Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg was a prominent American theoretical physicist, renowned for his contributions to the unification of fundamental forces in physics. Born in New York City in 1933, he displayed a strong interest in science from a young age, eventually earning his PhD from Princeton University in 1957. Weinberg's most notable work includes the development of the electroweak theory, which unifies the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces. This groundbreaking theory, published in 1967, became a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics and was later confirmed experimentally in the 1980s, leading to him sharing the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow.
Throughout his career, Weinberg held prestigious academic positions, including professorships at institutions like MIT and the University of Texas at Austin, where he contributed significantly to theoretical physics research and education. He authored numerous influential papers and books, both for specialized audiences and the general public, highlighting topics in cosmology and the nature of the universe. Weinberg's work not only advanced the understanding of particle interactions but also addressed broader scientific questions, making him a vital figure in contemporary physics. He received many honors and awards, underscoring his impact on the field and his legacy as one of the most respected physicists of his time.
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Steven Weinberg
American physicist
- Born: May 3, 1933
- Birthplace: New York, New York
Weinberg, along with Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam, developed the theory that unified the electromagnetic and weak nuclear interactions into the electroweak force. Weinberg also helped develop the theory of strong nuclear interactions known as quantum chromodynamics, or QCD. The electroweak theory and QCD provide the foundation for the standard model of matter.
Early Life
Steven Weinberg (WIN-burg) was born in New York City to Frederick and Eva Weinberg. The young Weinberg was encouraged in his scientific pursuits by his father. While attending Bronx High School of Science, Weinberg became highly interested in theoretical physics. He graduated from high school in 1950 and attended Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1954. That same year, he wed his college girlfriend, Louise Goldwasser; they would have one daughter, Elizabeth.
After attending the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a year, Weinberg earned his doctoral degree in physics from Princeton University in 1957. From 1957 until 1959, he taught physics at Columbia University. For the next seven years, he taught physics and participated in theoretical physics research at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley he became an expert in the application of Feynman diagrams and worked on current algebra research and understandings of the strong nuclear force.
Between 1966 and 1969, Weinberg took a leave from Berkeley and served as the Morris Loeb lecturer at Harvard University and as a visiting professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1969, he received an appointment as a professor of physics at MIT, where he remained until 1982. From 1960 to 1973, he was a consultant to the US Institute for Defense Analysis, and from 1971 to 1973 was as a consultant to the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. When Julian Schwinger left Harvard in 1973, Weinberg accepted the university’s position as Higgins Professor of Physics as well as an appointment as a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Life’s Work
During his stay at MIT, Weinberg embarked on his most significant work in theoretical physics. After concentrating for several years on unifying the theory of electromagnetic forces with that of strong nuclear forces, he realized that he instead needed to apply his mathematical formalism to the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces. In 1967, he published the short paper “A Model of Leptons” in Physical Review Letters, in which he predicted two weak particles (massive bosons) that might generate the weak nuclear force. With this insight and sufficiently high energies, the electromagnetic and weak interactions would merge into a single interaction, the electroweak force.
Weinberg’s paper went relatively unnoticed, however, because of some mathematical inconsistencies in his theory that he had claimed could be resolved. In 1971, Gerard ’t Hooft, a prominent theoretical physicist, showed that Weinberg’s scheme could indeed be renormalized to eliminate the mathematical difficulties and produce physically viable results.
The electroweak theory developed by Weinberg also was proposed independently by Abdus Salam and by Sheldon Glashow, a high school classmate of Weinberg. The theory postulates that the weak and electromagnetic interactions have the same strength at very high particle energies. Thus, these two apparently independent interactions are just different manifestations of a single unifying electroweak interaction, which was confirmed by Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1983.
The electroweak theory forms a major part of the so-called standard model of elementary particle physics. This model provides a comprehensive picture of the fundamental particles of matter and how they behave and interact. It also explains a vast majority of the experimental data that have been collected by elementary particle physicists.
The theory made a number of important predictions that were confirmed during the 1970s. The first, the existence of a weak neutral current, was discovered in 1973 at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and at CERN. The second, the existence of a fourth quark that was necessary to account for the predicted rate of neutral weak interactions, was discovered in 1974. The third, the violation of atomic parity, was established in 1978.
In 1979, Weinberg, Salam, and Glashow shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for their development of the electroweak theory. In 1982, Weinberg was appointed as the Josey-Welch Foundation Chair of Science and Regental Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he founded the theoretical physics group.
For his many contributions to research in cosmology and the unification of elementary-particle forces, Weinberg has received numerous honors and awards. In addition to winning the Nobel Prize, Weinberg has been awarded the J. R. Oppenheimer Prize (1973), the Dannie Heineman Mathematical Physics Prize (1977), the American Institute of Physics-United States Steel Foundation Science Writing Award for authoring The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1977), the Elliott Cresson Medal (1979), the James Madison Medal of Princeton University (1991), the National Medal of Science (1991), the Lewis Thomas Prize (1999), and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society (2004).
Weinberg gained membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the Royal Society of London, and the American Philosophical Society. He received honorary degrees from sixteen institutions, including the University of Chicago, Knox College, the University of Rochester, Yale University, the City University of New York, Clark University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, and Washington College.
Weinberg’s prolific writings include more than three hundred published papers on elementary particle physics and has authored several books, including Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity (1972) and the highly regarded three-volume series The Quantum Theory of Fields (1995–1997), including Foundations, Applications, and Supersymmetry. Weinberg made many public appearances to discuss scientific topics, and he wrote many scientific articles and books for the general public, including Dreams of a Final Theory (1992), Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries (2001), Glory and Terror: The Growing Nuclear Danger (2004), and Lake Views: This World and the Universe (2009). He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. Weinberg has also studied medieval history and is a member of the American Medieval Academy.
Significance
Progress in science is often coupled with the unification of apparently independent phenomena in terms of a few fundamental principles. One of the most important problems in physics and all science has revolved around the unification of the four basic forces of nature gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear into one fundamental force. Weinberg played a prominent role in accomplishing part of this task by unifying the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces into the electroweak force.
In addition to the electroweak theory that earned Weinberg a Nobel Prize, he made many other significant contributions to physics. He played a major role in the development of the theory of the strong nuclear force known as quantum chromodynamics and in the development of the grand unified theory to unite the four basic forces into one fundamental force that governs all particle interactions. Weinberg also made important contributions to quantum field theory, cosmology, astrophysics, and the theories of supersymmetry and supergravity. He wrote significant papers concerning relativistic astrophysics, the importance of cosmology in understanding the universe, fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation that is a remnant of the big bang, the survival of protogalaxies in an expanding universe, and problems associated with the value of the cosmological constant.
Bibliography
Close, Frank. Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print. This work contains a biography of Weinberg and discusses his many contributions to elementary particle physics. Examines his role in the effort by physicists to develop a unified field theory of the fundamental forces of nature and a standard model of matter.
Crease, Robert P., and Charles C. Mann. The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth Century Physics. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1996. Print. The authors examine Weinberg’s important role in scientific discoveries that have greatly impacted the world. Although rather technical at times, it can be profitably read by general readers. Contains good illustrations, an index, and a glossary.
Frenkel, Karen A. "Nobelist Steven Weinberg Calls for Bigger Science, More Taxes." Science Now 6 June 2011: 1. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Dec. 2013.
Giberson, Karl, and Mariano Artigas. Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists Versus God and Religion. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print. Six prominent scientists, including Weinberg, contrast their respective philosophies of science and religion. Weinberg’s views of religion and so-called intelligent design of the universe are examined.
Hargittai, Magdolna. Candid Science IV: Conversations with Famous Physicists. London: Imperial College P, 2004. Print. Hargittai cites some of the details of Weinberg’s life and many of his important scientific insights into unified field theory and other relevant subjects in physics. Good bibliographical references, index.
Reeves, Josh. "On the Relation Between Science and the Scientific Worldview." Heythrop Journal 54.3 (2013): 554–62. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Dec. 2013.
Weinberg, Steven. "The Crisis of Big Science." New York Review of Books 10 May 2012: 59–62. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Dec. 2013.
Weinberg, Steven. "Physics: What We Do and Don't Know." New York Review of Books 7 Nov. 2013: 86–88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Dec. 2013.