DOCSLIB.ORG

Europhysicsnews

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Europhysicsnews europhysicsnews Nobel prize of Physics 1908 for colour photography 39/6 The liquefaction of helium 2008 th 88€ per year (without VAT) Institutional subscription price: The 100 birthday of Lev Landau Volume 39 Complexity in condensed matter and statistical physics Annual index - volume 39 • number 6 European Physical Society Th ThE 100 BirThDAy oF LEV LANDAu >>> hiSTory ev Davidovich Landau is one of the of the Physical and Mechanical Faculty was His next step was Moscow and the Insti- news and views L most versatile and influential theoretical I. V. Obreimov, who offered Landau the tute of Physics Problems headed by Kapitza. physicists of the 20th century. He was born leadership position of the theoretical section After one year, in the spring of 1938 Lan- on 22 January 1908 in Baku, a capital of with full freedom of action. In 1934, with- dau was arrested. He spent one year in Azerbaijan, at the time part of the Russian out formal defense of a thesis he is awarded prison and was released after the interven- Empire. His parents were educated people. a degree of Doctor of physical and mathe- tions to the highest authorities by Kapitza His father was an engineer in the oil fields of matical sciences and next year, at 27, he be- who insisted that only Landau was able to the Caspian Sea, his mother a medical doc- comes a full professor. Here he starts with explain his experiments with liquid helium. tor, taking care of the family. As a child he his educational activities which extend far He has written 115 scientific papers, has shown an unusual fascination with beyond the walls of his new Institute. Ac- about half of them as coauthor. The publi- mathematics, but was also fond of Russian cording to the reminiscences of two stu- cations appeared at an average rate of little poetry, Lermontov in particular. He went dents of Kharkov University, Y. Feinberg over three papers per year. His most pro- quickly through the schooling system and and B. Verkin, who later became members ductive year was 1937 with 10 publications. readily entered University of Baku at the age of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, after Only in 1952 and 1953 he did not publish of 14 to study physics and mathematics, anything when he was involved in the proj- and in parallel chemistry. Expectedly this ect of the Soviet nuclear weapon. was met with some suspicion from the fel- The largest portion of his publications is low students until they realized that the connected to condensed matter and includes young boy was competent enough to pro- a development of a theory of phase transitions vide them with assistance in their studies. of second order,with extensions to the theory After two years he followed his sister to con- of superconductivity (with V. L. Ginzburg), tinue his studies in Leningrad, at that time theory of superfluidity,diamagnetism of elec- the most developed center for physics in the trons, theory of quantum liquids and plasma Soviet Union. At the age of 19 he got the oscillations, properties of metals. Other fields diploma of physicist and already had his that he addressed are cosmic rays, quantum first published paper - On the theory of ᭡ Conversation between two nobel laureates, electrodynamics, properties of nuclear mat- spectra of diatomic molecules, Zeitschrift fűr Murray gell-Mann and l. d. landau (on the right) ter,non-conservation of parity in beta decays. Physik 40, 621 (1926). at a conference held in Moscow in 1956. The list is not exhaustive. He continued to work at the University InparalleltohisscientificworkLandauen- in Leningrad until 1929, when a scholar- a few lectures at the beginning of semester visaged a large project of an encyclopedic ship from the Peoples Commissar for in 1935 given by the dean of the Faculty, course of theoretical physics. The course in- Education (equivalent to Minister of Edu- professor A. V. Zhelehovskiy, he intro- cludes ten volumes of approximately 5000 cation) enabled him to go abroad on an 18 duced to the students a young man who pages coauthored with E. M. Lifshits, the last months visit to Berlin, Göttingen, Leipzig, would replace him and would continue three being written by Lifshits, Berestetskiy Copenhagen, Cambridge and Zurich where with lectures in General Physics. At first and Pitaevskiy. They were translated into he met many of the most prominent physi- the students were surprised by the unusual many languages and made an influence cists of that period: Born, Heisenberg, Bohr, exposition of the material, but became throughout the world. Closely related to this Dirac, Pauli. The longest stay was in convinced later that they had been lucky fundamentaltreatiseisthecreationoftheLan- Copenhagen where a relationship with to be exposed to such an outstanding set dauschooloftheoreticalphysics.Heenvisaged Bohr developed whom Landau considered of lectures. They