Torleif Ericson

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Torleif Erik Oskar Ericson
Torleif Ericson
BornNovember 2, 1930 (1930-11-02) (age 93)
Lund, Sweden
Alma materLund University
Known forEricson-Ericson Lorentz-Lorenz correction
Ericson fluctuations
SpouseMagda Ericson
AwardsProfessors namn (Title of Professor), Sweden, 1976

Foreign member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, 1990
Honorary professor, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute , Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1990
Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 1993

Member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, 1994
Scientific career
FieldsNuclear physics
Particle physics
InstitutionsLund University
Nordita
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
UC Berkeley
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Uppsala University

Torleif Erik Oskar Ericson (born November 2, 1930) is a Swedish nuclear theoretical physicist.[1][2] He is known for 'Ericson fluctuations'[3][4] and the 'Ericson-Ericson Lorentz-Lorenz effect'.[5] His research has nurtured the link between nuclear and particle physics.

Biography[edit]

Career[edit]

Ericson studied physics at Lund University, from where he obtained his PhD,[6] under the supervision of Ben Mottelson at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita), in 1958.

Ericson held positions as a postdoctoral researcher and an instructor at MIT[4][3][7] and as Visiting scientist at Berkeley[3][8] from 1959 to 1960.

Following he joined CERN’s Theory Division,[9] first as a fellow, and then as a staff member in 1962.[10] He was recruited by the Director-General, V. F. Weisskopf, as the theoretical interface between particle and nuclear physics.[2]

Sabbatical year 1969/70 at MIT.

Invited guest professor at Geneva, Lausanne, Louvain, Tokyo and Uppsala.

Adjunct professor at Uppsala University from 1993 within the framework of CERN's collaboration with Member States.

Official retirement from CERN in 1995,[11] but still emeritus.[12]

Research contributions[edit]

Moving from MIT to Berkeley he wrote two papers[3][4] in which he predicted what later became known as 'Ericson fluctuations' and today is considered a prime example of quantum chaos.[8][13] Initially the idea was met with resistance. However, the prediction stimulated in a large number of nuclear reaction studies, as reviewed a few years later with Mayer-Kuckuk,[14] and Ericson continued to develop the consequences in depth in a series of articles.[15]

In 1963, Ericson, after an initiative by A. de-Shalit and V.F. Weisskopf, organised an international conference on high-energy physics and nuclear structure.[16] The meeting turned out to be of significant importance both for Ericson's own career and the development of this field, as a new branch of nuclear physics.[1][15][17] The conference series, later generally referred to as PANIC, was the start of the field interfacing nuclear and particle physics and has developed into a triennial event. The series is sponsored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and has been going on since then.[18]

In the 1960's much information in this field came from exotic atoms. This was limited but precise information. In this context Ericson studied how nuclei and particles manifest dielectric constants and magnetic susceptibilities in external fields. Furthermore, Ericson, together with his wife Magda Ericson, were among the first to focus on the interaction of pions with nuclei and to study a regime that was intermediate between the low energies of traditional nuclear physics and elementary particles of higher energies.[5] In particular the Ericsons realized that the pion behavior in nuclei is changed and that this produces major effects. This became known as the 'Ericson-Ericson Lorentz-Lorenz effect' and has later influenced other areas of many-body physics.[15]

His interest in the quantitatively limits of pion physics in nuclei produced some of the most accurate and parameter-free descriptions of observables in the entire nuclear physics.[15][19]

He took interest in many different areas of physics. Together with J. Bernabeu and C. Jarlskog, he realized that neutral currents imply parity violations, which are strongly enhanced in certain muonic atoms.[20][21] He also developed an accurate test of T-violation in nuclei based on fluctuations,[3] as well as an accurate empirical bound for anti-gravity.[22]

The activity on the interface between nuclear and particle physics led to that CERN set up various scientific committees,[23] in which Ericson was deeply involved.

