Sunday, June 17, 2007

Phenomena lacking clear scientific explanation

Cosmology

Accelerating universe and the Cosmological constant
Why doesn't the zero-point energy of vacuum cause a large cosmological constant? What cancels it out? Is a non-total cancellation of the cosmological constant responsible for the observed accelerated expansion (deSitter phase) of the Universe? If it is, why is the energy density of the cosmological constant of the same magnitude as the density of matter at present when the two evolve quite differently over time; could it be simply that we are observing at exactly the right time? Or is the nature of the dark energy driving this acceleration different?
Baryon asymmetry
Why is there far more matter than antimatter in the universe?
Dark matter
What is dark matter? Is it related to supersymmetry? Do the phenomena attributed to dark matter point not to some form of matter but actually to an extension of gravity?
Entropy (arrow of time)
Why did the universe have such low entropy in the past, resulting in the distinction between past and future and the second law of thermodynamics?

High energy physics

Electroweak symmetry breaking
What is the mechanism responsible for breaking the electroweak gauge symmetry, giving mass to the W and Z bosons? Is it the simple Higgs mechanism of the Standard Model? or does nature make use of strong dynamics in breaking electroweak symmetry, as proposed by Technicolor?
Neutrino mass
What is the mechanism responsible for generating neutrino masses? Is the neutrino its own antiparticle?
Proton Spin Crisis
As initially measured by the European Muon Collaboration, the 3 main ("valence") quarks of the proton account for about 12% of its total spin. Can the gluons that bind the quarks together, as well as the "sea" quark pairs that are continually being created and annihilating, properly account for the rest of it?
Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in the non-perturbative regime
The equations of QCD remain unsolved at energy scales relevant for describing atomic nuclei, and only mainly numerical approaches seem to begin to give answers at this limit. How does QCD give rise to the physics of nuclei and nuclear constituents?
Strong CP problem and Axions
Why is the strong nuclear interaction invariant to parity and charge conjugation? Is the Peccei-Quinn theory (i.e. mechanism) the solution to this problem? What are the properties of the predicted axion?

Astronomy

Accretion disc jets
Why do the accretion discs surrounding certain astronomical objects, such as the nuclei of active galaxies, emit relativistic jets along their polar axes?
Corona heating problem
Why is the Sun's Corona (atmosphere layer) so much hotter than the Sun's surface?
Gamma ray bursts (short duration)
What is the nature of these extraordinarily energetic astronomical objects that last less than two seconds?
Hipparcos Anomaly
How far away are the Pleiades, exactly?
Pioneer anomaly
What causes the apparent residual sunward acceleration of the Pioneer spacecraft?
Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
Why is it that some cosmic rays appear to possess energies that are impossibly high (the so called Oh-My-God particle), given that there are no sufficiently energetic cosmic ray sources near the Earth? Why is it that (apparently) some cosmic rays emitted by distant sources have energies above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit?

Condensed matter physics

Amorphous solids
What is the nature of the transition between a fluid or regular solid and a glassy phase? What are the physical processes giving rise to the general properties of glasses?
High-temperature superconductors
What is the responsible mechanism that causes certain materials to exhibit superconductivity at temperatures much higher than around 50 kelvins?
Sonoluminescence
What causes the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound?
Turbulence
Is it possible to make a theoretical model to describe the statistics of a turbulent flow (in particular, its internal structures)?

Theoretical problems

The following problems are either fundamental theoretical problems, or theoretical ideas which lack experimental evidence and are in search of one, or both, as most of them are.

Some of the following problems are strongly interrelated. For example, extra dimensions or supersymmetry may solve the Hierarchy problem. It is thought the most of these problems (not including the Island of stability problem) should be answered by a full theory of quantum gravity.

Quantum gravity and cosmology

Quantum gravity
How can gravity and general relativity be realized as a fully consistent quantum field theory? Is string theory (M-theory) the correct approach? More pressing, how much experimental information can be extracted about physics near Planck scale?
Black holes, Black hole information, Black hole radiation and structure
Do black holes really exist? Do they radiate, as expected on theoretical grounds? Does this radiation contain information about their inner structure, as suggested by Gauge-gravity duality, or not, as implied by Hawking's original calculation? If not, and black holes can evaporate away, what happens to the information stored in it? (Quantum mechanics does not allow information to be destroyed) Or does the radiation stop at some point leaving black hole remnants? Is there another way to probe their internal structure somehow, if such a structure even exists?
Extra dimensions
Does nature have more than four spacetime dimensions? If so, what is their size? Are dimensions a fundamental property of the universe or an emergent result of other physical laws?
Cosmic inflation
Is the theory of cosmic inflation correct, and if so, what are the details of this epoch? What is the hypothetical inflaton field giving rise to inflation? Is there a natural explanation for its peculiar proposed potential? If inflation happened at one point, is it self-sustaining through inflation of quantum-mechanical fluctuations, and thus ongoing in some impossibly distant place?
Multiple universes
Are there physical reasons to believe in other universes that are fundamentally non-observable? For instance: Are there quantum mechanical "alternate histories"? Are there "other" universes with physical laws resulting from alternate ways of breaking the apparent symmetries of physical forces at high energies, possibly incredibly far away due to cosmic inflation? Is the use of the anthropic principle to resolve global cosmological dilemmas justified?

