Leonard Susskind
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lenny Susskind | |
 Leonard Susskind
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| Born | 1940[1] South Bronx, New York City, New York, USA |
|---|---|
| Residence | USA |
| Nationality | US |
| Ethnicity | Jewish-American |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | Yeshiva University University of Tel Aviv Stanford University |
| Alma mater | City College of New York Cornell University |
| Doctoral advisor | Peter A. Carruthers |
| Known for | Holographic principle String theory landscape Quark confinement Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory |
| Notable awards | Sakurai Prize (1998) Pregel Award, New York Academy of Science (1975) [2] |
| Religious stance | Atheist[3] |
Leonard Susskind (born 1940)[1] is the Felix Bloch professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University, whose research interests include string theory, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology.[4] He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences,[5] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[6] an associate member of the faculty of Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics,[7] and a distinguished professor of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study.[8] Susskind is widely regarded as one of the fathers of string theory,[9] who with Yoichiro Nambu and Holger Bech Nielsen, independently introduced the idea that particles could in fact be states of excitation of a relativistic string.[10] He was the first to introduce the idea of the string theory landscape in 2003.[11] In 1997, Susskind was awarded the J.J. Sakurai Prize for his "pioneering contributions to hadronic string models, lattice gauge theories, quantum chromodynamics, and dynamical symmetry breaking". Susskind's hallmark, according to colleagues, has been the application of "brilliant imagination and originality to the theoretical study of the nature of the elementary particles and forces that make up the physical world."[12]
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[edit] Early life and education
Susskind was born in a poor Jewish family from the South Bronx section of New York City,[13] and now resides in Palo Alto, California. He began working as a plumber at the age of 16, taking over for his father who had become ill.[14] Later, he enrolled in the City College of New York as an engineering student, graduating with a B.S. in Physics in 1962.[15] In an article with the LA Times, Susskind recalls the moment he discussed with his father this change in career path: "When I told my father I wanted to be a physicist, he said, ‘Hell no, you ain’t going to work in a drug store.’ I said no, not a pharmacist. I said, ‘Like Einstein.’ He poked me in the chest with a piece of plumbing pipe. ‘You ain’t going to be no engineer,’ he said. ‘You’re going to be Einstein.’"[16] He then studied at Cornell University under Peter A. Carruthers where he received his Ph.D. in 1965. He has been married twice, originally in 1960,[15] and has four children.
[edit] Career
Susskind was an Assistant Professor of Physics, then an Associate Professor at Yeshiva University (1966–1970), after which he went for a year at the University of Tel Aviv (1971–72), returning to Yeshiva to become a Professor of Physics (1970–1979). Since 1979, he has been Professor of Physics at Stanford University,[17] and since 2000, has held the Felix Bloch Professorship of Physics.
In 2007, Susskind joined the Faculty of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, as an Associate Member. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the 1998 Sakurai Prize for theoretical physics. He is also a distinguished professor at Korea Institute for Advanced Study.[18]
[edit] Scientific Career
Susskind was one of at least three physicists who independently discovered during or around 1970 that the Veneziano dual resonance model of strong interactions could be described by a quantum mechanical model of strings,[19] and was the first to propose the idea of the string theory landscape. Susskind has also made contributions in the following areas of physics:
- The independent discovery of the string theory model of particle physics.
- The theory of quark confinement[20]
- The development of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory[21]
- The theory of scaling violations in deep inelastic electroproduction
- The theory of symmetry breaking sometimes known as "technicolor theory"[22]
- The second, yet independent, theory of cosmological baryogenesis.[23] (Sakharov's work was first, but was mostly unknown in the Western hemisphere.)
