A Mathematician Doing Physics
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Load more
Recommended publications
-
Samuel Goudsmit
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SAMUEL ABRAHAM GOUDSMIT 1 9 0 2 — 1 9 7 8 A Biographical Memoir by BENJAMIN BEDERSON Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir COPYRIGHT 2008 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES WASHINGTON, D.C. Photograph courtesy Brookhaven National Laboratory. SAMUEL ABRAHAM GOUDSMIT July 11, 1902–December 4, 1978 BY BENJAMIN BEDERSON AM GOUDSMIT LED A CAREER that touched many aspects of S20th-century physics and its impact on society. He started his professional life in Holland during the earliest days of quantum mechanics as a student of Paul Ehrenfest. In 1925 together with his fellow graduate student George Uhlenbeck he postulated that in addition to mass and charge the electron possessed a further intrinsic property, internal angular mo- mentum, that is, spin. This inspiration furnished the missing link that explained the existence of multiple spectroscopic lines in atomic spectra, resulting in the final triumph of the then struggling birth of quantum mechanics. In 1927 he and Uhlenbeck together moved to the United States where they continued their physics careers until death. In a rough way Goudsmit’s career can be divided into several separate parts: first in Holland, strictly as a theorist, where he achieved very early success, and then at the University of Michigan, where he worked in the thriving field of preci- sion spectroscopy, concerning himself with the influence of nuclear magnetism on atomic spectra. In 1944 he became the scientific leader of the Alsos Mission, whose aim was to determine the progress Germans had made in the development of nuclear weapons during World War II. -
Winter 2013 Newsletter
Volume 10, No. 1 Newsletter The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University 2013 Winter 2 Jinyang Li: Building 5 How can the mysterious Distributed Systems that connection between Bridge Applications and nature and mathematics Hardware be explained? It can’t, says Henry McKean 3 New Faculty 6 Winter 2013 Puzzle How Fair is a Fair Coin? 4 In the accounting software 7 The Generosity of Friends field, Anne-Claire McAllister’s Courant degree has made all the difference In this Issue: Jinyang Li: Building Distributed Systems That Bridge Applications and Hardware by M.L. Ball the hardware. When new hardware is built, without good systems Piccolo: Distributed Computation software it’s very clumsy to use and won’t reach the majority of using Shared In-memory State application programmers. It’s a careful balance between making your system very usable and maintaining extremely high performance,” Node-1 said Jinyang. Get, Put, Update (commutative) Jinyang’s Project Piccolo: Faster, more robust, and getting lots of notice When approaching a new project, Jinyang prefers a bottom-up PageRank Accumulate=sum Distrubuted in-memory state approach. “I like to take a very concrete piece of application that A: 1.35 B: 5.44 I really care about – like machine learning or processing a lot of C: 2.01 … text – and then look at the existing hardware and say, ‘We have lots of machines and they’re connected by a fast network and each of them has a lot of memory and a lot of disks,’” she said. “‘How can I enable that application to utilize this array of hardware? What is the Node-2 Node-3 glue, what is the infrastructure that’s needed? To make the challenges concrete, let me start by building this infrastructure that specifically can process a large amount of text really quickly. -
Matical Society Was Held at Columbia University on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26, 1947
THE APRIL MEETING IN NEW YORK The four hundred twenty-fourth meeting of the American Mathe matical Society was held at Columbia University on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26, 1947. The attendance was over 300, includ ing the following 300 members of the Society: C. R. Adams, C. F. Adler, R. P. Agnew, E.J. Akutowicz, Leonidas Alaoglu, T. W. Anderson, C. B. Allendoerfer, R. G. Archibald, L. A. Aroian, M. C. Ayer, R. A. Bari, Joshua Barlaz, P. T. Bateman, G. E. Bates, M. F. Becker, E. G. Begle, Richard Bellman, Stefan Bergman, Arthur Bernstein, Felix Bernstein, Lipman Bers, D. H. Blackwell, Gertrude Blanch, J. H. Blau, R. P. Boas, H. W. Bode, G. L. Bolton, Samuel Borofsky, J. M. Boyer, A. D. Bradley, H. W. Brinkmann, Paul Brock, A. B. Brown, G. W. Brown, R. H. Brown, E. F. Buck, R. C. Buck, L. H. Bunyan, R. S. Burington, J. C. Burkill, Herbert Busemann, K. A. Bush, Hobart Bushey, J. H. Bushey, K. E. Butcher, Albert Cahn, S. S. Cairns, W. R. Callahan, H. H. Campaigne, K. Chandrasekharan, J. O. Chellevold, Herman Chernoff, Claude Chevalley, Ed mund Churchill, J. A. Clarkson, M. D. Clement, R. M. Cohn, I. S. Cohen, Nancy Cole, T. F. Cope, Richard Courant, M. J. Cox, F. G. Critchlow, H. B. Curry, J. H. Curtiss, M. D. Darkow, A. S. Day, S. P. Diliberto, J. L. Doob, C. H. Dowker, Y. N. Dowker, William H. Durf ee, Churchill Eisenhart, Benjamin Epstein, Ky Fan, J.M.Feld, William Feller, F. G. Fender, A. D. -
Fundamental Theorems in Mathematics
SOME FUNDAMENTAL THEOREMS IN MATHEMATICS OLIVER KNILL Abstract. An expository hitchhikers guide to some theorems in mathematics. Criteria for the current list of 243 theorems are whether the result can be formulated elegantly, whether it is beautiful or useful and whether it could serve as a guide [6] without leading to panic. The order is not a ranking but ordered along a time-line when things were writ- ten down. Since [556] stated “a mathematical theorem only becomes beautiful if presented as a crown jewel within a context" we try sometimes to give some context. Of course, any such list of theorems is a matter of personal preferences, taste and limitations. The num- ber of theorems is arbitrary, the initial obvious goal was 42 but that number got eventually surpassed as it is hard to stop, once started. As a compensation, there are 42 “tweetable" theorems with included proofs. More comments on the choice of the theorems is included in an epilogue. For literature on general mathematics, see [193, 189, 29, 235, 254, 619, 412, 138], for history [217, 625, 376, 73, 46, 208, 379, 365, 690, 113, 618, 79, 259, 341], for popular, beautiful or elegant things [12, 529, 201, 182, 17, 672, 673, 44, 204, 190, 245, 446, 616, 303, 201, 2, 127, 146, 128, 502, 261, 172]. For comprehensive overviews in large parts of math- ematics, [74, 165, 166, 51, 593] or predictions on developments [47]. For reflections about mathematics in general [145, 455, 45, 306, 439, 99, 561]. Encyclopedic source examples are [188, 705, 670, 102, 192, 152, 221, 191, 111, 635]. -
9<HTMERB=Ehijdf>
News 6/2013 Mathematics C. Abbas, Michigan State University, East Lansing, K. Alladi, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, T. Aven, University of Oslo, Norway; U. Jensen, MI, USA USA; P. Paule, Johannes Kepler University Linz, University of Hohenheim, Germany Austria; J. Sellers, A. J. Yee, The Pennsylvania State Introduction to Compactness University, University Park, PA, USA (Eds) Stochastic Models in Reliability Results in Symplectic Field Combinatory Analysis This book provides a comprehensive up-to-date Theory presentation of some of the classical areas of reli- Dedicated to George Andrews ability, based on a more advanced probabilistic framework using the modern theory of stochastic The book grew out of lectures given by the Contents author in 2005. Symplectic field theory is a processes. This framework allows analysts to for- Congruences modulo powers of 2 for a certain new important subject which is currently being mulate general failure models, establish formulae partition function (H.-C. Chan and S. Cooper).- developed. The starting point of this theory are for computing various performance measures, Cranks—really, the final problem (B.C. Berndt, compactness results for holomorphic curves as well as determine how to identify optimal H.H. Chan, S.H. Chan, and W.-C. Liaw).- Eisen- established in 2004. The book gives a systematic replacement policies in complex situations. In stein series and Ramanujan-type series for 1/π introduction providing a lot of background mate- this second edition of the book, two major topics (N.D. Baruah and B.C. Berndt).- Parity in parti- rial much of which is scattered throughout the have been added to the original version: copula tion identities (G.E. -
Ginling College, the University of Michigan and the Barbour Scholarship
Ginling College, the University of Michigan and the Barbour Scholarship Rosalinda Xiong United World College of Southeast Asia Singapore, 528704 Abstract Ginling College (“Ginling”) was the first institution of higher learning in China to grant bachelor’s degrees to women. Located in Nanking (now Nanjing) and founded in 1915 by western missionaries, Ginling had already graduated nearly 1,000 women when it merged with the University of Nanking in 1951 to become National Ginling University. The University of Michigan (“Michigan”) has had a long history of exchange with Ginling. During Ginling’s first 36 years of operation, Michigan graduates and faculty taught Chinese women at Ginling, and Ginlingers furthered their studies at Michigan through the Barbour Scholarship. This paper highlights the connection between Ginling and Michigan by profiling some of the significant people and events that shaped this unique relationship. It begins by introducing six Michigan graduates and faculty who taught at Ginling. Next we look at the 21 Ginlingers who studied at Michigan through the Barbour Scholarship (including 8 Barbour Scholars from Ginling who were awarded doctorate degrees), and their status after returning to China. Finally, we consider the lives of prominent Chinese women scholars from Ginling who changed China, such as Dr. Wu Yi-fang, a member of Ginling’s first graduating class and, later, its second president; and Miss Wu Ching-yi, who witnessed the brutality of the Rape of Nanking and later worked with Miss Minnie Vautrin to help refugees in Ginling Refugee Camp. Between 2015 and 2017, Ginling College celebrates the centennial anniversary of its founding; and the University of Michigan marks both its bicentennial and the hundredth anniversary of the Barbour Gift, the source of the Barbour Scholarship. -
Council Congratulates Exxon Education Foundation
from.qxp 4/27/98 3:17 PM Page 1315 From the AMS ics. The Exxon Education Foundation funds programs in mathematics education, elementary and secondary school improvement, undergraduate general education, and un- dergraduate developmental education. —Timothy Goggins, AMS Development Officer AMS Task Force Receives Two Grants The AMS recently received two new grants in support of its Task Force on Excellence in Mathematical Scholarship. The Task Force is carrying out a program of focus groups, site visits, and information gathering aimed at developing (left to right) Edward Ahnert, president of the Exxon ways for mathematical sciences departments in doctoral Education Foundation, AMS President Cathleen institutions to work more effectively. With an initial grant Morawetz, and Robert Witte, senior program officer for of $50,000 from the Exxon Education Foundation, the Task Exxon. Force began its work by organizing a number of focus groups. The AMS has now received a second grant of Council Congratulates Exxon $50,000 from the Exxon Education Foundation, as well as a grant of $165,000 from the National Science Foundation. Education Foundation For further information about the work of the Task Force, see “Building Excellence in Doctoral Mathematics De- At the Summer Mathfest in Burlington in August, the AMS partments”, Notices, November/December 1995, pages Council passed a resolution congratulating the Exxon Ed- 1170–1171. ucation Foundation on its fortieth anniversary. AMS Pres- ident Cathleen Morawetz presented the resolution during —Timothy Goggins, AMS Development Officer the awards banquet to Edward Ahnert, president of the Exxon Education Foundation, and to Robert Witte, senior program officer with Exxon. -
Prize Is Awarded Every Three Years at the Joint Mathematics Meetings
AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY LEVI L. CONANT PRIZE This prize was established in 2000 in honor of Levi L. Conant to recognize the best expository paper published in either the Notices of the AMS or the Bulletin of the AMS in the preceding fi ve years. Levi L. Conant (1857–1916) was a math- ematician who taught at Dakota School of Mines for three years and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute for twenty-fi ve years. His will included a bequest to the AMS effective upon his wife’s death, which occurred sixty years after his own demise. Citation Persi Diaconis The Levi L. Conant Prize for 2012 is awarded to Persi Diaconis for his article, “The Markov chain Monte Carlo revolution” (Bulletin Amer. Math. Soc. 46 (2009), no. 2, 179–205). This wonderful article is a lively and engaging overview of modern methods in probability and statistics, and their applications. It opens with a fascinating real- life example: a prison psychologist turns up at Stanford University with encoded messages written by prisoners, and Marc Coram uses the Metropolis algorithm to decrypt them. From there, the article gets even more compelling! After a highly accessible description of Markov chains from fi rst principles, Diaconis colorfully illustrates many of the applications and venues of these ideas. Along the way, he points to some very interesting mathematics and some fascinating open questions, especially about the running time in concrete situ- ations of the Metropolis algorithm, which is a specifi c Monte Carlo method for constructing Markov chains. The article also highlights the use of spectral methods to deduce estimates for the length of the chain needed to achieve mixing. -
Concerning Relativity Books. Published in June 2013 INTERVIEW WITH
Interview for Hungarian “Physical Review” concerning relativity books. Published in June 2013 INTERVIEW WITH EDWIN F. TAYLOR, SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, EMERITUS AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (FSZ: Fizikai Szemle, EFT: Edwin F. Taylor) FSZ: Spacetime Physics, the book you co-authored with John Archibald Wheeler, has many fans among physicists throughout the world, and Hungary is no exception. (The Hungarian edition was first published in 1974; the second printing of this edition came out in 2006 [1].) In 1972 you published an account of your collaboration with John Wheeler on the 1963 edition of Spacetime Physics and your personal impressions about John Wheeler (including his emotional reaction to the news of his mentor Niels Bohr’s death in November 1962) [2]. Your collaboration and friendship with Wheeler started during your sabbatical at Princeton University in 1962. One of your assignments was to prepare lecture notes for a freshman physics course that Wheeler taught to a class of 35 students. He started the course with 6 weeks of relativity! What had been your main areas of interest in physics before you met John Wheeler? Had you been particularly interested in relativity, or was it Wheeler’s presentation of it during that introductory physics course in 1962 which made it a lifelong passion for you? EFT: My father, Lloyd W. Taylor, was a physics textbook writer, so it came naturally to me. My first book, Introductory Mechanics, arrived from the publisher when I was on a junior faculty sabbatical at Princeton University; that book included some chapters on special relativity. Wheeler arranged for me to assist him in this honors introductory class [3]. -
The West Math Collection
Anaheim Meetings Oanuary 9 -13) - Page 15 Notices of the American Mathematical Society January 1985, Issue 239 Volume 32, Number 1, Pages 1-144 Providence, Rhode Island USA ISSN 0002-9920 Calendar of AMS Meetings THIS CALENDAR lists all meetings which have been approved by the Council prior to the date this issue of the Notices was sent to the press. The summer and annual meetings are joint meetings of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society. The meeting dates which fall rather far in the future are subject to change; this is particularly true of meetings to which no numbers have yet been assigned. Programs of the meetings will appear in the issues indicated below. First and supplementary announcements of the meetings will have appeared in earlier issues. ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS presented at a meeting of the Society are published in the journal Abstracts of papers presented to the American Mathematical Society in the issue corresponding to that of the Notices which contains the program of the meeting. Abstracts should be submitted on special forms which are available in many departments of mathematics and from the office of the Society. Abstracts must be accompanied by the Sl5 processing charge. Abstracts of papers to be presented at the meeting must be received at the headquarters of the Society in Providence. Rhode Island. on or before the deadline given below for the meeting. Note that the deadline for abstracts for consideration for presentation at special sessions is usually three weeks earlier than that specified below. For additional information consult the meeting announcements and the list of organizers of special sessions. -
