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Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100198527454

ISBN-139780198527459

eBay Product ID (ePID)6027668

Product Key Features

Book TitleClimbing the Mountain : the Scientific Biography of Julian Schwinger

Number of Pages690 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicPhysics / General, Science & Technology

Publication Year2003

IllustratorYes

GenreScience, Biography & Autobiography

AuthorKimball Milton, Jagdish Mehra

FormatUk-Trade Paper

Dimensions

Item Height1.4 in

Item Weight42.3 Oz

Item Length9.2 in

Item Width6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

Dewey Edition21

Reviews'Mehra and Milton provide a great deal of material from interviews and archival files and thus help give us a fuller picture of Schwinger. Perhaps their most important contribution is their account of the evolution of many of Schwinger's thoughts. [...] It does shed light on a many-facetedgenius.'Tian Yu Cao, Physics Today, 'Review from previous edition ... a through and comprehensive account of Schwinger's life and work... a valuable testament to the life and legacy of Julian Schwinger'Lowell Brown, Physics World'... the first full-length biography of Julian Schwinger ... scholarly and well done. The influence of Julian Schwinger on the physics of his time has been profound.'Robert Finkelstein, CERN Courier'Mehra and Milton provide a great deal of material from interviews and archival files and thus help give us a fuller picture of Schwinger. Perhaps their most important contribution is their account of the evolution of many of Schwinger's thoughts. [...] It does shed light on a many-faceted genius.'Tian Yu Cao, Physics Today, '... the first full-length biography of Julian Schwinger ... scholarly andwell done. The influence of Julian Schwinger on the physics of his time has beenprofound.'Robert Finkelstein, CERN Courier, "Julian Schwinger deserves to be remembered as a great scientist for his many brilliant scientific achievements. We are very lucky to have this authentic portrait of Schwinger by Jagdish Mehra (with Kimball A. Milton), to balance Mehra's biography of Feynman [The Beat of a Different Drum, Oxford, 1994]; in it we see Schwinger as he was, a many-sided genius a human being with very great gifts."--Freeman J. Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey "Climbing the Mountain is far more than Julian Schwinger's scientific biography. It reconstructs his times and the evolution of his thoughts, tells of his interactions with students and colleagues, and shows the enormous impact he has had on the substance, practice, and practitioners of modern physics. Every reader will concur with the sentiment of his widow: 'The world that knew him will never be the same.'"--Sheldon L. Glashow, Harvard University "This magnificent book brilliantly recounts Schwinger's ascent up the mountain of quantum electrodynamics, and his previous and subsequent scientific career which, to a remarkable degree, defined theoretical physics for decades. Not only does this beautiful book treat Schwinger's scientific biography, but all the various aspects of his gifted life and glorious career; it is a definitive account of Julian Schwinger's life and work."--Willis E. Lamb, Jr., University of Arizona "[T]his biography by Jagdish Mehra and Kimball Milton...is a thorough and comprehensive account of Schwinger's life and work. As the authors admit, this long book contains a great deal of mathematics that requires some sophistication to understand, although one could skim over the difficult bits....It remains....a valuable testament to the life and legacy of Julian Schwinger."--Physics World "This book, written by Jagdish Mehra, the distinguished historian of modern physics, and Kimball Milton, one of Schwinger's last students and 'assistants'...traces Schwinger's life from his appearance as a child prodigy at Townsend Harris High School [to] his crucial role as de facto leader of the theoretical group at the Radiation Laboratory at MIT during WWII....This book was thoroughly researched. No one else either had, nor will ever again have, the opportunity of conducting such extensive, detailed and authorized taped interviews with Julian Schwinger such as Mehra had....All in all, this is a magnificent achievement, which belongs on the shelf of every student of modern science and of its history."--Physics Today, 'Review from previous edition ... a through and comprehensive account of Schwinger's life and work... a valuable testament to the life and legacy of Julian Schwinger'Lowell Brown, Physics World, "Julian Schwinger deserves to be remembered as a great scientist for his many brilliant scientific achievements. We are very lucky to have this authentic portrait of Schwinger by Jagdish Mehra (with Kimball A. Milton), to balance Mehra's biography of Feynman [The Beat of a Different Drum, Oxford, 1994]; in it we see Schwinger as he was, a many-sided genius a human being with very great gifts."--Freeman J. Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey"Climbing the Mountain is far more than Julian Schwinger's scientific biography. It reconstructs his times and the evolution of his thoughts, tells of his interactions with students and colleagues, and shows the enormous impact he has had on the substance, practice, and practitioners of modern physics. Every reader will concur with the sentiment of his widow: 'The world that knew him will never be the same.'"--Sheldon L. Glashow, Harvard University"This magnificent book brilliantly recounts Schwinger's ascent up the mountain of quantum electrodynamics, and his previous and subsequent scientific career which, to a remarkable degree, defined theoretical physics for decades. Not only does this beautiful book treat Schwinger's scientific biography, but all the various aspects of his gifted life and glorious career; it is a definitive account of Julian Schwinger's life and work."--Willis E. Lamb, Jr., University of Arizona"[T]his biography by Jagdish Mehra and Kimball Milton...is a thorough and comprehensive account of Schwinger's life and work. As the authors admit, this long book contains a great deal of mathematics that requires some sophistication to understand, although one could skim over the difficult bits....It remains....a valuable testament to the life and legacy of Julian Schwinger."--Physics World"This book, written by Jagdish Mehra, the distinguished historian of modern physics, and Kimball Milton, one of Schwinger's last students and 'assistants'...traces Schwinger's life from his appearance as a child prodigy at Townsend Harris High School [to] his crucial role as de facto leader of the theoretical group at the Radiation Laboratory at MIT during WWII....This book was thoroughly researched. No one else either had, nor will ever again have, the opportunity of conducting such extensive, detailed and authorized taped interviews with Julian Schwinger such as Mehra had....All in all, this is a magnificent achievement, which belongs on the shelf of every student of modern science and of its history."--Physics Today^, '... the first full-length biography of Julian Schwinger ... scholarly and well done. The influence of Julian Schwinger on the physics of his time has been profound.'Robert Finkelstein, CERN Courier

