E. P. Wigner  |
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 Eugene Paul Wigner (1902-1995)
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| Born | November 17, 1902 Budapest, Austria-Hungary |
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| Died | January 1, 1995 (aged 92) Princeton, U.S. |
| Nationality | Hungary United States |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | University of Göttingen University of Wisconsin-Madison Princeton University |
| Alma mater | Technische Hochschule Berlin |
| Doctoral advisor | Michael Polanyi |
| Doctoral students | John Bardeen Victor Frederick Weisskopf Marcos Moshinsky Abner Shimony Edwin Thompson Jaynes |
| Known for | Law of conservation of parity Wigner D-matrix Wigner-Eckart theorem |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physics (1963) |
| Religious stance | Jewish |
Eugene Paul "E. Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Year 1902 ( MCMII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Budapest ( also /ˈbʊ-/) is the capital city of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary it serves as the country's principal Political, New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 See also Princeton Township New Jersey, Borough of Princeton New Jersey Princeton Borough New Jersey Princeton Township New Jersey this The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning The University of Göttingen ( German: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) is a University in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother" It was used in Ancient Rome as a title for the mother Goddess, and in Medieval The Technical University of Berlin ( Berlin Institute of Technology, TUB, TU Berlin, German Technische Universität Berlin) is located A doctorate is an Academic degree that indicates the highest level of academic achievement Michael Polanyi (born Polányi Mihály) ( March 11, 1891, Budapest – February 22, 1976) was a Hungarian – John Bardeen ( May 23 1908 – January 30 1991) was an American Physicist and Electrical engineer, who won Weisskopf redirects here For people known under English version of that name see Whitehead. Marcos Moshinsky (born April 20, 1921) is a Mexican physicist of Ukrainian origin whose work in the field of Elementary Abner Shimony (born 1928 Columbus Ohio) is an American physicist and philosopher of science specializing in quantum theory. Edwin Thompson Jaynes ( July 5, 1922 &ndash April 30, 1998) was Wayman Crow Distinguished Professor of Physics at Washington University In Physics, a conservation law states that a particular measurable property of an isolated Physical system does not change as the system evolves The Wigner D-matrix is a matrix in an Irreducible representation of the groups SU(2 and SO(3. The Wigner-Eckart theorem is a Theorem of Representation theory and Quantum mechanics. The Nobel Prize in Physics (Nobelpriset i fysik is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ P. " Wigner (Hungarian Wigner Pál Jenő) (November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian physicist and mathematician. Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe. Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Year 1902 ( MCMII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics.
He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles". The Nobel Prize in Physics (Nobelpriset i fysik is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Some contemporaries referred to Wigner as the Silent Genius and some even considered him the intellectual equal to Albert Einstein, though without his prominence. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Wigner is important for having laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics as well as for his research into atomic nuclei, and for his several theorems. Symmetry in physics refers to features of a Physical system that exhibit the property of Symmetry —that is under certain transformations, aspects of these Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the Atomic scale such as Molecules Atoms Electrons The nucleus of an Atom is the very dense region consisting of Nucleons ( Protons and Neutrons, at the center of an atom
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Early life
Wigner was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) to a Jewish Middle class family. Budapest ( also /ˈbʊ-/) is the capital city of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary it serves as the country's principal Political, Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ The middle class, in colloquial usage consists of those who have some economic independence but not a great deal of social Influence or power. At age 11, Wigner contracted what his parents believed was tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common They sent him for six weeks to a sanitorium in the Austrian mountains. During this period, Wigner began to develop an interest in mathematical problems. From 1915 till 1919, concurrently with John von Neumann, Wigner studied at the Lutheran Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium where they both greatly benefited from encouragement by the legendary mathematics teacher László Rátz. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther Fasori Gimnázium (lit "secondary school on the tree-lined avenue" fasori=tree lined gimnazium=secondary school also known as Fasori Evangélikus Gimnázium ("Fasori" Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and László Rátz ( 1863 April 9 – 1930 September 30) was a Hungarian mathematics high school teacher best In 1919, to escape the Bela Kun communist regime, the family briefly moved to Austria, returning after the downfall of the Kun government. Béla Kun ( February 20 1886 – August 29 1938) born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist Politician Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Partly as a reaction to the prominent presence of Jews in the Kun regime, the family converted to Lutheranism. [1]
In 1921, Wigner studied chemical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin(today the Technische Universität Berlin). Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar The Technical University of Berlin ( Berlin Institute of Technology, TUB, TU Berlin, German Technische Universität Berlin) is located He also attended the Wednesday afternoon colloquia of the German Physical Society. The Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft ( DPG, German Physical Society is the world's largest organization of physicists These colloquia featured such luminaries as Max Planck, Max von Laue, Rudolf Ladenburg, Werner Heisenberg, Walther Nernst, Wolfgang Pauli and — most of all — Albert Einstein. Max Theodor Felix von Laue ( October 9, 1879 &ndash April 24, 1960) was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics Werner Heisenberg (5 December 1901 in Würzburg &ndash1 February 1976 in Munich) was a German theoretical physicist best known for enunciating the Walther Hermann Nernst ( June 25, 1864 &ndash November 18, 1941) was a German Physicist who is known for his theories Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Wigner also met physicist Leó Szilárd, who at once became Wigner's closest friend. Leó Szilárd (Szilárd Leó February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was an Hungarian - American Physicist who A third experience in Berlin was formative. Wigner worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, today Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, and there met Michael Polanyi, who would become, after László Rátz, Wigner's greatest teacher. The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society is a science research institute located at the heart of the academic district of Dahlem, in Berlin, Germany Michael Polanyi (born Polányi Mihály) ( March 11, 1891, Budapest – February 22, 1976) was a Hungarian –
