DOCSLIB.ORG

Glimpses of Greatness∗ a Personal View of P W Anderson (1923–2020)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Glimpses of Greatness∗ a Personal View of P W Anderson (1923–2020) GENERAL ARTICLE Glimpses of Greatness∗ A Personal View of P W Anderson (1923–2020) G Baskaran P W Anderson was a theoretical physicist. He won the No- bel Prize in 1977. He catalysed Nobel Prizes for several oth- ers. His career spanned 72 years of relentless research, filled with path-breaking contributions. He focussed on ‘here and now’ phenomena of inanimate materials and built theoreti- cal quantum models of lasting value. He communed with na- ture by contemplation and study of experimental results. As a G Baskaran is a theoretical founding father, he set agenda for the field of condensed mat- physicist. He studies a variety ter physics, for half a century. It is a growing fertile field now, of quantum phenomena, with a web of connection to different corners of science, tech- including theory and nology, and sometimes beyond. As a person, Anderson was mechanism of room-temperature remarkable. He was my long time collaborator since 1984. I superconductivity. He shares had a wonderful opportunity to join hands with him when he his time between The Institute initiated the resonating valence bond (RVB) theory of high- of Mathematical Sciences, temperature superconductivity in cuprates in early 1987. Chennai, Department of Physics of Indian Institute of It was 1986. I was talking to Anderson in his office at Prince- Technology Madras and ton. A young undergraduate walked in. Students knew that no Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, prior appointment was necessary to meet this Nobel Laureate in Waterloo, Canada. his office. The student elaborated on an idea he had. After a while I became impatient. Anderson patiently listened till the end; he did notice my impatience. After the student left, Anderson en- lightened me, with his own understanding of a very important point that the student was actually trying to convey, but didn’t completely succeed. I woke up. On several occasions, Anderson brought out deep meanings in very ordinary sounding seminar talks and pleasantly surprised the speaker and audience. Keywords Condensed matter physics, RVB There was another side to Anderson. He called himself ‘a thought- theory, high-Tc superconductivity, superfluids, Higgs Particle, sci- ence of complexity. ∗Vol.25, No.5, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-020-0979-x RESONANCE | May 2020 617 GENERAL ARTICLE ful curmudgeon’. Curmudgeon means a ‘bad-tempered old per- son’. Bad-tempered he could be; but that was often common to senior established scientists, who were pompous but simplistic, who won their way, and sometimes misguided the scientific com- munity. In his Scientific American article on Anderson—‘Gruff Guru of Physics’—John Horgan states, “Robert Schrieffer, a No- bel Laureate in physics who has often butted heads with Ander- son, admires his blunt style. Anderson “has played a uniquely provocative role to make sure that people get things right,” Schri- effer says. But he adds that Anderson can be undiplomatic.” Science has witnessed outstanding scientists, who change the course of science. Such individuals are remarkable and unique in their own ways. They offer us a feel for the wonderful world of science and show us ways to practice science and get friendly with it. One such person in the field of physics was P W Ander- son, who passed away at the age of 96 on 29th March 2020, at Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He was connected to several scien- tists of Indian subcontinent origin: T V Ramakrishnan, B S Shas- try, H R Krishnamurthy, V N Muthukumar, K Muttalib, Sanjoy K Sarkar, Sudip Chakravarty, C M Varma, G Srinivasan, Ravin Bhatt, Anil Khurana, Sajeev John, Shivaji Sondhi, Mohit Rande- ria, Nandini Trivedi, and others. In his personal and advisory ca- pacity, Anderson supported the growth of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy and helped in dis- seminating theoretical physics to the Third World countries, in their formative periods. Anderson was also a long time Foreign Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Anderson’s As a theoretical physicist, Anderson looked at the beautiful, com- mathematical analyses plex, dirty, and daunting inanimate matter of all kinds; from rust were guided by physical (magnetic oxides of iron called Mott insulators), gems, and su- intuitions and the repeated use of perconductors to superfluids in the crusts of neutron stars. He experimental results. He handled them skillfully by building mathematical models; most coined the term of them quantum mechanical. Interestingly, his entire career was ‘condensed matter built on the proper and efficient use of the body of available ex- physics’. He had an eye and passion for biology perimental results. His mathematical analyses were guided by but was too preoccupied physical intuitions and the repeated use of experimental results. with inanimate matter. 