were not so appreciative a system of examinations known as Landau as his teacher ever since. The seminars at of Landau’s way of examination. Even less minimum which included 2 exams in math- Bohr’s Institute and those organized by so was the administration. Landau was ematics and 7 exams in different branches of Yakov Frenkel’ in Leningrad completed the summoned to the rector, a few words were theoreticalphysics.During25years,theexams education of Landau.Together with Gamov exchanged which lead to a treat of firing. have been passed by 43 physicists and the very he proposed to establish in Leningrad an Colleagues, however, showed solidarity with first (1933-35) to succeed were A. S. Kompa- Institute of theoretical physics on the model Landau and refused to continue teaching. neets, E. M. Lifshits, A. I. Akhiezer, I. Y. of the Institute in Copenhagen, but the idea The ‘strikers’ were invited to Kiev where Pomeranchuk and L.Tisza. did not get support. they had a meeting with the entire Ukrain- Landau received many recognitions, For five years (1932-37) Landau was in ian government. But Landau decided to among them the highest awards in his Kharkov, affiliated to the Ukrainian Physi- leave anyway. During his stay in Kharkov homeland. He was member of the Acade- cal and Technical Institute (UFTI). UFTI three large conferences were organized and mies of the Soviet Union, United States, was established in 1928 and its core of tal- many physicists from abroad paid visits, Netherlands, Denmark and Fellow of the ented young physicists came mostly from Niels Bohr, Victor Weisskopf, Paul Dirac, Royal Society in London. The 1962 Leningrad. The director of UFTI and dean Waller, Rosenfeld and others. Nobel prize was awarded to Landau “for 10 • volume 39 • number 6 europhysicsnews news and views his pioneering theories of condensed mat- were consulted, physicists organized shifts on At the beginning of his scientific ca- ter, especially liquid helium”. duty for continuous and quick communica- reer, when quantum mechanics was born, His character had a strong note of sharp- tions. It was a rare display of unity in the Landau had the feeling that he was born ness,bothtowardmorejuniorandseniorpeo- world at a time when it was highly divided. too late when the most significant dis- ple. Such exchanges caused his move to and Landau recovered from the catastrophe al- coveries had already been established. from Kharkov, although in the second case though not entirely to be able to continue Knowing his achievements perhaps one other considerations could have played a role. with his research. He died on 1 April 1968. could wonder whether he was not born At the door of his office in Kharkov below his To commemorate the 100th anniversary too early and what would have been his name, he himself had posted a warning “Be of Landau, the Russian Academy of Sciences contributions to the vast knowledge of careful, he is biting”. But what characterized had a scientific session of its Physics Depart- modern science. him most was perhaps his ability for work ment (22-23 Jan. 2008). The Academy Among several biographies of Landau, the and his efficiency. He was married to Kora hosted a Memorial Meeting (19-20 June work of his niece Maya Bessarab, which had Dobryantseva and they had one son, Igor. 2008) and the Landau Institute forTheoret- several editions, holds a prominent place. In January 1962 on the way from ical Physics organized the L.D. Landau Me- The first 1971 edition begins with a citation Moscow to Dubna, after a collision Landau morial Conference (22-26 June 2008), both from a letter of Landau to Maya: “It is most was close to death.The efforts of medical staff with strong participation of invited speakers important to do everything with enthusiasm, and many others succeeded to keep him from outside Russia. Two conferences dedi- it embellishes life enormously”. I alive. It is difficult to describe in a few words cated to Landau were organized in Kharkov, all the efforts of doctors, physicists and oth- one around the theme of Problems of Solid V.Peschansky 1 and V.urumov 2 ers from the entire world providing help for State Physics (11-13 Dec. 2007) and one 1 B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Landau. Pilots delivered medicaments on the with memorial lectures, scientific reports and Physics and Engineering, Ukrainian National tarmacs of the airports to be brought quic- reports of young scientists (15-16 Jan. 2008). Academy of Sciences, Kharkov, Ukraine kly to the hospital, special equipment was The Ukrainian national bank issued a coin 2 Institute of Physics, Saints Cyril and constructed, specialists from other countries of two grivna to commemorate the scientist. Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia g. F. BASSANi (1929-2008) >>> oBiTuAry iuseppe Franco Bassani, a chief Normale Superiore – an institution which Gfounder of the modern Italian con- he eventually directed from 1996 to 1999.
