Robert Betts Laughlin

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Robert B. Laughlin, 1998

Robert Betts Laughlin (born November 1, 1950 in Visalia , California , USA) is an American physicist who received the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the theoretical explanation of the fractional quantum Hall effect .

life and work

Laughlin studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley ( Bachelor 1972) and - after military service from 1972 to 1974 - at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge , where he received his doctorate in 1979 . He then worked at Bell Laboratories from 1979 to 1981 and from 1982 to 2004 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory .

Since 1985 he has been an Associate Professor and since 1989 he has been Professor of Physics at Stanford University in California, since 1992 as Anne Bass and Robert M. Bass Professor of Physics .

From 2004 to 2006 he was President of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon .

Among other things, he researched the integer and fractional quantum Hall effect , and his contribution to the explanation of the latter brought him - and the two experimental physicists named below - the Nobel Prize. In 1982, Daniel Tsui and Horst Ludwig Störmer discovered the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) in two-dimensional electron systems at very low temperatures and strong magnetic fields. Laughlin found the explanation for some of the unexpected fractional quantum numbers that occur in FQHE. A new type of quantum fluid had been discovered, consisting of a condensate of so-called quasiparticles with fractional charge, composed of electrons and magnetic flux quanta. Together with the two colleagues named above, he received the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics. Laughlin's discovery is considered a breakthrough in understanding macroscopic quantum phenomena.

In 2013, he proposed a new theory for explaining high-temperature copper oxide superconductors that is closer to the conventional Fermi-liquid theory of metals. According to Laughlin, they are not qualitatively completely different from other solids, but have an unusually complex low-energy spectroscopy due to the interplay of various order parameters. He particularly criticized the declaration of HTS as doped Mott insulators (e.g. Philip Warren Anderson ).

In 1986 he received the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize and became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1994 , a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and, since 1990, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . From 1976 to 1978 he had an IBM scholarship. In 1985 he received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Prize . From 2004 to 2006 he was President of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology in Daejeon , South Korea.

His work The Crime of Reason provides a vivid analysis of the disparities of the knowledge society in the conflict between economic interests, the need for security and human rights.

In addition to theoretical physics, Laughlin has two other passions. He likes to draw caricatures, partly to illustrate his books, but also during faculty meetings, and he composes, especially piano sonatas.

Conception of physics

Laughlin advocates theories about the present and future of physics that differ considerably from conventional scientific opinion. He is increasingly convinced that all - and not just some - of the laws of nature known to us emerge from collective events through emergence . He also takes this view with regard to very sensitive topics such as the special theory of relativity . He fundamentally condemns speculative theories because they are not based on measurable facts. The big bang theory is, for example, “nothing but marketing”. Laughlin describes such theories as "quasi-religious", especially those relating to a " world formula ".

Future physics would increasingly deal with macroscopic phenomena such as the self-organization of matter, which cannot be explained by atomic or subatomic processes. Laughlin expounds this view in his 2007 book Farewell to the World Formula .

Works

  • Farewell to the world formula. Reinventing physics . Piper, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-492-04718-0 ( A different universe - Reinventing physics from the bottom down. Basic Books, 2005).
  • The crime of reason. Fraud in the knowledge society . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-26002-9 ( The Crime of Reason: And the Closing of the Scientific Mind. Basic Books, 2008).
  • The last one turns off the light - the future of energy . Piper, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-05467-6 ( Powering the Future: How We Will (Eventually) Solve the Energy Crisis and Fuel the Civilization of Tomorrow. Basic Books, 2011).
  • The big bang is just marketing . In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 2008 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Robert B. Laughlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Robert B. Laughlin  - Quotes

References and footnotes

  1. ^ Laughlin, Anomalous Quantum Hall Effect: An Incompressible Quantum Fluid with Fractionally Charged Excitations. In: Physical Review Letters. Volume 50, 1983, pp. 1395-1398
  2. ^ To Laughlin's work on FQHE
  3. ↑ Laughlin, Hartree-Fock Computation of the High-Tc Cuprate Phase Diagram, Phys. Rev. B, Volume 89, 2014, p. 035134, Arxiv
  4. ^ Adrian Cho, Amid superconductor debate, clash of physics titans resume, Science, Volume 342, 2013, p. 1427
  5. ↑ Caricatures for Hiawatha's Valence Bonding
  6. ↑ Caricatures for the book: A different Universe (2005)
  7. ↑ Caricatures of faculty meetings
  8. ↑ Various compositions by Robert Laughlin (between 1969 and 2005)
  9. ↑ See z. B .: Robert Laughlin: Physics is overestimated - Spiegel-Online Photo-Documentation
  10. ↑ Laughlin: Farewell to the universal formula. Piper Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-492-04718-0 , p. 16.
  11. ^ RB Laughlin: Emergent Relativity . In: International Journal of Modern Physics A . tape 18 , no. 6 , 2003, p. 831–853 , doi : 10.1142 / S0217751X03014071 , arxiv : gr-qc / 0302028 (English).
  12. ↑ See citations on Wikiquote
  13. ↑ The big bang is just marketing . In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 2008 ( online ).
  14. ↑ See works
personal data
SURNAME Laughlin, Robert Betts
SHORT DESCRIPTION American physicist and Nobel Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Visalia , USA