Dewey Decimal530/.092

Table Of ContentPreface1. A New York City Childhood2. Julian Schwinger at Columbia University3. Schwinger Goes to Berkeley4. During the Second World War5. Winding up at the Radiation Lab, Going to Harvard, and Marriage6. The Development of Quantum Electrodynamics Until 1947: The Historical Background of Julian Schwinger's Work on QED7. Quantum Electrodynamics and Julian Schwinger's Path to Fame8. Schwinger, Tomonaga, Feymann, and Dyson: The Triumph of Renormalization9. Green's Functions and the Dynamical Action Principle10. The World According to Stern and Gerlach11. Custodian of Quantum Field Theory12. Electroweak Unification and Foreshadowing of the Standard Model13. The Nobel Prize and the Last Years at Harvard14. Move to UCLA and Continuing Concerns15. Taking the Road Less Travelled By16. Diversions of a Gentle GeniusAppendix A: Julian Schwinger - List of PublicationsAppendix B: Ph.D. Students of Julian SchwingerIndex

SynopsisJulian Schwinger was one of the leading theoretical physicists of the twentieth century. His contributions are as important, and as pervasive, as those of Richard Feynman, with whom (and with Sin-itiro Tomonaga) he shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physics. Yet, while Feynman is universally recognized as a cultural icon, Schwinger is little known even to many within the physics community. In his youth, Julian Schwinger was a nuclear physicist, turning to classical electrodynamics after World War II. In the years after the war, he was the first to renormalize quantum electrodynamics. Subsequently, he presented the most complete formulation of quantum field theory and laid the foundations for the electroweak synthesis of Glashow, Weinberg, and Salam, and he made fundamental contributions to the theory of nuclear magnetic resonance, to many-body theory, and to quantum optics. He developed a unique approach to quantum mechanics, measurement algebra, and a general quantum action principle. His discoveries include 'Feynman's' parameters and 'Glauber's' coherent states; in later years he also developed an alternative to operator field theory which he called Source Theory, reflecting his profound phenomenological bent. His late work on the Thomas-Fermi model of atoms and on the Casimir effect continues to be an inspiration to a new generation of physicists. This biography describes the many strands of his research life, while tracing the personal life of this private and gentle genius., This is the first biography ever written on the distinguished physicist Julian Schwinger. Schwinger was one of the most important and influential scientists of the twentieth century. The list of his contributions is staggering, from his early work leading to the Schwinger action principle, Euclidean quantum field theory, and the genesis of the standard model, to later valuable work on magnetic charge and the Casimir effect. He also shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Richard Feynman. However, even among physicists, understanding and recognition of his work remains limited. This book by Mehra and Milton, both of whom were personally acquainted with Schwinger, presents a unique portrait that sheds light on both his personality and his work through discussion of his lasting influence on science. Anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of one of the great physicists of this century needs to read this book., Julian Schwinger was one of the leading theoretical physicists of the twentieth century. His contributions are as important, and as pervasive, as those of Richard Feynman, with whom (and with Sin-itiro Tomonaga) he shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physics. Yet, while Feynman is universally recognized as a cultural icon, Schwinger is little known even to many within the physics community. In his youth, Julian Schwinger was a nuclear physicist, turning to classicalelectrodynamics after World War II. In the years after the war, he was the first to renormalize quantum electrodynamics. Subsequently, he presented the most complete formulation of quantum field theoryand laid the foundations for the electroweak synthesis of Glashow, Weinberg, and Salam, and he made fundamental contributions to the theory of nuclear magnetic resonance, to many-body theory, and to quantum optics. He developed a unique approach to quantum mechanics, measurement algebra, and a general quantum action principle. His discoveries include 'Feynman's' parameters and 'Glauber's' coherent states; in later years he also developed an alternative to operator field theory which he calledSource Theory, reflecting his profound phenomenological bent. His late work on the Thomas-Fermi model of atoms and on the Casimir effect continues to be an inspiration to a new generation of physicists.This biography describes the many strands of his research life, while tracing the personal life of this private and gentle genius., This is the first biography of Julian Schwinger, one of the great theoretical physicists of the twentieth century. A long-time colleague and collaborator of Richard Feynman, he was the joint winner with Feynman of the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on quantum electrodynamics. However his contribution extended far beyond this, and his life and achievements are chronicled in this book.

LC Classification NumberQC15