Eugene Wigner (left) and Alvin Weinberg

Eugene Paul Wigner (Hungarian Wigner Pál Jenő) (November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian physicist and mathematician. Eugene Wigner and Alvin Weinberg Caption: Eugene Wigner and Alvin Weinberg served successively as Laboratory research directors. ... Eugene Wigner and Alvin Weinberg Caption: Eugene Wigner and Alvin Weinberg served successively as Laboratory research directors. ... November 17 is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece. ... 1902 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ...

He was one of a generation of physicists of the 1920s who remade the world of physics. This generation was a collection of people from Berlin to London to Zürich to Pisa, though not quite yet to New York or Chicago, Illinois. The first physicists in this new generation — Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and Paul Dirac, to name three — created quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics was a dazzling new world, which threw open dozens of fundamental physical questions. A new set of men (and a few women) came along behind them, to answer the first questions and pose others, often more complex. Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America as the Roaring Twenties. // Events and trends Technology John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as Tommy gun John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system (1925) Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to... The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements, now known as the Scientific Revolution. ...   Berlin? (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ... St. ... Location within Switzerland Zürich (in English often Zurich, IPA ) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ... Pisas coat of arms This article is about Pisa in Italy. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki (R) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... Chicago, colloquially known as the Second City and the Windy City, is the third-largest city in population in the United States and the largest inland city in the country. ... Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. ... Erwin Schrödinger, as depicted on the former Austrian 1000 Schilling bank note. ... Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, (August 8, 1902 – October 20, 1984) was a British theoretical physicist and a founder of the field of quantum physics. ... Fig. ...

Wigner was in this second set of physicists. He posed and answered some of the most profound questions of 20th-century physics. He laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics. In the late 1930s, he extended his research into atomic nuclei. Square with symmetry group D4 Symmetry is a characteristic of geometrical shapes, equations, and other objects; we say that such an object is symmetric with respect to a given operation if this operation, when applied to the object, does not appear to change it. ... // Events and trends The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. ... A stylized representation of a lithium atom. ...

Between 1939 and 1945, this generation of physicists helped to remake the world again. This time it was a far greater, more public world they remade: one of armies, peoples, ideologies. They did it first by seeing that an atomic bomb could be built; and then by arguing that it must be built, in the United States, immediately; and finally by playing the crucial role in getting the bomb built, under terrible pressure. 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ...

Wigner was a giant of atomic bomb production as well.

Wigner was one of a group of renowned Jewish-Hungarian scientists and mathematicians from turn-of-the-century Budapest, including Paul Erdős, Edward Teller, John von Neumann, and Leó Szilárd. Szilárd was probably Wigner's best adult friend. Von Neumann was a schoolmate and mentor, whom Wigner later described as "the brightest man I have ever known on this Earth." Wigner was the only one of the four to win a Nobel Prize. Paul ErdÅ‘s Paul ErdÅ‘s (also Pál ErdÅ‘s, March 26, 1913 – September 20, 1996) was an immensely prolific and famously eccentric Hungarian mathematician who, with hundreds of collaborators, worked on problems in combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, classical analysis, approximation theory, set theory and probability theory. ... Edward Teller in 1958 as Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. ... John von Neumann in the 1940s. ... Leó Szilárd (right) and Albert Einstein re-enact the signing of the famous letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. ... Sir Edward Appletons medal Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ...

Early Life

Wigner was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary), into a world where middle-class people had no automobiles, radio, gas or electricity — and did not miss those things. That fact startled and pleased him as an old man. Budapest (pronounced ) is the capital city of Hungary and the countrys principal political, industrial, commercial and transportation centre. ... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ...

In 1902, the great scientists of the world were also content without atomic theory, quantum theory, or relativity theory. Yet many of the best scientists felt that all the fundamental things of life had already been discovered — all that remained was to fill in around the edges of the existing scheme. The atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter. ... Fig. ... Albert Einsteins theory of relativity is a set of two theories in physics: special relativity and general relativity. ...

At age 11, Eugene had a brush with tuberculosis, and for six weeks was kept at a sanitarium in the Austrian mountains with his mother. But his childhood was mostly happy. His parents were well matched and he loved his two sisters intensely. His family culture was serious and stable, with a typical Hungarian love of jokes. He loved to walk as a boy. Tuberculous lungs show up on an X-ray image Tuberculosis is an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (miliary TB), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ...

In the Lutheran Gymnasium he attended, he had the privilege of learning mathematics from László Rátz, a devoted scholar and teacher who also tutored von Neumann. In 1921, after graduating from the Gymnasium, he studied at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin (today the Technische Universität Berlin). A gymnasium is a type of school of secondary education in parts of Europe. ... Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Mathematics Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about: Mathematics Look up Mathematics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Mathematics Bogomolny, Alexander: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles. ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Central Institute for Modern Languages at the Technical University The Technical University of Berlin (TUB, TU Berlin, German: Technische Universität Berlin) is located in Berlin in Germany. ...

