Peter Havas

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Peter Havas (born March 29, 1916 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary ; † June 25, 2004 near Philadelphia ) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who primarily dealt with classical field theories and general relativity .

Life

Havas had Hungarian origins and grew up in Vienna from 1921 , where he began studying physics at the Vienna University of Technology . At that time he was working with Josef Mattauch on experimental nuclear physics. After the "Anschluss" of Austria , he, who was a socialist and also of Jewish origin, had to leave the country and went to France, where he studied with Jean Thibault in Lyon . Under the influence of Guido Beck , he turned to theoretical physics. After the outbreak of war in 1939 he was interned. He managed to escape to the USA in 1941, where he received his doctorate in quantum electrodynamics from Columbia University in 1944 under Willis Lamb . He was then at Brandeis University and from 1946 professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) . From 1964 he was at Temple University in Philadelphia and after his retirement in 1981 he was a physics professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1982 to 1988) and the University of Utah (1987 to 1992). He was, among other things, visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study (1953/54), at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen , the Argonne National Laboratory and visiting professor at Birkbeck College, University of London and at the University of Göttingen .

Havas dealt with problems of classical field theories such as radiation feedback and equations of motion for point particles, especially in connection with gravitational wave radiation ( fast motion approximation with Joshua Goldberg , which applies to relativistic velocities and takes into account non-linear effects via radiation feedback). The first order perturbation theory proved to be completely inadequate. The question of a correct derivation of Einstein's quadrupole radiation formula for gravitational waves remained open until the 1970s (at that time based on the detection of gravitational waves in binary star systems with pulsars by Hulse / Taylor ). Only then did it become clear that one had to go to the third order perturbation theory. In the 1950s and 1960s he also dealt with the classical equations of motion in meson field theories and in the 1970s and 1980s in Yang-Mills theories .

In 1953 he was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and 1953/1954 Guggenheim Fellow . Havas also had historical interests. He was co-editor of Albert Einstein's Collected Works (Princeton University Press).

He had been married to Helga Höllering, daughter of Franz Höllering , who was a professor of microbiology and cancer researcher at Temple University, and died two months after him , since 1939 . Together with his wife, he was involved in nature conservation efforts in Wayne County PA .

Fonts

  • General relativity and the special relativistic equations of point particle motion. In: Recent Developments in General Relativity. Pergamon Press 1962 (conference in Warsaw).

literature

  • Hubert Goenner : Obituary. In: General Relativity and Gravitation. Volume 37, 2005, p. 1331.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Havas, Goldberg: Lorentz invariant equations of motion of point masses in the General Theory of Relativity. In: Physical Review. Volume 128, 1962, pp. 398-414.
  2. ↑ Jürgen Ehlers , A. Rosenblum, Goldberg, Havas: Comments on Gravitational Radiation and Energy Loss in Gravitational Systems. In: Astroph. Journal (Letters). Volume 208, 1976, L 77-81.
  3. ↑ M. Walker, Clifford Will 1980 (Astroph. J.), Thibault Damour 1983 (Phys. Rev. Lett.). Compare Steinicke Einstein and the gravitational waves (PDF; 545 kB)
  4. ↑ Edith Probst: Displaced Women , in: Displaced Reason: Emigration and Exile Austrian Science. 2nd International Symposium, October 19-23, 1987 in Vienna . Vienna: Jugend und Volk, 1988, p. 1079
  5. ^ Obituary by Helga Havas , at philly
  6. ↑ Barbara Lewis: Bringing Family Values ​​to Land Conservation. Delaware Highlands Conservancy, accessed May 7, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Havas, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 2004
Place of death near Philadelphia