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The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner

as told to Andrew Szanton The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner

as told to Andrew Szanton

Springer +Business Media, LLC Llbrary of Congress Cataloglng-ln-Publlcatlon Data

Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902- The reeolleetlons of Eugene P. Wigner as told to Andrew Szanton I Andrew Szanton. p. eil. Ineludes blbllographleal re fe rene es and Index.

I. Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902- 2. Physlelsts--Unlted States- -Slography. 1. Szanton, Andrew. 11. Tltls. QC16.W55 1992 530 ' • 92--d e20 [sI 92-17040 CIP

ISBN 978-0-306-44326-8 ISBN 978-1-4899-6313-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-6313-0 © 1992 Andrew Szanton Originally published by Plenum Press in 1992. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1992 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, rnicrofilrning, recording, or otherwise, without written perrnission from the Publisher q-~tkJod d-fi'~~J~

rz first met Dr. while working on an oral J history project at the Smithsonian Institution in Wash• ington, D.C. Funded by the Sloan Foundation, the Smithson• ian's Museum of American History was building a video ar• chive of the personal recollections of those who had worked on the during the Second World War, building the world's first atomic bomb. I was introduced to Dr. Wigner at a Smithsonian panel in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A few months later, I spent two days in Princeton, New Jersey, and interviewed hirn twice, at length. Eugene Wigner's head is large, with gray hair on the sides and a few stray wisps on top, a prominent nose, large ears, and watery blue eyes that sparkle. He dressed with a casual formal• ity. His voice was wonderfully rich, heavilyaccented, full of humor and regret. Dr. Wigner was extremely polite. Inside his own office, he asked my permission before removing his suit jacket. His

v brief coughing fits, he assured me, were involuntary. "lt is my fauIt," he said. "But not my conscious fault." But the polite• ness was not distancing. He offered his attention with a shy sincerity that I found affecting. By the end of the second interview, I was struck by how much vivid material was in tbis -the political and intellec• tual tensions ofturn-of-the-century ; the inspiration of ; the tense, foreboding work on the atomic bomb. I knew that no major book had ever been written about Dr. Wigner, and I urged him to write his memoirs. To this, Dr. Wigner gave a very firm "no." For the scien• tist, he said, one's work is all that should remain. The Ameri• can notion of celebrity he found distasteful. He was quite content with his niche in the bistory of , and wanted no part of a memoir. Or so I thought until one day around June 1988, when he wound up a routine telephone call by asking politely when I planned to come up to Princeton and help bim write bis memoirs. I was taken aback. But I managed to say that I would like to do that very much and would begin planning immediately. At the end of August 1988, I said a fond goodbye to the Smith• sonian and moved up to Princeton. I conducted over 30 interviews with Eugene Wigner that fall of 1988, most ofthem in bis office, on tape. When we met at bis home, he seemed to dislike the recording apparatus. I took notes. Our very first interview was in his office. I asked Dr. Wigner what he wanted from bis memoirs. He spoke impre• cisely, but at length and with feeling. It was dear that he wanted the book to convey the love of science that he and his colleagues had feIt. He expected the book to evoke the spirit of bis principal mentors and colleagues and of their scientific work. Dr. Wigner was troubled that bis memoirs would inevi• tably center on bimself. He said repeated1y: "I do not want fame." The transitory quality offame was a favorite theme ofDr. Wigner. In bis own ease, he seemed pleased enough that he would soon be forgotten. But that many ofbis scientifie peers would also be forgotten he c1early regarded as a great tragedy. Undemeath a11 ofthe modesty, the eontinental manners, the deep reservoirs of politeness, I sensed that Eugene Wigner feIt that he had never been fully understood. His passion for science, bis personal experience, and bis thoughts on the politi• cal side ofhuman had nowhere been put on the record.

