Physics monitor

The author, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge, TRIBUTE Books received examines how the latest ideas of physics can be reconciled with Sir Rudolf Peierls 'down-to-earth' views of science 1907 - 1995 erspectives in Astrophysical philosophers. For a Theory of Every­ P Cosmology, by Martin Rees, thing, the physics contender is the published by Cambridge University superstring picture. As the book is ith the death of Rudolf Peierls Press, on behalf of the Accademia based on lectures given in 1993, it W on 19 September the world of Nazionale del Lincei, ISBN 0 521 could not benefit from the exciting physics lost one of its last direct links 47530 9 (hbk, £24.95), 0 521 47561 new Theory of Everything develop­ with the pioneers of quantum theory 9 (pbk, £9.95). ments (October, page 4) and a major contributor to its applica­ tions. The wider world beyond This small book is based on a series Introduction to Electroweak Unifica­ physics has lost a quiet voice of of lectures presented in Milan for tion - Standard Model from Tree reason and moderation who passion­ physicists and astronomers, covering Unitarity, by J. Horejsi, published by ately believed that, although the research at the interface between World Scientific, ISBN 981 02 1857 5 genie of the nuclear bomb could not extragalactic astrophysics, cosmol­ (£32). be put back in the bottle, it could by ogy and particle physics. rational discussion and by agreement A non-traditional introduction to the be kept from wreaking the havoc of theory of electroweak unification. which it is capable. Plasma Physics - An introductory Born in Berlin into an assimilated course, edited by Richard Dendy, Jewish family, he attended lectures published by Cambridge University Smooth Invariant Manifolds and by Planck, Nernst, Bothe and Press, ISBN 0 521 43309 6 (hbk £65) Normal Forms, by l.U. Bronstein and Sommerfeld. Planck's lectures were 0 521 48452 9 (pbk £24.95) A. Ya. Kopanskii, published by World "the worst I have ever attended", Scientific, ISBN 981 02 1572X 1 Sommerfeld's "a model of clarity"[1]. Now available is the paperback (£51). Thereafter followed a decade travel­ version of this 500-page book, first ling among all the major European published in 1993, which uses Volume 7 in the World Scientific centres. His first permanent appoint­ material from lectures at recent Series on Non-Linear Science. ment was to the newly created Culham Summer Schools in Plasma Professorship in Birmingham in 1937. Physics. Each chapter is the work of Bosonization, edited by Michael His most momentous piece of work, a different author. Beginning with an Stone, published by World Scientific, which may well have changed the introduction to the fundamentals, it ISBN 981 02 1847 8 (hbk), 981 02 course of history, led to the famous continues with three themes - phe­ 1848 6 (pbk, £37). Peierls-Frisch Memorandum to the nomena and techniques (turbulence, Part 1 (60 pages) is a introduction, British Government of 1938 [2]. It chaos, computation) with applications Part 2 (470 pages) contains reprints concluded that a fission bomb using in all fields of plasma physics; intro­ of classic papers. U235-enriched uranium was feasible, ductions to research fields where and that, although its immense plasma physics is involved; and the destructive power "may make it physics of fusion plasmas. Spin Phenomena in Particle Interac­ unsuitable as a weapon for use by tions, by S.M. Troshin and N.E. this country" it would have been Tyurin, published by World Scientific, disastrous if the Nazis had got the From Physics to Metaphysics, by ISBN 981 02 1692 0 (£42). weapon first. It has been described Michael Redhead, published by as "[one] of the most remarkable Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0 A useful introduction to the formalism documents in the history of the 521 47405 1 (hbk £19.95) and phenomenology of high energy impact of science on civilization in spin processes. [its] brevity and clarity and in [its]

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CERN Courier, November 1995 21 Physics monitor

import". [3]. After his war work, first in He strongly believed that the M. Gowing, Britain and Atomic Britain then in Los Alamos, he physicists of the world form an Energy 1939-1945, Appendix 1, became a leader of the Pugwash extended family. Within that family Macmillan, 1964 and R. Clark, movement of scientists dedicated to the many who passed through his Tizard, Methuen, 1965. halting the arms race. Department either in Birmingham or [3] R. H. Dalitz and R. B. His outstanding basic work in­ in Oxford, where he moved in 1963, Stinchcombe, editors, A Breadth of cludes, in solid state theory, the were a particularly close-knit sub­ Physics, World Scientific, 1988, p18. concept of a "hole", the mechanism group. He and his Russian-born wife for thermal resistivity in insulators, Genia, whom he married in 1931, the de Haas-van Alphen effect, light made a second home for the families absorption in solids, the "Peierls of all, retaining a life-long interest in instability" of the linear chain, the their development and welfare. His motion of dislocations in a crystal, was the role of revered father-figure, and phase transitions in the two- hers that of kindly yet formidable dimensional Ising model. In nuclear mother-substitute. Despite the severe and elementary particle physics he blow of Genia's death in 1986, he made many seminal contributions, continued to work, travel and enter­ including the theory of beta-capture, tain just as they had done together, nuclear photo-disintegration, reso­ until his health failed. Even in the last nance scattering, neutron excitation, months, his sharpness of mind never collective motion, field quantization, left him, and he continued to work on functional methods in quantum field book reviews and on his collected theory, and the concept of an unsta­ non-scientific papers, and to enjoy ble particle as a complex pole. the company of visitors. Peierls believed in "strong interac­ tions" between physicists, and (This is an abbreviated version of an attracted interacting participants to obituary which appears in the No­ his "school" from all over the world. vember issue of Physics World.) He could reduce a problem to its essence and was a lucid commenta­ References tor on the current state of the subject. His criticism of ideas he disapproved [1] R. E. Peierls, Bird of Passage, of could be severe but was always Princeton University Press, 1985 polite. [2] Two parts reprinted separately in

Sir Rudolf Peierls (1909-1995) seen here (left) with Tom Kibble of Imperial College, at CERN in 1991 for a memorial meeting for John Bell.

22 CERN Courier, November 1995