A Contribuição De Chien Shiung Wu Para a Teoria Quântica
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DA BAHIA UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE FEIRA DE SANTANA PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ENSINO, FILOSOFIA E HISTÓRIA DAS CIÊNCIAS ANGEVALDO MENEZES MAIA FILHO PARA UMA HISTÓRIA DAS MULHERES NA CIÊNCIA: A CONTRIBUIÇÃO DE CHIEN SHIUNG WU PARA A TEORIA QUÂNTICA Salvador 2018 ANGEVALDO MENEZES MAIA FILHO PARA UMA HISTÓRIA DAS MULHERES NA CIÊNCIA: A CONTRIBUIÇÃO DE CHIEN SHIUNG WU PARA A TEORIA QUÂNTICA Dissertação apresentada ao Programa de Pós- Graduação em Ensino, Filosofia e História das Ciências, da Universidade Federal da Bahia e da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de Mestre em Ensino, Filosofia e História das Ciências. Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Indianara Lima Silva Salvador 2018 ANGEVALDO MENEZES MAIA FILHO PARA UMA HISTÓRIA DAS MULHERES NA CIÊNCIA: A CONTRIBUIÇÃO DE CHIEN SHIUNG WU PARA A TEORIA QUÂNTICA Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de mestre em 19 de abril de 2018, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ensino, Filosofia e História das Ciências, da Universidade Federal da Bahia e da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana. 19 de abril de 2018 Banca Examinadora _______________________________________________ Professora Doutora Indianara Lima Silva _______________________________________________ Professora Doutora Maria Margaret Lopes _______________________________________________ Professor Doutor Olival Freire Júnior AGRADECIMENTOS Como não poderia deixar de ser, os agradecimentos revelam o quão importante são as pessoas que nos cercam e o quanto pode ser difícil, no meu caso, absolutamente impossível, realizar um trabalho individualmente. Agradeço a Josenice Assunção Maia e Angevaldo Maia, pessoas que tive a sorte de ter enquanto genitores me apoiando incondicionalmente desde sempre, confiando e acreditando nas minhas escolhas, a maior e inesgotável fonte de amor que pude encontrar na vida. -
Awards at the International Congress of Mathematicians at Seoul (Korea) 2014
Awards at the International Congress of Mathematicians at Seoul (Korea) 2014 News release from the International Mathematical Union (IMU) The Fields medals of the ICM 2014 were awarded formidable technical power, the ingenuity and tenac- to Arthur Avila, Manjual Bhagava, Martin Hairer, and ity of a master problem-solver, and an unerring sense Maryam Mirzakhani; and the Nevanlinna Prize was for deep and significant questions. awarded to Subhash Khot. The prize winners of the Avila’s achievements are many and span a broad Gauss Prize, Chern Prize, and Leelavati Prize were range of topics; here we focus on only a few high- Stanley Osher, Phillip Griffiths and Adrián Paenza, re- lights. One of his early significant results closes a spectively. The following article about the awardees chapter on a long story that started in the 1970s. At is the news released by the International Mathe- that time, physicists, most notably Mitchell Feigen- matical Union (IMU). We are grateful to Prof. Ingrid baum, began trying to understand how chaos can Daubechies, the President of IMU, who granted us the arise out of very simple systems. Some of the systems permission of reprinting it.—the Editors they looked at were based on iterating a mathemati- cal rule such as 3x(1 − x). Starting with a given point, one can watch the trajectory of the point under re- The Work of Artur Avila peated applications of the rule; one can think of the rule as moving the starting point around over time. Artur Avila has made For some maps, the trajectories eventually settle into outstanding contribu- stable orbits, while for other maps the trajectories be- tions to dynamical come chaotic.