"Who is Eugene Wigner, and why should I read a book about him?" I have heard those implicit questions many times over the last few years. Here I will try briefly to answer them. Eugene Wigner is one ofa generation ofphysicists ofthe 1920s who remade the world of physies. It was a generation that extended from to to Pisa to Zurieh-and to Budapest, though not quite yet to New Y ork or Cbicago. The first in this generation-Wemer Heisen• berg, Erwin Sehrödinger, and Paul Dirae to name three---cre• ated quantum meehanics, throwing open dozens of funda• mental questions. The ones who eame just after scrambled to answer them and to pose further, more eomplicated ques• tions. Eugene Wigner was in the seeond group. He has posed and answered some of the fundamental questions of twen• tieth-century physies. Dr. Wigner would be an important historieal figure for bis eontribution to physies alone. And since he was too mod- est to describe them much in the heart of the book, I should summarize them here. In the late 1920s, Dr. Wigner laid the foundation for the theory of in quantum . In 1933, he was probably the first to find that the force between two nucleons-very weak ordinarily-becomes very much greater when the nucleons are brought quite close to• gether-a million times greater than the electrica1 forces be• tween the electrons in the outer part of atoms. Dr. Wigner showed that the most essential properties of the nuclei follow from widely recognized symmetries of the laws of . And he proved that his laws of apply equally to both and . He extended his research into atomic nuclei in the late 1930s. These researches have shaped more than nuclear phys• ics; they help to explain much of elementary . Wigner also developed an important general theory of nuclear reactions. He contributed greatly to the practica1 use of nuclear energy. Much of his work in solid-state physics is still central to that . In physics, Dr. Wigner has shown a rare array oftalents: brilliance in theoretical matters; brilliance in the laboratory; and a superb grounding in engineering.

Between 1939 and 1945, apart ofthis great generation of physicists remade the world again. This time it was a far larger world that they changed-one of nations, armies, and peo• pIes. They did it first by understanding that an atomic bomb could be bui1t; then by arguing that it must be built in the , immediately; and finally by learning how to build it, on the fly, and under terrible pressure. Eugene Wigner was a giant of this undertaking as well. It tumed out that Dr. Wigner also played the game of politics, and rather skillfully for arecent emigre and a pro• fessed politica1 amateur. In 1939 and 1940, he played a crucial political role in agitating for a Manhattan Project, a federal response to the splitting of the atom. During the war, Dr. Wigner directed theoretical studies at the Metallurgica1 Laboratory in Chicago, creating a working nuc1ear pile for the production of , which yields atomic energy when it is induced to fission. Dr. Wigner was crucial to the Met Lab's success in under• standing plutonium production and developing plans for a water-cooled atomic pile. He promoted construction of a large-scale atomic pile to produce plutonium and developed superb engineering designs used by the DuPont Company to construct an air-cooled atomic pile. And in the years since the war, Eugene Wigner has been a national figure in promoting the adoption of a major civil defense program.

The war ended almost 50 years ago. Eugene Wigner is nowan old man, but still a Hungarian. I am an American two generations younger. We have speilt many hours together without c10sing much ofthe gulfbetween uso More than once, he has looked at me at the start of an interview and asked with real curiosity: "How old are you?" Eugene Wigner himself does not look 89. He is about 5 feet 7 inches ta11 and 150 pounds, slightly stooped with age. Like many very old men, he often seems boyish. He is young enough to climb stairs two at a time and to be chagrined that he cannot descend in the same way. He rises from achair easily and often walks around a room to help himself recall. Remembering is hard for him, and when we reach a hole in his memory he is apt to say, "That is a scandal!" He holds hirnself to a high standard. My mistakes, though, he meets with grace, often saying with a smile, "Worse crimes have been committed." I have been gratified to find that Dr. Wigner's recollec• tions in my own interviews consistently square with the writ• ten record ofhis past thought. His accounts ofthe people and events ofhis life have remained intemally consistent through• out the three years in which this book was formed. He loves dearly. When I mention that I want to ask about Hungary, he says, "Good!" and c1aps his hands. He is very curious about other parts of the world-what young people are doing, thinking; how societies are changing, leam• ing from their mistakes. Unlike many wise people, he is un• afraid to marvel. Eugene Wigner is so deeply polite that his old friend Ed• ward Teller has charged hirn with creating an absurd myth of Hungarian modesty. I once asked hirn how he could be so modest. He answered that he was not modest at all, and apolo• gized for not being nearly as modest as he should be. "I am often disagreeable," he added. I was taken aback, never having seen him act at all disagreeable. "When," I asked, "are you disagreeable?" "I am being disagreeable at this moment," he said. "You accuse me of being modest, and I disagree with you." Once I ended an interview by telling hirn that I respected hirn. He answered, "That is not a good idea." "Why not?" I asked. His answer was plaintive and amused: "What does it do?" Dr. Wigner judges things by the extent to which they are "reasonable." Hitler was "unreasonable" long before he mur• dered a single Jew, unreasonable and therefore untrust• worthy. Europe has not always been reasonable in settling its disputes. The United States he finds far more reasonable. Princeton, New Jersey is a quite reasonable town. Prince• ton University was once unreasonable in firing hirn. But it was reasonable enough to rehire him, and so it would be unreason• able for hirn to bear it any grudge. A university town is a quite reasonable place for an 89-year-old man to spend the last years of his life. Dr. Wigner's office is jammed with joumals-mostly of nuc1ear physics, mostly unread, to his great dismay. He can't bear to throw them away. And books: scientific works in Ger• man and Hungarian as weH as English; biographies of great men; a copy of You're Only Old Once!by Dr. Seuss.

I have been the primary organizer of this book. I have listened to an of the tape-recorded hours, reread my notes, read many articles written by Dr. Wigner and various inter• views conducted with hirn. From them I have shaped this book. I have not only condensed Dr. Wigner's words but arranged them into themes, chapters, and subchapters. I have even c1arified his words by adding a few of my own. At Dr. Wigner's encouragement, I have added basic his• torical research to his account, especially in its personal por• traits. I have fixed in time such things as the exact year that took his doctorate or Wemer Heisenberg left Leipzig for Berlin. To Dr. Wigner this is detail, and though he wants it rendered accurately, he is half-pleased and half-cha• grined to find that to hirnself, it no longer matters. What I have taken care never to do is to add substance. Every single observation in this book has been made at some time by Eugene Wigner. Wherever meaning was vague, I have always asked him to c1arify hirnself. This he has greatly en• joyed doing. In organizing the book, I have leaned a good deal on various ofDr. Wigner's published interviews. The chapter on civil defense, for example, was built around an article that Dr. Wigner published in The Technology Review of June 1964. The book has borrowed from interviews that Dr. Wigner did with Thomas Kuhn, available from the American Philo• sophical Society; with New Engineer magazine ofNovember 1971; with Science magazine of August 10, 1973; and with The New Hungarian Quarterly of Autumn 1973. Dr. Wigner's summation of Leo Szilard's life was built around his tribute to Szilard, published in 1969, in the Na• tional Academy of Sciences' Biographical Memoirs. His thoughts about the of Johnny von Neumann and both relied on tributes to those men that he had written earlier. Finally, the letters exchanged between Dr. Wigner and over 30 years, and kept at the , have also been very helpful. A more detailed account ofthese literary debts comes in the bibliography, which covers all of the materials used in preparing the book.

I have certainly marked the project by the questions that I have asked and not asked. But Dr. Wigner speaks freely. I feel sure that he has said nearly all that he wants to say; perhaps my questions have sometimes led hirn to say more. He and his family have reserved the right to remove what they find objec• tionable. To their credit, they have rarely done so. This book could not have been published without the generous help of Mrs. Eileen Hamilton Wigner. While Eugene Wigner has cheerfully allowed me to exam• ine his life, he has maintained a healthy skepticism about the value of the project. He knows that memory is fallible and he conceives of people and human society as fundamentally in• scrutable. "Human emotions are not very weIl described, foreseen, or interpreted," he wamed me in one of our first interviews. I have arranged the book's preface to mirror the interview sessions. The preface begins with the same themes with which Dr. Wigner began almost every one of our interviews: his own unworthiness, the greatness of certain of his mentors and friends, and the arrogance implied by creating a memoir. I am part Hungarian myself. The name Szanton comes from "szanto," and Dr. Wigner noted on the day we met that in Hungarian a szanto is "one who digs the earth." In the writing of this book, I have certainly dug the earth. But the story and the words are his. The soil is his. In his scientific brilliance, his dislocation from his ances• tral country, and his merging contributions to science and warfare, Eugene Wigner has been a kind of emblem of the twentieth century. Fascism, communism, capitalism-he has seen firsthand all three ofthis century's great, warring political ideologies. Beyond that, he is an observant man, a deeply decent one, and a strong witness. I believe now, even more than I did in 1988, that Eugene Wigner's story richly deserves telling.

Andrew Szanton San Francisco rz have never wanted to be famous. J Sometimes, I hope that my life will soon be completely forgotten. You may say, "Oh, that could not happen to a -winning ." But many important scien• tists of 100 years back have already been forgotten. People get forgotten. Now, to forget all people and all of human experience disturbs deep, instinctive human emotions. But history grows constantly and we cannot collect and recall it all. Most ofthe past disappears, and rightly so. The earth has 4 billion people, and more every day. Each ofthese 4 billion lives must hold some interest, yet no one can hope to know 4 billion biographies. More and more biogra• phies are written, most ofthem poorly. The collective biogra• phy of man swells distressingly and is ignored. I read very few biographies, and I am not sorry. Clearly, I should know my own life story, and those of my sisters and wives. Perhaps we should all know 100 of the world's finest books and discuss them for pleasure. A few of these hundred books would certainly be biographies. lsaac Newton would have a biography; so would Albert Einstein. Eugene Wigner does not belong anywhere near lsaac Newton and Albert Einstein. So I should be content with my brief profile in American Men of Science. But I must admit that I am not. This kind of profile is too narrowly objective: "Hungarian physicist. Born 1902. . ." It does not say that I loved a certain problem, that I saw subtlety and great beauty in it. It says only that I worked on it. Some• one who never knew me could have written such a profile. So I have decided to speak for myself, to broaden and deepen the record of my life, and to preserve my own memo• ries of people and events that have changed physics, technol• ogy, even warfare. Many of the men I want to describe have already been nearly forgotten. I trust that Newton and Einstein will never be forgotten. But what about those of only slightly lesser rank: , , Michael Polanyi, and Wolf• gang Pauli? How many of those names are widely known? How many will be known in 50 years time? We should know them all, and many more. I am a physicist, not a historian, and a physicist does not always know dates and authorships as weIl as an historian. All recollection is flawed and the memories of honorable people often do not agree. I am now a very old man, and though my recollections are as truthful as I can manage, they may now be more flawed than most. WeIl then, what advantage does an old physicist have over a professional historian? I think he has a very great one. The physicist may not know every date, but he recalls the spirit oftimes long past, a spirit that deeisively drove him and his colleagues to rare and unexpected feats. This spirit is not easy for historians to grasp or to recreate. The historian conducts interviews to learn what the old physi• eist knows in his bones. The historian collects photographs, but however suggestive photographs may be, they never give a full picture ofthe past, ofits convictions, its personalities and the forces that moved them. So perhaps an old physieist should speak. I cannot claim to be objective, but I have tried to be fair and polite. I hope my recollections will not offend anyone. I cannot see why people write books meant only to generate controversy. But history is important and should be discussed ~onestly.lfthis memoir critieizes some important people, it is because I feel we should not conceal the tiny weaknesses of very inspiring people. Neither can I call my story comprehensive. A memoir selects certain events from a life's experience and omits the rest. This memoir omits most of the details of my personal life: just how I became fond of my wife or quarreled with my sisters. These are the things of diaries, a form that seems to me far inferior to the memoir. Diaries seem too often to only trace the patterns of the diarist's unhappiness. Perhaps I should never have created this memoir. To speak at length about oneself often seems not only conceited but foolish. I have an idea that most people cannot keep in mind more than about 12 figures from history. They must save room in their for the celebrities of their age. But I am a man with certain weaknesses. Indeed, I have more weaknesses than most men my age. Not only do I forget easily and sing poorly, I also have a weakness for reflecting on some ofthe signal events of my life. I want to leave some small record of those reflections. Several years ago, I asked my collaborator, Andrew Szan• ton, to help me assemble this memoir. Together, we have thoroughly explored the major themes and events of my life. And I must confess: I have deeply enjoyed the investigation. 0/ he writing of this book has been a long and complex u project, and this list of debts is not complete. I want to single out for special thanks six people: Donald Stokes played a central role in insuring that the book would be published, read the draft manuscript with great care, and made superb comments. My parents, Peter and Eleanor Szanton, gave three years of support and detailed advice. My father gave especially fine draft comments. My mother saw certain problems before I did, and suggested solutions to them. My editor, Linda Regan, kept constant faith in the book and guided me through the publishing process. Greatest thanks of all must go to Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Wigner. Mrs. Eileen Hamilton Wigner gave her hospitality and assistance. She helped me to understand her husband, and her ultimate belief in the book has been crucial to its publication. Eugene Wigner commissioned this book in 1988, and offered me full use of his books, artic1es, and personal and official files. He sat for 30 formal interviews and as many informal ones. He patiently answered every conceivable ques• tion. In a few short years, Dr. Wigner has taught me a great deal about the meaning ofkindness and dignity. At Princeton, my thanks to the staff at Firestone Library and Fine Library; Bruce Finney, Pat Barwick, and the other staff in the physics department office; and to the office staff at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Thanks to the American Institute of Physics (AlP), in New Y ork, for use of the Wigner transcripts and for informa• tion about relevant photographs. Special thanks at AlP to Dr. Spencer Weart, Matjorie Graham, and Douglas Egan. At the University of California, , thanks to Geoffrey WexIer, Catherine Georges and Richard Linde• mann; at the University ofChicago, Richard L. Popp; at Ar• gonne National Laboratory, Pat Canaday and Cindy Wilkin• son. Thanks to Elizabeth Carroll-Horrocks of the American Philosophical Society. Thanks to the University ofWisconsin's Archives; at the American Nuc1ear Society, to Teri Jarvie and Silvana Specha; at the Oak Ridge Public Library, to Joan Keamey. Thanks to the Richard A. Gleeson Library at the University ofSan Fran• cisco; to the main library at the U niversity of California, San Francisco; to the San Francisco Public Library; and to the Library ofCongress, Washington, D.C. Many thanks to aseries of writers and scientists for their encouragement and suggestions. Thanks to Edward Creutz for his generous support, for answering my questions about what Eugene Wigner was like in the 1930s, and for his careful draft comments. Thanks to William Lanouette particularly for profes• sional advice and for valuable leads on the Eugene Wigner literature. Thanks to John McPhee for many things: for the exam• pIe of his own work, for the quality of his teaching about writing in general, and for encouraging this project in particular. At the Oral History Program in the Smithsonian Mu• seum of American History , thanks to Stanley Goldberg, James Hyder, Terri Schorzman, and Philip Seitz. Thanks to other audiences and readers: Carol Cannon and her students; Randy Hostetler and Francesca Talenti; Trish Perlmutter, Tom Perlmutter, Carol O'Neill, and Mike Chase; Joseph A. Trunk; Ken Wong; and Brad Woods. Thanks to Levente Csaplar for his fluent translations of Dr. Wigner's Hungarian letters; to Marc Pachter for his semi• nar on biography, to Yuval Taylor for years ofprecise encour• agement, and to Katherine Wolff for her translation of several of Dr. Wigner's German letters. Thanks to Kenneth Schubach, Susanne Van Duyne, and others at Plenum Press. For general assistance, thanks to Hubert Alyea, Naomi Brier, Andras Csaplär, William Golden, Judy Nelson, John O'Donnell, Rick Ross, Judith Shoolery, and Prudence Steiner. Thanks to others in the Wigner family inc1uding David Hamilton, Charles Upton, and Martha Wigner. Deep thanks to others in my own family: Sybil Stokes, Nathan Szanton, Sarah G. Szanton, and Sarah L. Szanton. Finally, thanks to my wife, Barbara Cannon, for years of support and assistance. 1. -A-Pat, Pit-A-Pat 1

2. Be a Good Son. Obey Y our Mother Carefully. . . 9

3. A Tannery Needs Someone Who Knows the Work 25

4. "How Many Such Jobs Exist in Our Country?" 45

5. Albert Einstein Made Me Feel Needed 63

6. Learning from Einstein 83

7. Becoming a Physicist 101 8. "That Pesty Group Business" 115

9. "lfHitler Says So, He Must Be Right" 127

10. It Is Far Better to Have a Good Marriage Than a Quarrel 163

11. Becoming Pleasantly Disagreeable 181

12. Swimming in Syrup 197

13. Martians 211

14. A Squirrel in a Cage 231

15. "Isn't He the One Whose H-Bomb May Blow Up the World?" 253

16. "Thank Y ou Very Much! But Why Are Y ou Congratulating Me?" 267

17. The Gold That Y ou Have Will Finally Kill You 287

18. The Subtle Pleasure ofForgetting 299

Bibliography 319

Index 325