James R. Wilson
James Ricker Wilson , called Jim Wilson (born October 21, 1922 in Berkeley , † August 14, 2007 ), was an American theoretical astrophysicist.
Wilson studied chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley (Bachelor 1942) and received his doctorate there in 1952 in physics (on meson theory ). From 1944 to 1946 he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Manhattan Project , from 1952 to 1953 at Sandia National Laboratories and from 1953 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory . From 1996 to 2007 he was adjunct professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame .
Wilson initially worked on numerical simulation for nuclear weapons. In 1968 he took a sabbatical to attend the University of Cambridge to study astrophysics and turned subsequently his experience in nuclear weapons simulation in astrophysics. In the early 1970s he was a pioneer in numerical relativity and numerical relativistic hydrodynamics. He did important pioneering work in computer-aided modeling of supernova explosions in the late 1970s and early 1980s , in particular he discovered the delayed neutrino heating mechanism and his codes showed the role of neutrinos in generating heavy elements in supernovae. He worked frequently with Hans Bethe at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory .
He also investigated the formation of jets during the collapse of rotating stars with magnetic fields, developed models for binary star systems from neutron stars and black holes, modeled inhomogeneous cosmologies and developed a model to explain the supernova remnants near the galactic center (via gravitational compression effects of the galactic black hole white dwarfs near him). In nuclear physics, he developed models for heavy ion collisions.
In 1994 he received the Marcel Grossmann Prize . He was a member of the American Physical Society and the American Astronomical Society . In 2007 he received the Hans A. Bethe Prize for “his work in nuclear astrophysics and computer-aided simulation of the collapse of the supernova core, neutrino transport and shock wave propagation. His codes revived the theory of supernova shock waves, advanced numerical general relativity and the theory of jets of magnetized stars. "
He had been married since 1949 and had five children. He met his wife during his hobby, mountaineering, which he pursued in the Sierra Nevada and British Columbia, for example, and booked some first ascents, for example in the Yosemite Valley.
Web links
- Obituary in Physics Today ( Memento from October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Laudation for Bethe Prize
Individual evidence
- ^ "For his work in nuclear astrophysics and numerical work on supernovae core collapse, neutrino transport, and shock propagation. His codes reenergized supernovae shocks, launched numerical relativity and magnetically driven jets. ”, Laudation for Bethe Prize
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wilson, James R. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wilson, James Ricker (full name); Wilson, Jim |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American theoretical astrophysicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 21, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berkeley |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 14, 2007 |