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 Origin of Semiconductor Physics in Italy: 1945-1965
    The Origin of Semiconductor Physics in Italy: 1945 - 1965 ∗ Marco Luca Rossi October 25, 2018 Via Palmanova, 67 - 20132 Milano - Italy Abstract The activities carried out by Italian physicists in the field of semicon- ductor physics during the period spanning from 1945 to the foundation of the National Group of Structure of the Matter (GNSM, 1965) are reviewed within their historical context. Until the fifties, the Italian research was only marginally involved, if at all, in the main streams of advancement in solid state physics. Starting from the early fifties, an interest for techni- cal applications of the newly introduced semiconductor devices began to grow in the electronic engineering community. In the following years, the birth of a few experimental and theoretical groups lead by highly moti- vated scientists (some of them with international experience) allowed to deal with the main topics related to condensed matter and semiconductor phenomena. The work developed by these ”pioneers”, discussed in this paper, represented an invaluable contribution for the new generations of physicists in this research field. 1 Introduction The development of physics in Italy in the twentieth century has drawn the at- tention of historians only rather recently. After the pioneering work by Gerald Holton on Fermi’s group [1], several studies have dealt with institutional back- grounds [2] [3] [4] [5] [6], diffusion of relativity and quanta [7] [8] [9] [10] [11], cosmic rays and nuclear physics [12] [13] [14] [15]. The attention has been mainly arXiv:0805.3825v1 [physics.hist-ph] 25 May 2008 focused on the researches by and around Fermi’s group, while topics concerning what is now called the physics of matter (atoms, molecules, liquids and solids) have been investigated mainly (if not only) by Giuliani and his coworkers[16].
    [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]
  • 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]
  • 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]
  • Ice and Victoria Buch: a Cold Surface and a Warm Heart Erio Tosatti SISSA, ICTP, and CNR/INFM Democritos, Trieste, Italy
    Ice and Victoria Buch: a cold surface and a warm heart Erio Tosatti SISSA, ICTP, and CNR/INFM Democritos, Trieste, Italy Victoria Buch, who knew so much about ice and hydrogen bonds, was intrigued and fascinated by the possible physical states of the ice surface. She knew on one hand that it was only reasonable to expect the proton disorder of bulk ice to persist at the surface. She also on the other hand felt, or hoped, that the surface energetics should favor some new type of surface proton order, absent in bulk ice. To pursue this fragile dream, she stole time away from her heartier physico-chemical studies, and from her warm-hearted generous political battles within Israel, to collaborate with a surface theorist, whom she met by chance one summer in Lugano -- me. Me, who would contribute nothing more than some generic wisdom, and no actual hard calculations. Her own calculations, both Molecular Dynamics and Monte Carlo, eventually showed that in the cold ice surface not only the oxygen atoms would stay put and crystalline up until some 180 K, but showed that at low enough temperatures the protons too would order -- and that in spite of proton disorder in the underlying bulk! My own job ended up being to recognize that this surface order, 2x1 stripes formed by rows of "dangling hydrogens" and "dangling oxygens" (an old suggestion by Fletcher) could finally make sense of some unexplained helium scattering data obtained a decade earlier in Goettingen. Victoria and I were still collaborating, and spending hours on the phone at that, when her fatal disease came.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:1608.08587V1 [Cond-Mat.Str-El] 30 Aug 2016 PWA90 a Life Time of Emergence Editors: P
