scherk

Scherk is a German surname that has appeared in various fields of science, most notably in mathematics and theoretical physics. The name is associated with several concepts and figures, reflecting its presence in scholarly literature.

In mathematics, Heinrich Scherk was a 19th-century German mathematician who introduced Scherk's minimal surfaces, including Scherk's first surface and Scherk's second surface. These surfaces are classical examples of minimal surfaces and are distinguished by their periodic, saddle-like geometry, which has made them a point of reference in the study of surface theory.

In theoretical physics, Joël Scherk was a French physicist who, together with John H. Schwarz, developed the Scherk–Schwarz mechanism. This mechanism describes how supersymmetry can be broken via nontrivial boundary conditions imposed along compactified dimensions. It has had a lasting influence on approaches to string theory and supergravity, illustrating how geometric ideas can affect physical symmetries.

The Scherk surname thus appears in historical mathematical results and in contemporary theoretical physics, where eponymous concepts continue to be cited in academic literature.