| Tikalon Blog is now in archive mode.
An easily printed and saved version of this article, and a link
to a directory of all articles, can be found below: |
|
This article |
| Directory of all articles |
Maurice Goldhaber
May 30, 2011
1911 was the year of the first
Solvay Conference, a conference that brought together such illustrious
quantum mechanics as
Albert Einstein,
Maurice de Broglie,
Hendrik Lorentz,
Max Planck,
Ernest Rutherford and
Arnold Sommerfeld. It was also the year that another
subatomic physics luminary,
Maurice Goldhaber, was born. Goldhaber died on May 11, 2011, at age 100.[1-5]
Participants of the 1911 Solvay Conference.
Seated, Henri Poincaré. Standing (left to right), Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and Einstein.
Maurice Goldhaber was born in the same year as this conference.
(Via Wikimedia Commons)
Maurice Goldhaber was born on April 18, 1911, in
Austria, and he was a graduate student at the
University of Berlin in the 1930s[4] when he decided that
Nazism would be detrimental to his health.[3] He emigrated to
England and
Cambridge University, where he collaborated with
James Chadwick, discoverer of the
neutron in 1932, on an
experiment to measure its
mass.[1] This was an essential early subatomic physics experiment, since it was thought at the time that the neutron was just a combination of a
proton and an
electron.
Goldhaber's approach to a neutron mass experiment was to use
radiation to dissociate
deuterons to protons and neutrons.[1] The experiment showed that neutrons were not composite particles, but distinct
elementary particles.[1,4] Goldhaber and Chadwick also demonstrated the
fission of light
nuclei by slow neutrons. Goldhaber discovered that
beryllium acts as a
neutron moderator, reducing their
kinetic energy to allow such reactions.[1] In this way, they produced
tritium (
3H) from
lithium-6 (
6Li)[1]
In 1936, Goldhaber received a
Ph.D. in
physics from Cambridge, and he emigrated to the
United States two years later, joining the
University of Illinois faculty[4] and becoming a
naturalized citizen in 1944.[1] In order to secure work for his wife,
Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber, Goldhaber accepted a position as a senior scientist at
Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1950.[3,4].
Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber, like her husband, was a nuclear scientist. Shortly after they were married, the Goldhabers had shown that
beta particles were electrons. Maurice Goldhaber eventually served as director of Brookhaven from 1961 to 1973.[2] He retired from Brookhaven is 1985, and he was named
Distinguished Scientist Emeritus. Goldhaber was active in research at Brookhaven well into his 90s.[5]
One significant, and quite long-term, experiment he conducted with L. Grodzins and A. W. Sunyar at Brookhaven was on the
parity violation of
weak interactions.[1]
Their experiment, which looked at
neutrino-producing
transmutations, showed that the neutrino
helicity, the projection of the
spin onto the direction of the
momentum, is always
counterclockwise.[2,3]
Maurice Goldhaber in 1937.
(Via Wikimedia Commons)
The most often told story about Goldhaber is his bet with the
theoretical physicist,
Hartland Snyder. At a dinner party in Hartland's house in 1954, Snyder bet Goldhaber $500 that the
antiproton exists. Goldhaber, who didn't think the antiproton to be possible, accepted the bet. This was a substantial bet, since it's about $4,000 in
today's money. The antiproton was discovered just a year later, and Goldhaber paid off the bet. [1,2]
Goldhaber had an active mind. As recalled by
Martin Blume, who was editor-in-chief of the
Physical Review and
Physical Review Letters at Brookhaven and
carpooled with Goldhaber from 2000-2008, "“He had an idea a minute... I had a hard time keeping Maurice quiet... Sometimes I had to put my hand across his face to stop him from talking."[2] In a Brookhaven statement,
Peter Bond recalled that Goldhaber once said that "Physics teaches old things to new people."[4]
Goldhaber served as the 1982 president of the
American Physical Society. He was a member of the
National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of
American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.[5] He was awarded the
J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize (1982), the
National Medal of Science (1983) and the
Enrico Fermi Award (1999).[5]
References:
- Thomas H. Maugh II, "Maurice Goldhaber dies at 100; noted nuclear and particle physicist," Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2011.
- Kenneth Chang, "Maurice Goldhaber, Atomic Physicist, Is Dead at 100," The New York Times, May 17, 2011.
- Martin Weil, "Maurice Goldhaber, scientist who showed particle to be 'left-handed,' dies at 100," Washington Post, May 21, 2011.
- Echo Romeo, "Maurice Goldhaber: A lifetime of physics," Buzz Blog-Physics Central, May 23, 2011.
- Liz Seubert, "In Memoriam: Maurice Goldhaber, Former Brookhaven National Laboratory Director," Brookhaven National Laboratory, May 13, 2011.
- M. Goldhaber, L. Grodzins and A. W. Sunyar, "Helicity of Neutrinos," Physical Review, vol. 109, no. 3 (February, 1958), pp. 1015-1017.
Permanent Link to this article
Linked Keywords: Solvay Conference; quantum mechanics; Albert Einstein; Maurice de Broglie; Hendrik Lorentz; Max Planck; Ernest Rutherford; Arnold Sommerfeld; subatomic physics; Maurice Goldhaber; Henri Poincaré; Heike Kamerlingh Onnes; Wikimedia Commons; Austria; University of Berlin; Nazism; England; Cambridge University; James Chadwick; neutron; experiment; mass; proton; electron; radiation; deuteron; elementary particle; fission; nuclei; beryllium; neutron moderator; kinetic energy; tritium; lithium-6; Ph.D.; physics; United States; University of Illinois; naturalized citizen; Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber; Brookhaven National Laboratory; beta particle; Distinguished Scientist Emeritus; parity violation; weak interaction; neutrino; transmutation; helicity; spin; momentum; counterclockwise; theoretical physicist; Hartland Snyder; antiproton; inflation; Martin Blume; Physical Review; Physical Review Letters; carpool; Peter Bond; American Physical Society; National Academy of Sciences; American Academy of Arts & Sciences; American Association for the Advancement of Science; J. Robert Oppenheimer; National Medal of Science; Enrico Fermi Award; ; M. Goldhaber, L. Grodzins and A. W. Sunyar.