Even more important, he attended the Wednesday afternoon colloquia of the German Physical Society. These colloquia featured such luminaries as Max Planck, Max von Laue, Rudolf Ladenburg, Werner Heisenberg, Walther Nernst, Wolfgang Pauli and — most of all — Albert Einstein. Max Planck This article is about Planck, the German physicist. ... Max von Laue (October 9, 1879 - April 24, 1960) was a German physicist, who studied under Max Planck. ... Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. ... Walther Nernst. ... Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (April 25, 1900 – December 15, 1958) was an Austrian-Swiss physicist noted for his work on the theory of spin. ... Albert Einstein, by Yousuf Karsh Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist of Swiss and American citizenship, who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. ...

Wigner also met Leó Szilárd at the colloquium. Szilárd became at once Wigner's closest friend, and a man who remained an enigma and, sometimes, an irritant.

A third experience in Berlin was formative. Wigner worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, and there met Michael Polanyi, who would become, after László Rátz, Wigner's greatest teacher. Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (in German Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft) was the name of a number of scientific institutes in Germany before World War II. After 1945 they were re-organised and renamed as Max Planck Institutes. ... Michael Polanyi (March 11, 1891 - February 22, 1976) was a Hungarian/ British polymath whose thought and work extended across physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. ...

Early Career

In the late 1920s, Wigner explored deeply in the field of quantum mechanics, then being shaped by Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Dirac, to the mild disapproval of Einstein. A period at Göttingen as an assistant to the great mathematician David Hilbert proved a disappointment, as Hilbert was no longer intellectually active. But Wigner spent many, many hours in the library at Göttingen, and devoted himself to physics. Wigner laid the foundation for the theory of symmetries in quantum mechanics. In the late 1930s, he extended his research into atomic nuclei. He developed an important general theory of nuclear reactions. He was brilliant as a theorist (see for instance the Wigner-Eckart theorem), brilliant in the laboratory, and had a deep understanding of engineering as well. Landmark Gänseliesel fountain at the main market Göttingen (   listen?) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. ... David Hilbert David Hilbert (January 23, 1862 – February 14, 1943) was a German mathematician born in Wehlau, near Königsberg, Prussia (now Znamensk, near Kaliningrad, Russia) who is recognized as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. ... // Events and trends The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. ... The Wigner-Eckart theorem is a theorem of representation theory and quantum mechanics allowing operators to be transformed from one basis to another. ...

By 1929, his papers were drawing wide notice in the physics world. 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1930, Princeton University recruited Wigner and Von Neumann. When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Wigner and von Neumann found safe haven in Princeton, New Jersey, though they still spent half the year in Europe, traveling, studying and teaching. A more peaceful, modest man you could not find, but Wigner was deeply affronted by Hitler and saw immediately how dangerous he was. In later life, when people thanked him for being so perceptive, he always protested that it took no special perception at all to see Hitler's danger and evil; rather, he felt it took a special perception not to see it. 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...   Adolf Hitler? (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the Chancellor of Germany from 1933, and Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor) of Germany from 1934, to his death. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Princeton highlighted in Mercer County. ... State nickname: The Garden State Other U.S. States Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Governor Richard Codey (D)Acting Official languages None defined Area 22,608 km² (47th)  - Land 19,231 km²  - Water 3,378 km² (14. ...

In Princeton in 1934 Wigner introduced his sister Manci to the physicist Paul Dirac. They married, and the ties between Wigner and Dirac deepened. Wigner also spent time with Einstein, who had come to Princeton to join the Institute For Advanced Study. 1934 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Fuld Hall The Institute for Advanced Study is a private institution in Princeton Township, New Jersey, designed to foster pure cutting-edge research by scientists in a variety of fields without the complications of teaching or funding, or the agendas of sponsorship. ...

In 1936, Princeton did not rehire Wigner, and he moved to the University of Wisconsin. There he met his first wife, a lovely physics student named Amelia Frank. But Ms. Frank died in 1937, and Wigner, in his grief, wanted to leave Madison. On January 8, 1937, Wigner became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Princeton had done a careful search for a superb young physicist, and the name they kept hearing from people was... Eugene Wigner. They invited him back and he accepted. He rejoined the Princeton faculty in the fall of 1938. 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the University of Wisconsin system, see University of Wisconsin System. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Wisconsin State Capitol Madison is the capital of Wisconsin, a state of the United States of America. ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Naturalization is the process whereby a person becomes a national of a nation, or a citizen of a country, other than the one of his birth. ... 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Though a professed political amateur, in 1939 and 1940, Dr. Wigner played a major role in agitating for a Manhattan Project, which built the atomic bomb to defend the world against Hitler. Wigner was sorry to see atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nevertheless, he remained a solid defender of the U.S. military, a patriot in his adopted country. Dr. Wigner always thought of his work on the atomic bomb as essentially defensive, and he would later become a major figure in the field of civil defense. 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ... Main keep of Hiroshima Castle The city of Hiroshima (広島市; -shi) is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, the largest of Japans islands. ... Megane-bashi (Spectacles Bridge) Nagasaki  listen? (長崎市; -shi, literally long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ...