    My Random Walks in Anderson's Garden ∗ G. Baskaran The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, C.I.T. Campus, Chennai 600 113, India & Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, ON, N2L 2Y6 Canada Abstract Anderson's Garden is a drawing presented to Philip W. Anderson on the eve of his 60th birthday celebration, in 1983. This cartoon (Fig. 1), whose author is unknown, succinctly depicts some of Andersons pre-1983 works, as a blooming garden. As an avid reader of Andersons papers, a random walk in Andersons garden had become a part of my routine since graduate school days. This was of immense help and prepared me for a wonderful collaboration with the gardener himself, on the resonating valence bond (RVB) theory of High Tc cuprates and quantum spin liquids, at Princeton. The result was bountiful - the first (RVB mean field) theory for i) quantum spin liquids, ii) emergent fermi surface in Mott insulators and iii) superconductivity in doped Mott insulators. Beyond mean field theory - i) emergent gauge fields, ii) Ginzburg Landau theory with RVB gauge fields, iii) prediction of superconducting dome, iv) an early identification and study of a non-fermi liquid normal state of cuprates and so on. Here I narrate this story, years of my gardening attempts and end with a brief summary of my theoretical efforts to extend RVB theory of superconductivity to encompass the recently observed very high Tc ∼ 203 K superconductivity in molecular solid H2S at high pressures ∼ 200 GPa. ∗ Closely follows an article published in arXiv:1608.08587v1 [cond-mat.str-el] 30 Aug 2016 PWA90 A Life Time of Emergence Editors: P.
    [Show full text]
  • Sif Da Oltre 110 Anni Al Servizio Della Comunità D a T I 8 2
    D 630 000 accessi al sito A web T 14 500 pagine di riviste prodotte I (incluse EPL e EPJ) 2 7500 download di articoli 0 online 366 0 articoli pubblicati su 8 IL NUOVO CIMENTO SIF DA OLTRE 110 ANNI AL SERVIZIO DELLA COMUNITÀ 171 partecipanti alla Scuola di Varenna 33 paesi rappresentanti alla Scuola di Varenna 530 partecipanti al Congresso 462 comunicazioni al Congresso RELAZIONE SULLE ATTIVITÀ DELLA SIF / ANNO2008 > RESOCONTO ANNUALE DELLE ATTIVITÀ 2008 Società Italiana di Fisica PRESIDENTE Luisa CIFARELLI CONSIGLIO DI PRESIDENZA Alessandro BETTINI Simonetta CROCI Enzo DE SANCTIS (VICEPRESIDENTE) Sergio FOCARDI Vincenzo GRASSO (SEGRETARIO CASSIERE) Guido PIRAGINO Angiolino STELLA PRESIDENTI ONORARI Renato Angelo RICCI Giuliano TORALDO DI FRANCIA COLLEGIO DEI REVISORI DEI CONTI Luciano MAJORANI (PRESIDENTE DEL COLLEGIO) Giorgio COMINI Sergio LUCIANO DIRETTORE EDITORIALE Angela Oleandri SEGRETERIA DI PRESIDENZA Il RESOCONTO ANNUALE della Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF) vuole essere una concisa Barbara Alzani Chiara Bianchi (*) relazione sulle attività della SIF nel 2008. I contenuti, a parte qualche aggiornamento, sono Giovanna Bianchi Bazzi (*) tratti dalla mia relazione svolta all’Assemblea Generale dei Soci nel corso del 94° Congresso RECEPTION-SEGRETERIA Elena Fomina Nazionale di Genova, il 23 settembre 2008. La trascrizione integrale della registrazione AMMINISTRAZIONE dell’Assemblea, che ne costituisce il verbale, è disponibile online e scaricabile in formato pdf Roberta Comastri Valeria Mantelli (*) a partire dall’Area Soci del sito web: http://www.sif.it. SEGRETERIA DI REDAZIONE Monica Bonetti The ANNUAL ACCOUNT (in Italian) of the Italian Physical Society (SIF) is meant as a concise report Angela Di Giuseppe Carmen Vasini (*) on the activies of SIF during 2008.