- String theory of black hole entropy[24]
- The principle of "black hole complementarity"[25]
- The holographic principle[26]
- M-theory[27]
- Kogut-Susskind fermions
- Introduction of holographic entropy bounds in physical cosmology
- The idea of an anthropic string theory landscape.[28]
[edit] Discovery of String Theory
The story goes that "In 1970, a young physicist named Leonard Susskind got stuck in an elevator with Murray Gell-Mann, one of physics' top theoreticians, who asked him what he was working on. Susskind said he was working on a theory that represented particles "as some kind of elastic string, like a rubber band." Gell-Mann responded with loud, derisive laughter."[29]
[edit] Lectures
An entire course on quantum physics by Susskind can be downloaded on the iTunes platform from "Stanford on iTunes".[21] He is also a noted speaker, scheduled to speak at the Skeptics Society's "Origins Conference" at California Institute of Technology alongside Nancey Murphy, and Victor J. Stenger.[30]
[edit] Books
Susskind is the author of two popular science books, The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design[31] published in 2005, and The Black Hole War: My battle with Stephen Hawking to make the world safe for quantum mechanics[32] published in 2008.
[edit] The Cosmic Landscape
The cosmic landscape: string theory and the illusion of intelligent design is Susskind's first popular science book, published by Little, Brown and Company on December 12, 2005.[33] It is Susskind's attempt to bring his idea of the anthropic landscape of string theory to the general public. In the book, Susskind describes how the string theory landscape was an almost inevitable consequence of several factors, one of which was Steven Weinberg's prediction of the cosmological constant in 1987. The question addressed here is why our universe is fine-tuned for our existence. Susskind explains that Weinberg calculated that if the cosmological constant was just a little larger, our universe would cease to exist.
[edit] The Black Hole War
The Black Hole War: My battle with Stephen Hawking to make the world safe for quantum mechanics is Susskind's second popular science book, published by Little, Brown and Company, published on July 7, 2008.[34] Like The Cosmic Landscape, The Black Hole War is aimed at the lay reader. He writes: "The real tools for understanding the quantum universe are abstract mathematics: infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces, projection operators, unitary matrices and a lot of other advanced principles that take a few years to learn. But let's see how we do in just a few pages". Susskind, according to one review, himself "continually refers to Hawking being “wrong,” as if it were a done deal, rather than letting the reader enjoy the suspense of wondering who will win this war."
[edit] Smolin-Susskind Debate
The Smolin-Susskind debate refers to the series of intense postings in 2004 between Lee Smolin and Susskind, concerning Smolin’s argument that the "Anthropic Principle cannot yield any falsifiable predictions, and therefore cannot be a part of science."[35] It began on July 26, 2004, with Smolin's publication of "Scientific alternatives to the anthropic principle". Smolin e-mailed Susskind asking for a comment. Having not had the chance to read the paper, Susskind requested a summarization of his arguments. Smolin obliged, and on July 28, 2004, Susskind responded, saying that the logic Smolin followed "can lead to ridiculous conclusions".[36] The next day, Smolin responded, saying that "If a large body of our colleagues feels comfortable believing a theory that cannot be proved wrong, then the progress of science could get stuck, leading to a situation in which false, but unfalsifiable theories dominate the attention of our field." This was followed by another paper by Susskind[37] which made a few comments about Smolin's theory of "cosmic natural selection". The Smolin-Susskind debate finally ended with each of them agreeing to write a final letter which would be posted on Edge, with three conditions attached: (1) No more than one letter each; (2) Neither sees the other's letter in advance; (3) No changes after the fact.
Although the exchanges ended in 2004, the animosity remains. In 2006, Susskind criticized Smolin as a "mid-level theoretical physicist" whose "popular book-writing activities and the related promotional hustling have given him a platform high above that merited by his physics accomplishments."[38]
[edit] Susskind-Hawking battle
The Susskind-Hawking battle refers to the decade-long battle that Leonard Susskind had with Stephen Hawking regarding the nature of black holes.[39]
[edit] Religious Views
Susskind rejects intelligent design as an explanation for the origins of the universe. [40] He argues that intelligent design is basically an illusion.