Administrative activities[edit]

In his role as chairman of the Nuclear Structure Committee, Ericson proposed in 1964, to build an on-line isotope separator, which later has become known as ISOLDE.[24][25][26] CERN eventually established its ultrarelativistic heavy-ion programme[27] that over the years has attracted a large number of experimental physicists to the laboratory.[28][29]

In addition to carry out his research, Ericson has taken on a series of managerial tasks. For several periods he filled the role as deputy leader for the CERN Theory Division, he chaired the CERN Nuclear Structure Committee, served as a member of the CERN Physics III Committee, Swedish Program Committee for Physics and in the IUPAP body International Committee for High Intensity Accelerators (ICHIA).[15] Furthermore, Ericson was associated editor in the journal Nuclear Physics A, with responsibility for intermediate energy, from 1976 to 2000.[30][31] Since 1991 he is one of the general editors of the series Cambridge Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology.[32][33] Ericson has also been editor for a large number of conference proceedings.

Awards and honors[edit]

Private life[edit]

Ericson is married to the French physicist Magda Ericson since 1957. Together they have two adult children. The Ericsons reside in Geneva, Switzerland.[37]

Bibliography[edit]

Books[edit]

  • 1991: The meson factories. Univ. California Press.[38]
  • 1991: Piony i jadra. Moskva : Nauka, Russian translation of "Pions and nuclei" (1988).[39]
  • 1988: Pions and nuclei. Clarendon Press.[40]