Middle years
In the late 1920s, Wigner deeply explored the field of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the Atomic scale such as Molecules Atoms Electrons A period at Göttingen as an assistant to the great mathematician David Hilbert proved a disappointment, as Hilbert was no longer active in his works. Göttingen ( ˈgœtɪŋən, Low German: Chöttingen is a College town in Lower Saxony, Germany. David Hilbert ( January 23, 1862 &ndash February 14, 1943) was a German Mathematician, recognized as one of the most Wigner nonetheless studied independently. He laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics and in 1927 introduced what is now known as the Wigner D-matrix. The Wigner D-matrix is a matrix in an Irreducible representation of the groups SU(2 and SO(3. [2] It is safe to state that he and Hermann Weyl carry the sole responsibility for the introduction of group theory into quantum mechanics (they spread the "Gruppenpest"). Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl ( 9 November 1885 – 8 December 1955) was a German Mathematician. Group theory is a mathematical discipline the part of Abstract algebra that studies the Algebraic structures known as groups. See Wigner's 1931 monograph for a survey of his work on group theory. In the late 1930s, he extended his research into atomic nuclei. The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. He developed an important general theory of nuclear reactions (see for instance the Wigner-Eckart theorem). The Wigner-Eckart theorem is a Theorem of Representation theory and Quantum mechanics. By 1929, his papers were drawing notice in the physics world. Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1930, Princeton University recruited Wigner and Von Neumann, which was timely as the Nazi Regime in Germany emerged. Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In Princeton in 1934 Wigner introduced his sister Manci to the physicist Paul Dirac. Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. They married, and the ties between Wigner and Dirac deepened.
In 1936, Princeton did not rehire Wigner, so he moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. There he met his first wife, a physics student named Amelia Frank. Yet she died in 1937, leaving Wigner distraught. Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. On January 8, 1937, Wigner became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Events 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Naturalization is the acquisition of Citizenship or Nationality by somebody who was not a citizen or national of that country when he or she was born Princeton University shortly invited Wigner back, and he rejoined faculty in the fall of 1938. Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Though a professed political amateur, in 1939 and 1940 Dr. Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Wigner played a major role in agitating for the Manhattan Project, which would develop the first atomic bomb. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. However, he was by personal preference a pacifist. He would later contribute to civil defense in the US. In 1946, Wigner accepted a job as director of research and development at Clinton Laboratory (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( ORNL) is a multiprogram science and technology National laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by Oak Ridge is an incorporated City in Anderson and Roane Counties in East Tennessee, USA, about 25 miles northwest of Tennessee ( is a state located in the Southern United States. When this did not work out especially well, Wigner returned to Princeton.
In 1941 Wigner married his second wife, Mary Annette Wheeler, who had received her PhD in physics from Yale in 1932 and was a professor at Vassar. They were married until her death in 1977 and had two children.
In appreciation of Professor Wigner, written 1987, Alvin M. Weinberg stated: "…this tract of Wigner’s [giving credit to his young collaborators] explains why so much, not only of reactor theory but of theoretical physics from 1930 to 1965 — though it may not bear Wigner’s name — actually has origin in a suggestion made or question asked by Professor Wigner. Alvin Martin Weinberg ( April 20, 1915 - October 18, 2006) was a Nuclear physicist and administrator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory "
Last years
In 1960, Wigner gave a thought-provoking insight into the power of mathematics in his best-known essay outside physics, now a classic paper, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1960 the Physicist Eugene Wigner published an article titled " The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences " arguing that the He argued that biology and cognition could be the origin of physical concepts, as we humans perceive them, and that the happy coincidence that mathematics and physics were so well matched, seemed to be "unreasonable" and hard to explain. Even so, he found resistance to this theory, notably by distinguished mathematician Andrew M. Gleason. Andrew Mattei Gleason (born November 4 1921 in Fresno, California, U In 1963, Wigner received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Nobel Prize in Physics (Nobelpriset i fysik is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He professed never to have even considered the possibility that this might occur, and added: "I never expected to get my name in the newspapers without doing something wicked. " He would later go on to win the Enrico Fermi award, and the National Medal of Science. The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in Science and Engineering who have made important In 1992, at the age of 90, he published a memoir, The Recollections of Eugene P. Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) Wigner with Andrew Szanton. Andrew Szanton (born in Washington DC in 1963 is an American collaborative Memoirist. Wigner died three years later in Princeton. One of his significant students was Abner Shimony. Abner Shimony (born 1928 Columbus Ohio) is an American physicist and philosopher of science specializing in quantum theory.
Wigner was asked in the late 1970s 'Do you remember Rátz?', one of his teachers, to which he answered: 'There he is!' and pointed to a picture of Rátz on his office wall.
His third wife was Patricia Hamilton Wigner, widow of another physicist, Donald Ross Hamilton, retired Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University who passed away in 1971.
Near the end of his life his thought turned more philosophical. In his memoir, Wigner said: "The full meaning of life, the collective meaning of all human desires, is fundamentally a mystery beyond our grasp. As a young man, I chafed at this state of affairs. But by now I have made peace with it. I even feel a certain honor to be associated with such a mystery". He developed interest in the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism, particularly with its ideas of the universe as an all pervading consciousness. Vedanta ( Devanagari: sa वेदान्त Vedānta) is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the Self-realisation Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Consciousness has been defined loosely as a constellation of attributes of Mind such as Subjectivity, Self-awareness, Sentience, and the In his collection of essays (Symmetries and Reflections- Scientific Essays), he commented "It was not possible to formulate the laws (of quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness".
Also in the realm of theoretics is the thought experiment, Wigner's friend paradox. Wigner's friend is a Thought experiment proposed by the physicist Eugene Wigner; it is an extension of the Schrödinger's cat experiment It is often seen as an extension of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. Schrödinger's cat is a Thought experiment, often described as a Paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 The Wigner's friend experiment asks the question: at what stage does a "measurement" take place? Wigner designed the experiment to highlight how he believed consciousness is necessary to the quantum mechanical measurement process.
Wigner was a committee chairman at Rev. Moon's annual International Conference for the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) for several years. Sun Myung Moon (born January 6 1920) is the Korean founder and leader of the world-wide Unification Church and of the larger Unification At the 11th ICUS conference in Philadelphia, he was given Founder's Award "for his outstanding contributions to science. The International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS was a series scientific conferences sponsored by the International Cultural Foundation an organization founded by " [3]
References
- Alvin M. Weinberg, Eugene P. Alvin Martin Weinberg ( April 20, 1915 - October 18, 2006) was a Nuclear physicist and administrator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Wigner Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors (University of Chicago Press, 1958) ISBN 0-226-88517-8
- E. P. Wigner, Gruppentheorie und ihre Anwendungen auf die Quantenmechanik der Atomspektren, Vieweg Verlag, Braunschweig (1931). Translated into English: J. J. Griffin, Group Theory and its Application to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra Academic Press, New York (1959).
- Eugene P. Wigner, Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays (MIT Press, 1970) ISBN 0-262-73021-9
- Eugene Paul Wigner as told to Andrew Szanton The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner (Plenum, 1992) ISBN 0-306-44326-0
- Eugene Paul Wigner, G. G. Emch, Jagdish Mehra (editor), Arthur S. Wightman (editor) Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses (Springer, 1997) ISBN 3-540-63372-3
- E.P. Wigner, On unitary representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group, Annals Math.40:149-204,1939
Notes
- ^ Eugene Paul Wigner as told to Andrew Szanton The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner (Plenum, 1992) ISBN 0-306-44326-0
- ^ E. Wigner, Zeitschrift f. Physik, vol. 43, pp. 624-652 (1927)
- ^ The Work of the Church: In Service to God and to Humanity - To Bigotry, No Sanction - Mose Durst
See also
- Wigner semicircle distribution
- Wigner quasi-probability distribution
- Particle physics and representation theory
- Wigner effect
- Wigner-Seitz cell
- Wigner D-matrix
- 3-jm symbol
External links
- Oral history interview, 12 May 1987. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
- Eugene Wigner Biography
- Nobel Prize Biography
- National Academy of Sciences biography
- O'Connor, John J. The Wigner semicircle distribution, named after the physicist Eugene Wigner, is the Probability distribution supported on the interval ''R'' the graph of whose See also Wigner distribution, a disambiguation page The Wigner quasi-probability distribution (also called the Wigner function or the There is a natural connection first discovered by Eugene Wigner, between the properties of particles the Representation theory of Lie groups and The Wigner effect (named for its discoverer E P Wigner) also known as the discomposition effect, is the displacement of Atoms in a solid caused by The Wigner-Seitz cell (named after E P Wigner and Frederick Seitz) is a geometrical construction which helps in the study of Crystalline material in The Wigner D-matrix is a matrix in an Irreducible representation of the groups SU(2 and SO(3. Wigner 3 -jm symbols, also called 3 j symbolsare related to Clebsch-Gordan coefficients through \begin{pmatrix} j_1 & j_2 & j_3\\ & Robertson, Edmund F. , “Eugene Wigner”, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles
- Annotated bibliography for Eugene Wigner from the Alsos Digital Library
- An interview with Wigner about his experience at Princeton
- Oral history interview transcript with Eugene Wigner 24 January 1981, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wigner, Eugene Paul |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wigner, E. The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive is an award-winning website maintained by John J P. (professional name); Wigner Pál Jenő (Hungarian) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Mathematician and Nobel Prize-winning physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 17, 1902 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Budapest, Austria-Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 1, 1995 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
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