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Great teacher
——
Physicist Wheeler and his students
On Teacher's Day, let's take a brief look at a famous American physicist, the grandmaster of general relativity, and the namer of black holes, John Archibald Wheeler.
The grandmaster of general relativity, Wheeler
As a scientist, he was well-known, but as a teacher, he was willing to teach first-year college, and in his mind, the ideas of young people were the most important, and young people were more receptive to some of the new words he had created that seemed to go against tradition: black holes, wormholes, etc. Feynman, Bekenstein, Thorne, Misner, Hu Beile, Claude, Andrew, Everett, Whiteman, Plesset, Gerachi, Christo Dulu, Wold and other famous physicists are his students, and we will learn about Mr. Wheeler and his "Huijia Generals" one by one.
Wheeler classic photo
1
A generation of grandmasters - Wheeler
John Wheeler, born on July 9, 1911, has developed a keen interest in the universe since childhood. When he grew up, Wheeler studied under Bohr in Copenhagen and eventually became a master in the field of quantum mechanics research. As a member of the Copenhagen School, Wheeler made important contributions to the development of quantum mechanics. But he was equally proficient in relativity, especially general relativity. After World War II, he devoted himself to the popularization and study of general relativity in the United States. As an accomplished and profound theoretical physicist, Wheeler has made outstanding contributions in many ways —it was he, who officially named the "black hole", and it was he, together with his students, relativity giants Charles Misner and Kip Thorne, who co-wrote a tome on the "Book of Gravity", "Gravity Theory" (commonly known in the industry as MTW, that is, the opening letter of the names of Misner, Thorne Thorne and Wheeler Wheeler), or he proposed the "Wheeler Delay Choice". and other classic thought experiments. Of course, Wheeler's contributions in the field of physics are far more than that, he has also made outstanding contributions to unified field theory, cosmology and so on. Under his leadership, Princeton University became one of the leading institutions in the field of relativity research in the United States and around the world. On April 13, 2008, this great heart stopped beating.
MTW "The Theory of Gravity" book shadow
This tome, which is more than 1,300 pages long, is one of the most classic works on general relativity.
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Blue out of blue – Feynman
Richard Feynman is an American physicist, winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics, and one of the founders of quantum electrodynamics. Feynman is considered a top physicist, and in the ranking of physicists in major media, Feynman has repeatedly entered the top ten ranks. It can be said that compared to his mentor Wheeler, it is well-deserved to say that Feynman is "blue out of blue and better than blue". Feynman, on the other hand, was also an amazing teacher. His Feynman Lectures on Physics is vivid and humorous, enduring, translated into many languages and sold worldwide, with a breadth that is unmatched by many mainstream physics textbooks.
Cover of Feynman's Lecture Notes on Physics
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Through the wormhole – Thorne
A few years ago, Nolan's hard sci-fi film "Interstellar" was a sensation, and the scientific adviser behind this very rigorous film and co-author of the script was the astrophysical giant Kip Thorne. As a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology, Thorne was also a proud protégé of Wheeler, one of the pioneers of wormhole theory, an authority on gravitational wave physics, and one of the founders of the laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory LIGO. With the successful detection of gravitational wave signals, Thorne was very likely to receive an honor that his teacher Wheeler and friend Hawking had never received – the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Thorne on the set of Interstellar
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The entropy of a black hole – Bekenstein
Entropy and black holes are very famous technical terms in physics, and the two words are linked by the famous theoretical physicist Bekenstein. While he was a Ph.D. student at Princeton University, he studied under Wheeler. It was also during his studies under Wheeler that Bekenstein published several papers that would go down in history. In 1990, he began as a professor at the Hebrew University and three years later became the discipline leader in its Department of Theoretical Physics. Beckenstein made great contributions to the development of physics during his lifetime, making seminal contributions to the thermodynamics of black holes, gravity and information.
Black hole thermodynamics master Beckenstein
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Restless Vacuum – Andrew
Canadian physicist W. Andrew Unruh) is also Mr. Wheeler's high foot. Anlu's most well-known research result is the Anlu effect. The Andrew effect, in short, is that the vacuum is not empty, and the uniformly accelerated observer in Lundler's space-time will find himself in a hot bath. This effect is basically consistent with the principle of Hawking radiation, so it is also known as the Hawking-Andrew effect. Interestingly, the physicist is of German descent, the German word "unruhig" means "restless", and the Anlu effect he proposed illustrates that the vacuum is very undetermined.
Professor William Andrew
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Chinese Pride - Hu Sorrowful
Professor Hu Beile of Chinese American descent at the University of Maryland (born in Chongqing and later moved to Hong Kong) is a very influential scholar in the international gravitational physics community. After graduating in 1972, he devoted himself to the cutting-edge fields of general relativity, quantum gravity theory, quantum information theory, quantum field theory of curved space-time, and quantum processes in the early universe, and gradually became one of the authorities in the industry. He traveled frequently between China and the United States, promoting the development of gravitational theory.
Professor Hu Beile, University of Maryland
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Master of Geometry – Wald
Robert Wald, who currently teaches at the University of Chicago, is an expert in general relativity and the thermodynamics of black holes. Although he did not write "Gravity Theory" with Mr. Wheeler and the two brothers, he wrote a "General Relativity", which is one of the most popular classic textbooks in the world. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Liang Canbin, a retired veteran of Beijing Normal University in China, was a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, studied differential geometry and general relativity with Wald, and became a master in the field after returning to China. Wold's "General Theory of Relativity" is more difficult to understand, Mr. Liang Canbin wrote a set of "Introduction to Differential Geometry and General Relativity", this set of books is rich in content and meticulous explanation, equivalent to annotating Wald's book, which can be called the best work in all the textbooks of physics and astronomy in China. Now that Mr. Wald is old and mr. Liang is close to his old age, I would like to wish the two great teachers good health!
Professor Robert Wald
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Peach and plum are all over the world
In addition to the physicists mentioned above, Mr. Wheeler has produced many outstanding students, many of whom have become masters in the field of physics, such as the author of "Gravity", the "M" in mtw, the American physicist Misner, the Chilean physicist Claudio Benster who contributed to the revision of the theory of gravity, the Greek master of general relativity who is proficient in mathematics and physics, Christo Dulu, the Greek master of general relativity, and the American physicist Hugh Everett III, who first proposed the multi-world theory. Robert Gerachi, a professor at the University of Chicago who has published many works on general relativity, Bahram Marshhorn, an Iranian-American physicist, Benjamin Schumacher, an American physicist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of quantum information, Arthur Whiteman, a quantum physicist, and Catherine Wei, a nuclear physicist, are really top physicists and top mentors.
Now that Wheeler, Feynman, Beckenstein, Everett and other masters are no longer alive, and other students are dying of old age, this good story of Mr. Wheeler as a generation of masters of general relativity will forever be praised in the world of physics and astronomy. "The clouds and mountains are clear, the rivers are mighty, the wind of Mr. Mister, the mountains are high and the waters are long." Today, let us once again remember this great physicist, the educator, and his crazy ideas, giving us more motivation to move forward and face endless truths.
Wheeler quotes
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Happy Teacher's Day
In the field of general relativity research in China, there are also many old gentlemen who are "old Ji Futuo, determined to be in a thousand miles", such as Mr. Zhao Zheng and Mr. Liang Canbin of Beijing Normal University, Mr. Yan Mulin of the University of Science and Technology of China, Mr. Li Xinzhou of Shanghai Normal University, Mr. Wang Yongyong of Hunan Normal University, Mr. Wu Zhongchao of Zhejiang University of Technology and others. Here, Xiaobian pays high tribute to these predecessors who are still working hard, and sincerely wishes the old gentlemen a happy holiday and good health. I also wish all teachers all over the world a Happy Teacher's Day!
Teachers are the brightest stars in our hearts
Author: Wang Jiyao
Pictured: Wang Jiyao | Proofreader: Shen Zhi, An Dongsheng, Li Xin
Arrangement: Wang Jiyao
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(From left to right) Einstein, Hideki Yukawa, and Wheeler
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