Gärtner was born in 1950 in Reichenbach. He graduated in 1973 with Diplom from TU Dresden. He received in 1976 his Ph.D. from Lomonosov University under the supervision of Mark Freidlin.[1] At the Weierstrass Institute, Gärtner was from 1976 to 1985 a research associate; he habilitated there in 1984 with Dissertation B: Zur Ausbreitung von Wellenfronten für Reaktions-Diffusions-Gleichungen (The propagation of wave fronts for reaction-diffusion equations). At the Weierstrass Institute he was from 1985 to 1995 the head of the probability group. He was a professor of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR from 1988 until its disbandment in late 1991. At TU Berlin he was from 1992 to 2011 a professor, retiring as professor emeritus in 2011.[2]
In 1977 he proved a general form of Cramér's Theorem in the theory of large deviations (LD);[3] the theorem is known as the Gärtner-Ellis Large Deviations Principle (LDP). (Richard S. Ellis proved the theorem in 1984 with weaker premises.) In 1982 Gärtner wrote an important paper on the famous KPP equation (a semi-linear diffusion equation introduced in 1937).[4] In 1987 Gärtner, with Donald A. Dawson, introduced the construction of a projective limit in the LDP. From 1987 to 1989 Gärtner and Dawson wrote a series of important papers on the McKean-Vlasov process. Their results were extended by other mathematicians in the 1990s to random mean-field interactions and to spin-glass mean-field interactions. In 1990 Gärtner and Molchanov wrote a seminal paper on intermittency in the parabolic Anderson model; the paper introduced a new approach to intermittency via the study of Lyapunov coefficients.[5]
Gärtner, Jürgen (1977). "On Large Deviations from the Invariant Measure". Theory of Probability & Its Applications. 22: 24–39. doi:10.1137/1122003.
Gärtner, Jürgen (1982). "Location of Wave Fronts for the Multi-Dimensional K-P-P Equation and Brownian First Exit Densities". Mathematische Nachrichten. 105 (1): 317–351. doi:10.1002/mana.19821050117. ISSN0025-584X.
Fleischmann, Klaus; Gärtner, Jürgen (1986). "Occupation Time Processes at a Critical Point". Mathematische Nachrichten. 125: 275–290. doi:10.1002/mana.19861250121.
Dawsont, Donald A.; Gärtner, Jürgen (1987). "Large deviations from the mckean-vlasov limit for weakly interacting diffusions". Stochastics. 20 (4): 247–308. doi:10.1080/17442508708833446. S2CID122536900.
Dawson, D.A.; Gärtner, J. (1987). "Long-time fluctuations of weakly interacting diffusions". In Engelbert, H. J.; Schmidt, W. (eds.). Stochastic Differential Systems. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Systems, vol. 96. Vol. 96. Springer. pp. 3–10. doi:10.1007/BFb0038915. ISBN3-540-18010-9.
Dawson, D.A.; Gärtner, J. (1988). "Long-time behaviour of interacting diffusions". In J.R. Norris (ed.). Stochastic Calculus in Application: Symposium Proceedings (Cambridge UK, Spring 1987). Pitman Research Notes in Mathematics. Longman. pp. 29–54.
Gärtner, Jürgen (1988). "On the Mc Kean-Vlasov Limit for Interacting Diffusions". Mathematische Nachrichten. 137: 197–248. doi:10.1002/mana.19881370116.
Gärtner, J.; Molchanov, S. A. (1990). "Parabolic problems for the Anderson model". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 132 (3): 613–655. doi:10.1007/BF02156540. S2CID120557758.
Gärtner, J.; Den Hollander, F. (1999). "Correlation structure of intermittency in the parabolic Anderson model". Probability Theory and Related Fields. 114: 1–54. doi:10.1007/s004400050220. hdl:1887/63147. S2CID56023530.
^Gärtner, J. (1977). "On large deviations from the invariant measure". Theory of Probability and Its Applications. 22: 24–39. doi:10.1137/1122003.
^Gärtner, J. (1982). "Location of wave fronts for the multidimensional KPP equation and Brownian first exit densities". Math. Nachr. 105: 317–351. doi:10.1002/mana.19821050117.