[edit] See also
- Smolin-Susskind debate
- Susskind-Hawking battle
- Superstring theory
- String theory landscape
- Holographic principle
- Quantum chromodynamics
- Supersymmetry
- Susskind-Glogower operator
- List of theoretical physicists
- Kogut-Susskind fermions
- Fischler-Susskind mechanism
[edit] References
- ^ a b His 60th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University on May 20-21, 2000.[1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Life in a landscape of possibilities[3]
- ^ Faculty
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
- ^ [6]
- ^ [7]
- ^ NYAS Publication A Walk Across the Landscape
- ^ [8]
- ^ [9]
- ^ [10]
- ^ "Leonard Susskind discusses duel with Stephen Hawking", "LA Times", July 26, 2008
- ^ "Leonard Susskind discusses duel with Stephen Hawking", "LA Times", July 26, 2008
- ^ a b Edge.org Leonard Susskind - A Biography (last accessed August 12, 2007).
- ^ "Leonard Susskind discusses duel with Stephen Hawking", "LA Times", July 26, 2008
- ^ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/people/faculty/susskind_leonard.html
- ^ Welcome To Kias
- ^ String Theory: The Early Years, John H. Schwarz, 2000
- ^ L. Susskind, Lattice Models Of Quark Confinement At High Temperature, Phys. Rev. D20 (1979) 2610.
- ^ J. Kogut and L. Susskind, Phys. Rev. D 11, 395 (1975).
- ^ Review of Particle Physics, (W.-M. Yao et al., J. Phys. G 33, 1 (2006)) Dynamical Electroweak Symmetry Breaking section cites two 1979 publications, one by Steven Weinberg, the other by L. Susskind to represent the earliest models with technicolor and technifermions.[11]
- ^ Biography at APS J. J. Sakurai Prize website (last accessed August 12, 2007).
- ^ L. Susskind, RU-93-44, hep-th/9309145.
- ^ L. Susskind, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2368 (1993). String theory and the principle of black hole complementarity.
- ^ "The insistence on unitarity in the presence of black holes led 't Hooft (1993) and Susskind (1995b) to embrace a more radical, holographic interpretation of ..." - The Holographic Principle, Raphael Bousso, Rev. Mod. Phys. 74 (2002) 825-874. [12]
- ^ T. Banks, W. Fischler, S. H. Shenker, and L. Susskind, M Theory as a Matrix Model: A Conjecture, Phys. Rev. D55 (1997) 5112–5128, hep-th/9610043.
- ^ L. Susskind, arXiv:hep-th/0302219.
- ^ [13]
- ^ "Origins Conference October 3–4, 2008". Skeptics Society. 2008. http://origins.skeptic.com/speakers_Susskind.php. Retrieved on 2008-10-10.
- ^ L. Susskind, The cosmic landscape: string theory and the illusion of intelligent design (Little, Brown, 2005).
- ^ L. Susskind, The Black Hole War: My battle with Stephen Hawking to make the world safe for quantum mechanics (Little, Brown, 2008)
- ^ [14]
- ^ [15]
- ^ [16]
- ^ [17]
- ^ [ http://cohesion.rice.edu/CampusServices/OWeek/emplibrary/letterfromleonardsusskind.pdf]
- ^ [18]
- ^ [19]
- ^ [20]
[edit] Further reading
- Chown, Marcus, "Our world may be a giant hologram", New Scientist, 15 January 2009, magazine issue 2691. "The holograms you find on credit cards and banknotes are etched on two-dimensional plastic films. When light bounces off them, it recreates the appearance of a 3D image. In the 1990s physicists Leonard Susskind and Nobel prizewinner Gerard 't Hooft suggested that the same principle might apply to the universe as a whole. Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface."
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Leonard Susskind |
- Leonard Susskind's Homepage (Stanford University)
- The Edge:
- "Interview with Leonard Susskind."
- "Smolin vs. Susskind: The Anthropic Principle" Susskind and Lee Smolin debate the Anthropic principle
- Leonard Susskind's Quantum Mechanics course lectures on YouTube, iTunes
- Radio Interview from This Week in Science March 14, 2006 Broadcast
- "Father of String Theory Muses on the Megaverse": Podcast.
- Leonard Susskind's page on the Internet Movie Database.
