kraus

Kraus is a surname of German origin. It derives from the German adjective kraus, meaning curly or wiry, and was historically used as a nickname for someone with curly hair before becoming a family name. The name is common in German-speaking countries and among descendants worldwide, including communities that adopted German surnames through migration.

Notable people with the surname Kraus include Karl Kraus (1874–1936), an Austrian writer, journalist, and satirist who founded the weekly Die Fackel (The Torch) and became a leading critic of language, culture, and politics in fin-de-siècle Vienna. The surname is associated with various scientists, artists, and public figures across different countries, though no single individual defines the name.

In science and technology, the term Kraus appears in the Kraus representation, or Kraus operators, in quantum information theory. This operator-sum formalism describes the evolution of open quantum systems and is used to model quantum operations, measurements, and noise in quantum channels.

Geographically, Kraus can appear as part of place names in German-speaking regions and in communities abroad, reflecting historical patterns of settlement and linguistic heritage. The name also features in pronunciation variants and transliterations across languages.

Overall, Kraus denotes a longstanding Germanic surname with cultural and scientific associations, most notably through figures in literature and through foundational concepts in quantum mechanics.