Eugene Wigner
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Eugene Paul Wigner (Hungarian Wigner Pál Jenő) (November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian physicist and mathematician who 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". Wigner was sometimes referred to as the Silent Genius as some of his contemporaries considered him the intellectual equal to Einstein, without the prominence. Wigner is famous for laying the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics as well as for his research into atomic nuclei, as well as for his several theorems.
Early life
Wigner was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) to a Catholic middle-class family. It is said in his memoirs that his parents were both, however, of Jewish descent. At age 11, Eugene had a brush with tuberculosis, and for six weeks was kept at a sanitarium in the Austrian mountains with his mother, though it is said the remainder of his childhood was peaceful. Wigner attended the Lutheran Gymnasium where he studied mathematics from László Rátz, teacher of John von Neumann. In 1921, he studied at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin (today the Technische Universität Berlin). He also attended the Wednesday afternoon colloquia of the German Physical Society. 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. Wigner met Leó Szilárd at the colloquium. Szilárd became at once Wigner's closest friend. A third experience in Berlin was formative. Wigner worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, and there met Michael Polanyi, who would become, after László Rátz, Wigner's greatest teacher.Middle years
In the late 1920s, Wigner explored deeply in the field of quantum mechanics. A period at Göttingen as an assistant to the great mathematician David Hilbert proved a disappointment, as Hilbert was no longer active in his works. Wigner nonetheless studied independently. Wigner laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics. In the late 1930s, he extended his research into atomic nuclei. He developed an important general theory of nuclear reactions (see for instance the Wigner-Eckart theorem). By 1929, his papers were drawing notice in the physics world. In 1930, Princeton University recruited Wigner and Von Neumann, which was timely as the Nazi Regime in Germany emerged. In Princeton in 1934 Wigner introduced his sister Manci to the physicist Paul Dirac. They married, and the ties between Wigner and Dirac deepened.In 1936, Princeton did not rehire Wigner, and he moved to the University of Wisconsin. There he met his first wife, a physics student named Amelia Frank, but she died in 1937 leaving Wigner distraught. On January 8, 1937, Wigner became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Princeton University shortly invited Wigner back. He rejoined the Princeton faculty in the fall of 1938. Though a professed political amateur, in 1939 and 1940, Dr. Wigner played a major role in agitating for a Manhattan Project. 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. When this did not work out especially well, Wigner returned to Princeton.
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, in which 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, though he found resistance to this theory, notably by distinguished mathematician Andrew M. Gleason. In 1963, Wigner received the Nobel Prize in Physics. 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. In 1992, at the age of 90, he published a memoir, The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner with Andrew Szanton. Wigner died three years later in Princeton. His most significant student was Abner Shimony.
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. 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. It is often seen as an extension of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. 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.
References
- Eugene P. Wigner. Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays of Eugene P. Wigner.
- Alvin M. Weinberg, Eugene P. Wigner Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors
- Eugene Paul Wigner, et al. Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses
See also
- Wigner semicircle distribution
- Wigner quasi-probability distribution
- Particle physics and representation theory
External links
- [Eugene Wigner]
- [National Academy of Sciences biography]
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson. [] at the 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]
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