618 RESONANCE | May 2020 GENERAL ARTICLE Figure 1. Professor P W Anderson (left) with the author. The photo taken on 13th December 2018, the 95th Birth Day of An- derson. He drove from home. The Physics Depart- ment surprised him with a birthday cake. We are re- laxing after our usual argu- ments, disagreements, and laughter. (Image courtesy: G Baskaran) He coined the term ‘condensed matter physics’. He had an eye and passion for biology but was too preoccupied with inanimate matter. He, however, inspired several others into biology. When I invited him to visit India, about 10 years ago, he said he was avoiding long-distance travel, to focus on some of his unfinished ideas in biology. Anderson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 along with Sir Nevill Mott and John van Vleck. It was a wonderful combination: van Vleck was Anderson’s PhD thesis supervisor. Nevill Mott was an admirer of Anderson, who nurtured Ander- son localization theory and applied it to amorphous semiconduc- tors. The Nobel citation stated, “for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disor- dered systems.” His body of contributions deserves, according to many, a few more Nobel Prizes. More importantly, his works and insights paved the way for several Nobel Prizes for others. Condensed matter physics is a less attractive corner of physics to fresh young minds. For many, it is dull, boring, and not funda- mental enough. However, insights that these down to earth prob- lems offer into the inner workings of nature at different scales (below earth scale and beyond earth scale), are unfathomable. Two examples are (i) Anderson–Higgs mechanism [1] of the mass generation of elementary particles, which came from theoretical insights into superconductivity, and (ii) glitches in pulsar periods, RESONANCE | May 2020 619 GENERAL ARTICLE as arising from neutron star quakes driven by vortex creep in the crust containing the neutron superfluid [2]. Various factors shape a Various factors shape a person as a successful scientist when he person as a successful grows up. Often it is a teacher who inspires. Families also nurture scientist when he grows the free spirit and a spirit of inquiry. In his Nobel Prize biograph- up. Often it is a teacher who inspires. Families ical note, Anderson says, “At Illinois, my parents belonged to also nurture the free a group of warm, settled friends, whose life centered on the out- spirit and a spirit of doors and in particular on the “Saturday Hikers”, and my happiest inquiry. hours as a child and adolescent were spent hiking, canoeing, va- cationing, picnicking, and singing around the campfire with this group. They were unusually politically conscious for that place and time, and we lived with a strong sense of frustration and fore- boding at the events in Europe and Asia.” Anderson goes on, “An important impression was my father’s one Sabbatical year, spent in England and Europe in 1937. I read voraciously, but among the few intellectual challenges I remember at school was a first-rate mathematics teacher at the University High School, Miles Hart- ley.” Anderson went on to Harvard and finished his undergraduate stud- ies in physics, with a good record. He finished his PhD at Har- vard. According to him “Graduate school (1945–49) consisted of excellent courses; a delightful group of friends, centered around bridge, puzzles, and singing.” Joyce Gothwaite became his life partner, and Anderson had 73 years long life journey with Joyce. They were a wonderful couple and great hosts. Joyce was a great support for Anderson. Their daughter Susan was born in 1948. Beyond observation of Nature and experimentation, conceptual- ization and model building are very important for science. Our ancestors had models for the solar system and models for the uni- verse. Model building is part of human activities. Ancient medic- inal systems such as Siddha, Ayurveda, and Unani have models for diseases in terms of imbalances in competing phenomenolog- ical components. In our personal lives, we build our own mental models (sometimes wrong) about people whom we interact with. We categorize, make hypotheses, judge, and also anticipate (pre- diction). Such qualitative considerations abound in human activ- 620 RESONANCE | May 2020 GENERAL ARTICLE ities. Mathematical model building for physical and chemical proper- Mathematical model ties of inanimate matter is relatively simpler than for biology. For- building for physical and tunately, the dividends are also high. It gives condensed matter chemical properties of inanimate matter is physics its quantitative and predictive power, despite the com- relatively simpler than plexity and variety it faces. The ability to do controlled
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Dimerization of CO2 at High Pressure and Temperature
    Dimerization of CO2 at High Pressure and Temperature Francesco Tassone,[a] Guido L. Chiarotti,[a] Roger Rousseau,[a] Sandro Scandolo,[b, c] and Erio Tosatti*[a, b, c] Dedicated to Professor Michele Parrinello on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Understanding the behavior of simple molecular systems under the combined effect of high pressure (P) and tempera- ture (T) has important implications in the modeling of planeta- ry interiors, in the chemistry of detonation, and in the synthe- sis of new materials. Extreme conditions of P and T can be par- tially accessed in the laboratory either in heated diamond-anvil cells or in shock wave experiments, where dramatic changes in the chemical and physical properties of simple molecules have been reported.[1] Depending on the detailed situation, com- pression may result in the formation of intermolecular bonds, or in disproportionation, or even in full dissociation into the constituent elements. In such a context, the theoretical predic- tion of stable or metastable structures and of their properties is highly desirable. However, this requires an accurate quantum description, capable of discriminating the often subtle changes in the nature of chemical bonds. First-principles molecular dy- namics methods with variable-cell, constant-pressure dynam- ics[2]—a natural derivation of the two revolutionary methods introduced more than 20 years ago by Michele Parrinello to- gether with Roberto Car[3] and Anees Rahman[4]—offer a unique tool for this kind of exploration. [5] Molecular CO2 was independently observed and predict- ed[6] to transform into extended quartz-like covalent solids at moderately high pressures (about 50 GPa).
    [Show full text]
  • The Nobel Prize in Physics: Four Historical Case Studies
    The Nobel Prize in Physics: Four Historical Case Studies By: Hannah Pell, Research Assistant November 2019 From left: Arnold Sommerfeld, Lise Meitner, Chien-Shiung Wu, Satyendra Nath Bose. Images courtesy of the AIP Emilio Segré Visual Archives. Grade Level(s): 11-12, College Subject(s): History, Physics In-Class Time: 50 - 60 minutes Prep Time: 15 – 20 minutes Materials • Photocopies of case studies (found in the Supplemental Materials) • Student internet access Objective Students will investigate four historical case studies of physicists who some physicists and historians have argued should have won a Nobel Prize in physics: Arnold Sommerfeld, Lise Meitner, Chien-Shiung Wu, and Satyendra Nath Bose. With each Case Study, students examine the historical context surrounding the prize that year (if applicable) as well as potential biases inherent in the structure of the Nobel Prize committee and its selection process. Students will summarize arguments for why these four physicists should have been awarded a Nobel Prize, as well as potential explanations for why they were not awarded the honor. Introduction Introduction to the Nobel Prize In 1895, Alfred Nobel—a Swedish chemist and engineer who invented dynamite—signed into his will that a large portion of his vast fortune should be used to create a series of annual prizes awarded to those who “confer the greatest benefit on mankind” in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, 1 literature, and peace.1 (The Nobel Prize in economics was added later to the collection of disciplines in 1968). Thus, the Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organization in 1900 and the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901.