In 1946, Wigner accepted a job as director of research and development at Clinton Laboratory (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Not an administrator by background or temperament, Wigner left after a year and returned to teaching and research at Princeton University. 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a multiprogram science and technology national laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by UT-Battelle, LLC. ORNL is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near Knoxville. ... Oak Ridge is a city located in Anderson and Roane Counties in eastern Tennessee, about 25 miles west of Knoxville. ... State nickname: Volunteer State Other U.S. States Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis Governor Phil Bredesen (D) Official languages English Area 109,247 km² (36th)  - Land 106,846 km²  - Water 2,400 km² (2. ...

In the 1950s, he grieved the deaths of Enrico Fermi, Einstein and Von Neumann. In 1954, he was troubled by the infamous case in which Robert Oppenheimer lost his security clearance. A major witness against Oppenheimer was Wigner's old friend, Edward Teller. // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... Enrico Fermi in the 1940s. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, served as the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, beginning in 1943. ...

In 1960, already known as one of deep thinkers in the field of mathematical physics, Wigner gave a thought-provoking insight into the power of mathematics in his best-known essay outside physics, now a classic paper, "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences", in which he argued that biology and cognition could be the origin of physical concepts, as we humans perceive them, and that the happy coincidence that mathematics and physics were so well matched, seemed to be "unreasonable" and hard to explain. 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Mathematical physics is a scientific discipline aimed at studying and solving problems inspired by physics within a mathematically rigorous framework. ... The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, published by physicist Eugene Wigner in 1960, argues that the capacity of mathematics to successfully predict events in physics cannot be a coincidence, but must reflect some larger or deeper or simpler truth in both. ...

In 1963, Wigner received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He professed never to have even considered the possibility that this might occur, and added: "I never expected to get my name in the newspapers without doing something wicked." 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ...

Wigner was famous for his gentleness and elaborate courtesy to others. Once as a young man, he was lying on the lawn near the municipal swimming pool at Göttingen with a German astronomer named Heckman. Heckman observed a line of ants crawling across Wigner's right leg and biting him.

Heckman asked Wigner why he didn't kill the ants. "Because I don't know which are the ones biting me," Wigner replied.

Once, following a lecture by Wigner, a member of the audience came up to ask him a question. Wigner listened, then replied, "I am Mr. Wigner." (He pronounced his surname with an English "W" and the hint of a third syllable in the middle.) The questioner, confused, asked the question again. Again came the response, "I am Mr. Wigner." Finally, someone broke the stalemate by pointing out that Wigner was feeling at a loss because he didn't know the man's name. Too polite to ask, he had introduced himself in hopes of learning it.

In scientific meetings, both formal and informal, when someone proposed something, Wigner often answered simply "I don't understand." He was never pretentious, never afraid to seem foolish.

For a man of science, Wigner was oddly superstitious, hating to have 13 bills in his pocket, anxious to knock on a real piece of wood when he heard some good news.

In 1992, at the age of 90, he published a memoir, The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner (assisted by Andrew Szanton). Wigner died three years later in Princeton. 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Near the end of his life his thought turned more philosophical. In his memoir, Wigner said: "The full meaning of life, the collective meaning of all human desires, is fundamentally a mystery beyond our grasp. As a young man, I chafed at this state of affairs. But by now I have made peace with it. I even feel a certain honor to be associated with such a mystery."

References

• Eugene P. Wigner. Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays of Eugene P. Wigner.

• Alvin M. Weinberg, Eugene P. Wigner Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors

• Eugene Paul Wigner, et al. Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses

See also

• Wigner semicircle distribution
• Wigner quasi-probability distribution

The Wigner semicircle distribution, named after the physicist Eugene Wigner, is the probability distribution supported on the interval [−R, R] the graph of whose probability density function f is a semicircle of radius R centered at (0, 0) and then suitably normalized (so that it is really a semi-ellipse... The Wigner quasi-probability distribution was introduced by Eugene Wigner in 1932 to study quantum corrections to classical statistical mechanics. ...

External links

• Eugene Wigner
• National Academy of Sciences biography
• Biography at the MacTutor archive
• his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles