Edward Tryon

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Edward P. Tryon (born September 4, 1940 in Terre Haute ; † December 11, 2019 ) was an American physicist who taught as a professor at Hunter College until his retirement in 2004 . He was a student of Steven Weinberg and specialized in theoretical quark models, general relativity and cosmology.

Life

Tryon became particularly well known in 1973 for his essay "Is the Universe a Vacuum Fluctuation?" The abstract reads: "The author proposes a big bang model in which our Universe is a fluctuation of the vacuum, in the sense of quantum field theory. The model predicts a universe which is homogeneous, isotropic and closed, and consists equally of matter and anti-matter. All these predictions are supported by, or consistent with, present observations. "

According to this, the universe could have arisen from a vacuum fluctuation : “It would then be nothing other than a fluctuation of the vacuum from another, larger space in which our universe is embedded. Since during the lifetime of the universe - that is more than years - the principle of the conservation of energy is violated, this means here that the entire energy content of the universe must be vanishingly small. Given the large masses in space, this condition does not seem to be feasible. Tryon points out, however, that the huge amount of mass and kinetic energy is opposed to the potential gravitational energy, which can be counted negatively, and he makes plausible that in a closed universe both forms of energy are about the same and therefore the total energy can be zero. "

His idea of the vacuum fluctuation had Tryon been common in the past, but was met with a very skeptical attitude: "At the end of the sixties visited Edward P. Tryon, a young assistant professor at Columbia University, a seminar organized by the renowned British cosmologist Dennis Sciama given has been. During a break from speaking, Tryon tossed into the room, 'The universe may be a vacuum fluctuation'. Tryon had meant this seriously and was disappointed when his senior colleagues thought it was an intelligent joke and burst out laughing. But this remark was probably the first scientific idea about the origin of the universe. ”Tryon first tried to include an article in the Physical Review Letters , but it was rejected; All the more surprising was Nature 's acceptance: “To Tryon's surprise and delight, the editor was fascinated. He liked the idea so much, in fact, that he decided to publish it as a regular article, rather than just a letter. "

Tryon wrote in his essay: “In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.”, Which became a popular saying : “Our Universe is simply one of the things that happen from time to time. "Then Tryon comes to considerations that have been summarized as an anthropic principle :" I do not claim that universes like ours occur frequently, merely that the expected frequency is non-zero . Vacuum fluctuations on the scale of our Universe are probably quite rare. The logic of the situation dictates, however, that observers always find themselves in universes capable of generating life, and such universes are impressively large. "

In summary, Pagels writes: “Tryon's article today reads up-to-date and compelling; However, it has only recently had an impact on the formation of theories in cosmology. The reason is perhaps to be found in the fact that this work was not followed by a detailed mathematical model in which these speculations were realized. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barry Parker: Creation, The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe, Perseus Books 1988/2002, p. 186 ( preview Google Books )
  2. ↑ obituary legacy.com
  3. ^ The Faculty Voice, Hunter College Faculty Newsletter Oct. 2004, p. 4 ( PDF )
  4. ↑ Heinz R. Pagels : The time before time, the universe up to the Big Bang, Berlin etc. 1987 (Ullstein), p. 379
  5. ^ Edward P. Tryon: Is the Universe a Vacuum Fluctuation ?, in Nature, 246 (1973), pp. 396-397.
  6. ↑ Stars and Space: Brief Reports from Research, July 1974, p. 233
  7. ↑ Alan Guth : The birth of the cosmos out of nowhere, The theory of the inflationary universe, Munich 1999 (Droemer), p. 37
  8. ^ Barry Parker: Creation, The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe, p. 192
  9. ↑ Sean M. Carroll : The cosmic origin of the arrow of time, Spectrum of Science 8/2008, p. 34
  10. ↑ Heinz R. Pagels: The time before time, The universe up to the Big Bang, p. 380.
personal data
SURNAME Tryon, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tryon, Edward P.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Terre Haute , Indiana , United States
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 2019