    [Show full text]
  • Muonium Gravity Seminar Wichita-6-17
    Antimatter Gravity MICE-U.S. Plans withDaniel Muons M. Kaplan US Spokesperson, MICE Collaboration Daniel M. Kaplan Physics Seminar WichitaMuTAC State Review Univ. June Fermilab16, 2017 16–17 March, 2006 Outline • Dramatis Personae • A Bit of History - antimatter, the baryon asymmetry of the universe, and all that... • The Ideas, The Issues, The Opportunities • Required R&D • Conclusions Our story’s a bit complicated, so please bear with me! ...and stop me if you have a question! D. M. Kaplan, IIT An#ma&er Gravity Seminar 2/41 Matter & Energy • After many decades of experimentation with subatomic particles, we now know whatDramatis everything is made of... Personae Baryons & antibaryons : p== uud & p uud ΛΛ==uds & uds ... Mesons : K00== ds & K ds B00== db & B db B+ == ub & B− ub ... ∓ ∓ ∓ Leptons : e , µ , τ , ν’s D. M. Kaplan, IIT An#ma&er Gravity Seminar 3/41 Matter & Energy • After many decades of experimentation with subatomic particles, we now know whatDramatis everything is made of... Personae “Imperfect mirror” Baryons & antibaryons : Antip== uud & p uud ΛΛ==uds & uds ... Mesons : Anti K00== ds & K ds B00== db & B db Anti B+ == ub & B− ub ... Antimatter Leptons : e∓, µ∓, τ∓, ν’s • And, don’t forget: antimatter and matter annihilate on contact D. M. Kaplan, IIT An#ma&er Gravity Seminar 3/41 Outline • Dramatis Personae ➡ • A Bit of History - antimatter, the baryon asymmetry of the universe, and all that... • The Ideas, The Issues, The Opportunities • Muonium Gravity Experiment • Required R&D • Conclusions D. M. Kaplan, IIT An#ma&er Gravity Seminar 4/41 Our story begins with..
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering Stig Lundqvist
    Remembering Stig Lundqvist Scientist Friend Among his many attributes, Stig Lundqvist was an Stig was a devoted friend and colleague, and a autstanding scientist . He conducted fundamental warm human being with a wide range of interests and studies of electron gas, particularly the role of many talents : He was a jazz musician with a deep collective plasmon excitations in spectroscopic appreciation of classical music - he played the properties. One particularly important study of trumpet and arranged music for a jazz group as an Stig's concentrated on particle spectroscopy. He undergraduate; he was a creative chef specializing found that a resonance occurs when the spectrum is in fish dishes but, as he often remarked, second in probed at an energy corresponding to the plasmeron culinary talent to his sister Kersti; he was a superb energy . The plasmeron is a bound state of a hole and theoretical condensed matter physicist well-versed a plasmon. These excitations were observed in other areas of physics, making him a particularly experimentally and provide a fundamental aspect of effective member and chairman of the Nobel Prize electron gas . Another important aspect of his work Committee in Physics; and he was a creative organiser concerned the electron tunnelling spectrum in metals. of international conferences, symposia and advanced He studied the single quasi particle and collective summer schools, enabling him to spark interactions mode spectrum of solids, again probing fundamental among physicists worldwide . In 1990, when Stig reached aspects of correlations in the electronic properties the age of 65, after a long and distinguished career of metal and superconductars.
    [Show full text]
  • Erio TOSATTI Dati Personali
    Erio TOSATTI Dati personali ________________________________________________________________ Nascita: 9 Novembre 1943, Nonantola (Modena) Nazionalita’: Italiana Stato civile: sposato, 3 figli Indirizzo: SISSA, via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste; casa, Viale Miramare 41, I-34135 Trieste, Italy. Telefoni: +39-348-8606809 (cell); +39-040-43727 (casa) +39-040-3787-438 (SISSA); -437 segreteria; -528 fax E-mail : [email protected] Web: http://sites.google.com/site/tosattierio/ Studi ________________________________________________________________ 1967 Laurea in Fisica, Universita’ di Modena, cum Laude 1970 Perfezionamento in Fisica Teorica, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, magna cum Laude. Posizioni _______________________________________________________________ 1980-2014 Professore ordinario di Struttura della Materia, SISSA area Fisica Fondatore del Settore di Teoria degli Stati Condensati, SISSA 1977-2014 Co-fondatore e membro senior, Condensed Matter Group, International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Trieste 2002-03 Direttore a.i,, ICTP, Trieste 2003-2014 Presidente, Ufficio Programmi Scientifici, ICTP 1970-71 Sottotenente GARF (compl.), Servizio Meteorologico, Aeronautica Militare Italiana 1971-76 Riceratore CNR, Istituto di Fisica “G. Marconi” Universita’ di Roma 1972-73 Royal Society/NATO Fellow, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, GB 1974 DFG Stipendium, Universita’ di Stoccarda, Germania Ovest. 1977 Senior NATO Fellow, Universita’ di Stanford, USA 1977-80 Ricercatore Capo CNR, e Professore Incaricato di Fisica dei Solidi, Istituto
    [Show full text]
  • Nobel Laureates with Their Contribution in Biomedical Engineering
    NOBEL LAUREATES WITH THEIR CONTRIBUTION IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING Nobel Prizes and Biomedical Engineering In the year 1901 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen received Nobel Prize in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him. Röntgen is considered the father of diagnostic radiology, the medical specialty which uses imaging to diagnose disease. He was the first scientist to observe and record X-rays, first finding them on November 8, 1895. Radiography was the first medical imaging technology. He had been fiddling with a set of cathode ray instruments and was surprised to find a flickering image cast by his instruments separated from them by some W. C. Röntgenn distance. He knew that the image he saw was not being cast by the cathode rays (now known as beams of electrons) as they could not penetrate air for any significant distance. After some considerable investigation, he named the new rays "X" to indicate they were unknown. In the year 1903 Niels Ryberg Finsen received Nobel Prize in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science. In beautiful but simple experiments Finsen demonstrated that the most refractive rays (he suggested as the “chemical rays”) from the sun or from an electric arc may have a stimulating effect on the tissues. If the irradiation is too strong, however, it may give rise to tissue damage, but this may to some extent be prevented by pigmentation of the skin as in the negro or in those much exposed to Niels Ryberg Finsen the sun.
    [Show full text]
  • Sommerfeld: the Eternal Nobel Candidate Sommerfeld: the Eternal Nobel Candidate
    FollowFollow us soWe uswe wantso canVisit we youchat uscan onin onchat ourYoutube Twitter! onGoogle+ Facebook! circles :) Sharing knowledge for a Books Authors Collaborators English Sign in better future Science Technology Economy Environment Humanities About Us Home Sommerfeld: the Eternal Nobel Candidate Sommerfeld: the Eternal Nobel Candidate Share 24 July 2017 Physics, Science Augusto Beléndez Sign in or register to rate this publication Full Professor of Applied Physics at the University In late 1928, a famous German physicist wrote to one of his colleagues to tell him with of Alicante (Spain) since chagrin that he had once again been passed over for the Nobel Prize in Physics: 1996. [...] 7 “But to dispel all suspicion of false modesty, I must simultaneously note that it is gradually posts becoming a public scandal that I have still not received the Prize [Nobel Prize in Physics].” (1) The theoretical physicist Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951) was born in Königsberg, a city Related topics in what was formerly East Prussia, today Kaliningrad in Russia, and also the birthplace of the mathematicians Christian Goldbach and David Hilbert, the philosopher Immanuel Kant and Aeronautics Astrophysics the writer E. T. A. Hoffmann. After receiving his doctorate from the University of Königsberg Biology Biomedicine in 1891, he moved to the University of Göttingen, the mecca of mathematics in Germany at General Science Genetics that time, where he eventually became assistant to the mathematician Felix Klein and gave Mathematics Medicine classes on mathematics and theoretical physics. After spending some years at RWTH @en Physics Aachen University, in 1906 he succeeded Ludwig Boltzmann as professor of theoretical physics and director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Munich, View all OpenMind topics where he set up a school of theoretical physics which gained worldwide renown.
    [Show full text]
  • INTRODUCTION SPEECH DIRAC MEDAL in HONOUR of ROBERTO CAR and MICHELE PARRINELLO
    2145-6 Spring College on Computational Nanoscience 17 - 28 May 2010 INTRODUCTION SPEECH DIRAC MEDAL IN HONOUR OF ROBERTO CAR and MICHELE PARRINELLO Erio TOSATTI SISSA Trieste Italy circa 1980 “molecular dynamics” computer simulations Berni of condensed matter: solids, liquids, etc Alder Aneesur Rahman “density functional” electronic structure and Walter total energy calculations of solids, etc Kohn Lu Sham Marvin Cohen FRANCO BASSANI 1929-2008 ROBERTO CAR ROBERTO ALFONSO CAR BALDERESCHI Modena 18 Oct 1981 ROBERTO ANNABELLA… …HELPED YANKING BOTH OF THEM AWAY FROM IBM….. ….TO TRIESTE! MICHELE PARRINELLO 1970s: MICHELE PARRINELLO IN A TYPICAL COSTUME OF HIS NATIVE SICILY…. MICHELE AND I HAD A LOT OF COMMON INTERESTS… 1977--1980: all together in Miramare! ABDUS SALAM PAOLO BUDINICH Michele with Dirac, Kastler, Budinich, Hamende, et al. (1978) Simona Parrinello and Valentino Tosatti, Trieste, circa 1984 Roberto and Martina Car circa 1989 IN THE EARLY 80s…. MICHELE VISITS ANEES RAHMAN’S GROUP WHILE WE COLLABORATE…. ROBERTO GETS MORE AND MORE ENTANGLED WITH KOHN-SHAM DFT Yin Cohen PRL 1980 WINTER 1984-85: WORKING IN THE NIGHT… The mathematician plays a game in which he himself invents the rules while the physicist plays a game in which the rules are provided by nature, but as time goes on it becomes increasingly evident that the rules which the mathematician finds interesting are the same as those which nature has chosen. Paul A. M. Dirac In Ian Stewart, Why Beauty is Truth (2007), 279. 1985! “molecular dynamics” computer simulations of condensed matter: solids, liquids, etc Michele “density functional” electronic structure and total energy calculations of solids, etc Roberto IMPACT & CHALLENGES SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, SURFACES….
    [Show full text]
  • Leon Ledermanrecalls How Gilberto Bernardini Helped Him to Rediscover
    REMINISCENCE Life in physics and the crucial sense of wonder Leon Lederman recalls how Gilberto Bernardini helped him to rediscover his enthusiasm for experimental physics, setting him on the road that would eventually lead to Stockholm and a Nobel prize in physics. As a grad student at Columbia around 1950, I had the rare oppor- tunity of meeting Albert Einstein. We were instructed to sit on a bench that would intersect Einstein’s path to lunch at his Princeton home. A fellow student and I sprang up when Einstein came by, accompanied by his assistant who asked if he would like to meet some students. “Yah,” the professor said and addressed my colleague, “Vot are you studying?” “I’m doing a thesis on quantum theory.” “Ach!” said Einstein, “A vaste of time!” He turned to me: “And vot are you doing?” I was more confident: “I’m studying experimentally the proper- ties of pions.” “Pions, pions! Ach, vee don’t understand de electron! Vy bother mit pions? Vell, good luck boys!” So, in less than 30 seconds, the Great Physicist had demol- ished two of the brightest – and best-looking – young physics Inspiration: Gilberto Bernardini, expressive and enthusiastic as ever. students. But we were on cloud nine. We had met the greatest scientist who ever lived! Some years before this memorable event, I had recently been discharged from the US army, having been drafted three years earlier to help General Eisenhower with a problem he had in Europe. It was called World War II. Our troop ship docked at the Battery and, having had a successful poker-driven ocean cross- ing, I taxied to Columbia University and registered as a physics grad student for the fall semester.
    [Show full text]
  • Finite Temperature Properties of Clusters by Replica Exchange Metadynamics: the Water Nonamer
    Finite temperature properties of clusters by replica exchange metadynamics: the water nonamer ∗ Yingteng Zhai,† Alessandro Laio,‡ Erio Tosatti,‡ and Xin-Gao Gong ,† Key Laboratory for Computational Physical Sciences(MOE) and Surface Physics Laboratory & Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy., CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Centre, via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy., and Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract We introduce an approach for the accurate calculation of thermal properties of classical nanoclusters. Based on a recently developed enhanced sampling technique, replica exchange metadynamics, the method yields the true free energy of each relevant cluster structure, di- rectly sampling its basin and measuring its occupancy in full equilibrium. All entropy sources, whether vibrational, rotational anharmonic and especially configurational – the latter often for- gotten in many cluster studies – are automatically included. For the present demonstration we arXiv:1103.0972v1 [cond-mat.stat-mech] 4 Mar 2011 choose the water nonamer (H2O)9, an extremely simple cluster which nonetheless displays a sufficient complexity and interesting physics in its relevant structure spectrum. Within a stan- dard TIP4P potential description of water, we find that the nonamer second relevant structure ∗To whom correspondence should be addressed †Key Laboratory for Computational Physical Sciences(MOE) and Surface Physics Laboratory & Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China ‡International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy. ¶CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Centre, via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020
    PRESS RELEASE 6 October 2020 The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 with one half to and the other half jointly to Roger Penrose Reinhard Genzel Andrea Ghez University of Oxford, UK Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA Garching, Germany and University of California, Berkeley, USA “for the discovery that black hole “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object formation is a robust prediction of at the centre of our galaxy” the general theory of relativity” Black holes and the Milky Way’s darkest secret Three Laureates share this year’s Nobel Prize in dizzying speeds. Around four million solar masses are Physics for their discoveries about one of the most packed together in a region no larger than our solar system. exotic phenomena in the universe, the black hole. Using the world’s largest telescopes, Genzel and Ghez Roger Penrose showed that the general theory of developed methods to see through the huge clouds of inter- relativity leads to the formation of black holes. stellar gas and dust to the centre of the Milky Way. Stret- Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez discovered that an ching the limits of technology, they refned new techniques invisible and extremely heavy object governs the orbits to compensate for distortions caused by the Earth’s of stars at the centre of our galaxy. A supermassive atmosphere, building unique instruments and committing black hole is the only currently known explanation. themselves to long-term research.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prize The Nobel Prize is the first international award given yearly since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Nobel Prize Facts 1901 – 2004 Total Science Prizes – 505 Physics: 172 Chemistry: 151 Physiology or Medicine: 182 Prizes are not awarded every year: 1940 – 1942: no prizes in any category were awarded Prize may be shared by up to three people Prize cannot be awarded posthumously Men:Women: 494:11 Mother-daughter winners: Curies (chemistry) Father-son: Siegbahn, Bohr, Bragg, Thomson (physics) Husband-wife: Curie (physics), Cori (physiology) Uncle-nephew: Chandrasakhar (physics) Brothers: Tinbergens (physiology, economics) Double winner/physics: Bardeen Double winner/chemistry: Sanger Double winner/different disciplines: Curie (physics, chemistry), Pauling (chemistry, peace) Country Physics Chemistry Medicine U.S. 66 47 90 Germany 27 26 18 Britain 21 23 20 France 11 7 9 USSR 6 1 2 Netherlands 6 2 3 Switzerland 4 5 -- Sweden 4 4 7 Austria 4 2 4 Canada 3 3 -- Denmark 3 1 6 Argentina -- 1 1 Belgium -- 1 2 Czechoslovakia -- 1 -- Italy 3 1 2 Japan 3 1 -- Finland -- 1 -- India 1 -- -- Mexico -- 1 -- Norway -- 1 -- Pakistan 1 -- -- South Africa -- 1 -- Australia -- -- 1 Hungary -- -- 1 Portugal -- -- 1 Spain -- -- 1 The Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation is a private institution established in 1900 based on the will of Alfred Nobel. The Foundation manages the assets made available through the will for the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. It represents the Nobel institutions externally and administers informational activities and arrangements surrounding the presentation of the Nobel Prize.
    [Show full text]