Articles[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Feshbach, Herman (1991). "Torleif Ericson on his sixtieth birthday". Nuclear Physics News. 1 (3): 6. doi:10.1080/10506899108260750. ISSN 1061-9127.
  2. ^ a b Weisskopf, Victor F. (1990). "Foreword to the Festschrift for Torleif Ericson". Nuclear Physics A. 518 (1–2): ix. Bibcode:1990NuPhA.518D...9W. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(90)90529-U.
  3. ^ a b c d e Ericson, Torleif (1960-11-01). "Fluctuations of Nuclear Cross Sections in the "Continuum" Region". Physical Review Letters. 5 (9): 430–431. Bibcode:1960PhRvL...5..430E. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.5.430. ISSN 0031-9007.
  4. ^ a b c Ericson, Torleif (1960). "The statistical model and nuclear level densities". Advances in Physics. 9 (36): 425–511. Bibcode:1960AdPhy...9..425E. doi:10.1080/00018736000101239. ISSN 0001-8732.
  5. ^ a b Ericson, M; Ericson, T. E. O (1966-02-18). "Optical properties of low-energy pions in nuclei". Annals of Physics. 36 (3): 323–362. Bibcode:1966AnPhy..36..323E. doi:10.1016/0003-4916(66)90302-2. ISSN 0003-4916.
  6. ^ Ericson, Torleif (1958). Some statistical properties of excited nuclei. Lund University.
  7. ^ "This week's citation classic" (PDF). Current Contents (11). 16 March 1981. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  8. ^ a b Krige, J. (1996). "Physics in the CERN Theory Division: CERN, the centre of Europe". History of CERN, III. Elsevier. p. 306. ISBN 978-0-08-053403-9.
  9. ^ Krige, J. (1996). "Physics in the CERN Theory Division: moving to Geneva". History of CERN, III. Elsevier. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-08-053403-9.
  10. ^ "INSPIRE: Torleif Ericson's author profile". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  11. ^ CERN lays on birthday treat for the Ericsons. CERN Courier. December 2010. p. 41.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  12. ^ "People | Department of Theoretical Physics". theory.cern. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  13. ^ Casten, Richard F.; Jolie, Jan; Kneissl, Ulrich; Lieb, Klaus-peter (2001). "Generic and non-generic features of chaotic systems: billiards and nuclei". Nuclear structure physics: Celebrating the career of Peter Von Brentano. World Scientific. p. 197. ISBN 978-981-4490-82-5.
  14. ^ Ericson, T; Mayer-Kuckuk, T (1966). "Fluctuations in Nuclear Reactions". Annual Review of Nuclear Science. 16 (1): 183–206. Bibcode:1966ARNPS..16..183E. doi:10.1146/annurev.ns.16.120166.001151. ISSN 0066-4243. PMID 5334731.
  15. ^ a b c d e Richter, Achim; Weise, Wolfram (1990). "Preface and biographical note". Nuclear Physics A. 518 (1–2): i–viii. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(90)90528-T.
  16. ^ Ericson, Torleif Eric Oskar, ed. (1963). 1963 International Conference on High-energy Physics and Nuclear Structure: CERN, Geneva, Switzerland 25 Feb - 1 Mar 1963. CERN Yellow Reports: Conference Proceedings. Geneva: CERN.
  17. ^ Pascolini, Alessandro (1994). PAN XIII: Particles and Nuclei - Proceedings of the XIII International Conference. World Scientific. pp. xv. ISBN 978-981-4550-75-8.
  18. ^ "Particles and Nuclei International Conference 2021". pos.sissa.it. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  19. ^ Ericson, T E O; Rosa-Clot, M (1985). "D-State Admixture and Tensor Forces in Light Nuclei". Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. 35 (1): 271–294. Bibcode:1985ARNPS..35..271E. doi:10.1146/annurev.ns.35.120185.001415. ISSN 0163-8998.
  20. ^ Bernabeu, J.; Ericson, T.E.O.; Jarlskog, C. (1974). "Parity violations by neutral currents in muonic atoms". Physics Letters B. 50 (4): 467–471. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(74)90262-7.
  21. ^ Bernabeu, Jose (17 September 2010). "Electroweak interactions: Celebration in Honour of Magda and Torleif Ericson's 80th Birthday". CERN Document Server. See lecture after 28 minutes and 48 seconds.
  22. ^ Ericson, T. E. O; Richter, A (1990-02-15). "Empirical Limits to Antigravity". Europhysics Letters (EPL). 11 (4): 295–300. doi:10.1209/0295-5075/11/4/001. ISSN 0295-5075.
  23. ^ Krige, J. (1996). "The early interest in nuclear physics at CERN: CERN's Nuclear Structure Committee (NSC) and other scientific committees". History of CERN, III. Elsevier. pp. 333–334. ISBN 978-0-08-053403-9.
  24. ^ "ISOLDE | timeline.web.cern.ch". timeline.web.cern.ch. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  25. ^ Krige, J. (1996). "The SC: ISOLDE and Nuclear Structure: The ISOLDE collaboration is formed". History of CERN, III. Elsevier. pp. 353–358. ISBN 978-0-08-053403-9.
  26. ^ Ericson, Torleif (1964). Memorandum to the members of the NPRC on proposal of an isotope separator "on line" for the SC. CERN-NSC-64-2. Geneva: CERN.
  27. ^ "A 30-year adventure with heavy ions". CERN Courier. 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
  28. ^ Jacob, Maurice (1990). "Getting to know nuclear physics". Nuclear Physics A. 518 (1–2): xi–xv. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(90)90530-Y.
  29. ^ Krige, J. (1996). "The SC: ISOLDE and nuclear structure: the early ISOLDE". History of CERN, III. Elsevier. p. 351. ISBN 978-0-08-053403-9.
  30. ^ "Editorial Board". Nuclear Physics A. 258 (1): iii. 1976. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(76)90520-0.
  31. ^ "Editorial board". Nuclear Physics A. 663–664: IFC. 2000. doi:10.1016/S0375-9474(00)80002-0.
  32. ^ "Cambridge Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology". Cambridge Core. Retrieved 2021-11-01.
  33. ^ Donoghue, John F.; Golowich, Eugene; Holstein, Barry R. (1992-07-23). Dynamics of the Standard Model (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511524370. ISBN 978-0-521-36288-7. S2CID 119579852.
  34. ^ a b Richter, Achim; Weise, Wolfram (1990). "Preface [to the Festschrift for Torleif Ericson]". Nuclear Physics A. 518 (1–2): i–viii. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(90)90528-T.
  35. ^ "Members – Finska Vetenskaps-Societeten". scientiarum.fi. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  36. ^ "Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: Torleif Ericson". Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  37. ^ "Profs. Ericson Torleif and Magda (-Galula)". www.local.ch. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
  38. ^ Ericson, Torleif E. O.; Ericson, Torleif Erik Oskar; Hughes, Vernon W.; Nagle, Darragh E. (1991-01-01). The Meson Factories. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07549-8.
  39. ^ Ericson, Torleif Erik Oskar, Weise, Wolfram (1991). Piony i jadra (in Russian). Moskva: Nauka. ISBN 978-5-02-014513-9. OCLC 751262334.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  40. ^ Ericson, Torleif Erik Oskar; Weise, Wolfram (1988). Pions and Nuclei. International Series of Monographs on Physics. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-852008-5.

External links and further reading[edit]

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