    [Show 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Spin and Orbital Entanglement
    Condensed Matter Physics in the City 2015 6th Hubbard Theory Consortium London Summer Programme in Condensed Matter Physics Week 2 (June 29 - July 2) Spin and orbital entanglement Monday, June 29: Senate House, Room 261, London, WC1E 7HU 09:30 - 10:00 Coffee/Tea 10:00 - 10:45 Peter Johnson (Brookhaven National Laboratory, US), title tbc 10:45 - 11:15 Discussion 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee/Tea 11:30 - 12:00 Yusuke Nomura (École Polytechnique, France), High-Tc s-wave superconductivity in fullerides induced by unusual synergy between strong correlations and phonons 12:00 - 12:15 Discussion Lunch Break 14:00 - 14:45 Gilbert Lonzarich (Cambridge, UK), Electron-electron and electron-hole pairing on the border of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric quantum phase transitions 14:45 - 15:00 Discussion 15:00 - 15:30 Hannah Irons (Kent University, UK), Neutron Scattering Signatures of the Entanglement Transition 15:30 - 15:45 Discussion 15:45 - 16:15 Coffee/Tea 16:15 - 16:45 Giacomo Mazza (SISSA, Italy), Electric-field driven insulator-to-metal transitions in orbitally polarized correlated systems 16:45 - 17:00 Discussion 17:00 - 17:30 Abolfazl Bayat (UCL, UK), Universal Single-Frequency Oscillations in a Quantum Impurity System After a Local Quench 17:30 - 17:45 Discussion ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Tuesday, June 30: Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 09:30 - 10:00 Coffee/Tea 10:00 - 10:45 Peter Johnson (Brookhaven National Laboratory, US), title tbc 10:45 - 11:15 Discussion 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee/Tea 11:30 - 12:00 Massimo Capone
    [Show full text]
  • Condensed Matter Theory at Scuola Normale Superiore 1980-2000
    Fisica e Fisici a Pisa nel Novecento Condensed Matter Theory at Scuola Normale Superiore 1980-2000 Franco Bassani (since 1980) Mario Tosi (since 1991) Adriano Gozzini (at SNS since 1985) establishes the Polvani laboratory Mario Tosi, Gabriele Giuliani and Franco Bassani, 1976 (courtesy of Erio Tosatti) 1980-1991 faculty in condensed matter theory (and cognate disciplines) - Renato Colle (1981-1991) physical chemistry - Giancarlo Calvanese Strinati (1986-1991) condensed matter theory plus tens of students, post-docs, - Francesco Pegoraro (1983-1990) research associates and theoretical plasma physics visiting scholars ! - Franco Strocchi (1981-1984 and 1994-) quantum field theory - Sergio Caracciolo (1981-1993 and 1996-2001) statistical mechanics Electronic states and optical transitions in solids (F. Bassani and G. Pastori-Parravicini, 1975) Two-photon transitions Resonant two-photon absorption by exciton-polariton in evaporated CuCl films John K. Pribram, G. L. Koos, F. Bassani, and J. P. Wolfe, Phys. Rev. B 28 (1983) Exciton-polaritons and semiconductor heterostructures Radiative lifetime of free excitons in quantum wells Solid State Communications 77 (1991) Lucio Claudio Andreani, Francesco Tassone, Franco Bassani Phys. Rev. B 36 (1987) Photoluminescence of Highly Excited GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Wells Europhys. Lett. 7 (1988) R. Cingolani, M. Ferrara, M. Lugarà, C. Moro, Y. Chen, F. Bassani, J. Massies and F. Turco Electronic states and optical properties Surface and size effects on the electronic states of small metallic clusters J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys. 16 (1983) G.B. Bachelet, F. Bassani, M. Bourg and A. Julg Model calculation of the optical properties of metallic particles in a dielectric medium Surface Sci.
    [Show full text]