High energy physics

Hierarchy problem
Why is gravity such a weak force? It becomes strong for particles only at the Planck scale, around 1019 GeV, much above the electroweak scale (100 GeV, the energy scale dominating physics at low energies). Why are these scales so different from each other? What prevents quantities at the electroweak scale, such as the Higgs boson mass, from getting quantum corrections of order of the Planck scale? Is the solution supersymmetry, extra dimensions or just anthropic fine-tuning?
Island of stability
What is the largest theoretically possible stable atom?
Magnetic monopoles
Do particles that carry "magnetic charge" exist?
Proton decay and Unification
How do we unify the three different quantum mechanical fundamental interactions of quantum field theory? As the lightest baryon, are protons absolutely stable? If current theoretical ideas are correct, quarks and leptons are ultimately unified and thus nothing in principle forbids proton decay. If so, then what is the proton's half-life?
Supersymmetry
Is spacetime supersymmetry realized in nature? If so, what is the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking? Does supersymmetry stabilize the electroweak scale, preventing high quantum corrections? Does the lightest supersymmetric particle make up the dark matter?

Other problems

Emergent phenomena
Is a complete understanding of particle physics sufficient to fully understand all physical phenomena, or are there emergent phenomena in physics whose existence cannot be definitively predicted from a complete understanding of the fundamental particles and forces that govern the universe?
Quantum mechanics in the correspondence limit
Is there a preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics? How does the quantum description of reality, which includes elements such as the superposition of states and wavefunction collapse, give rise to the reality we perceive?
Physical information
Are there physical phenomena, such as black holes or wave function collapse, which irrevocably destroy information about their prior states?
Theory of everything
Is there a theory which explains the values of all fundamental physical constants? Do "fundamental physical constants" vary over time? Is there a theory which explains why the gauge groups of the standard model are as they are, why observed space-time has 3+1 dimensions, and why all laws of physics are as they are? Is string theory and the anthropic principle correct directions? Are there any testable consequences of that?

Problems solved recently

Long duration gamma ray bursts (2003)
Long-duration bursts are associated with the deaths of massive stars in a specific kind of supernova-like event commonly referred to as a collapsar.
Solar neutrino problem (2002)
Solved by a new understanding of neutrino physics, requiring a modification of the Standard Model of particle physics — specifically, neutrino oscillation.
Quasars (1980s)
The nature of quasars was not understood for decades. They are now accepted as a type of active galaxy where the enormous energy output results from matter falling into a massive black hole in the center of the galaxy.

Various Awards Awarded In The Feild Of Physics

A

* A B Wood Medal
* ASA Gold Medal

B

* Bogoliubov Prize for young scientists
* Boltzmann Medal
* Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics
* Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize

D

* Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics
* Dirac Prize
* Duddell Medal and Prize

E

* Albert Einstein Award
* Albert Einstein Medal
* Einstein Prize (APS)
* Albert Einstein World Award of Science


F

* First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics
* Fluid Dynamics Prize (APS)
* Foresight Nanotech Institute Feynman Prize

G

* Guthrie Medal and Prize

H

* Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
* Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics

I

* Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids

K

* Kurchatov Medal

L

* Lorentz Medal

M

* Matteucci Medal
* Max Planck medal

N

* Nobel Prize in Physics

O

* Oersted Medal
* Oskar Klein Medal


P

* Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics
* George E. Pake Prize
* Panofsky Prize
* Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy
* Poincaré Prize

R

* Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics
* Rayleigh Medal

S

* Andrei Sakharov Prize (APS)
* Sakurai Prize
* Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science

W

* The Wigner Medal
* Wolf Prize in Physics

Y

* Young Medal and Prize

Notable Anniversaries In Physics

January

* 1 January 1876 - Harriet Brooks was born.
* 2 January 1822 - Rudolf Clausius was born.
* 04 January 1643 - Sir Isaac Newton was born.
* 15 January 1908 - Edward Teller was born.

February

* 15 February 1564 – Galileo Galilei's birthday
* 15 February 1786 – Cat's Eye Nebula discovered
* 18 February 1967 – Robert Oppenheimer died
* 23 February 1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss died
* 28 February 1901 – Linus Pauling's birthday

March

* 1 March 1966 – first spacecraft crash-lands on Venus
* 14 March 1879 – Albert Einstein's birthday
* 24 March 1993 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 discovered

April

* 1 April 1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp at perihelion
* 12 April 1633 – Galileo Galilei's trial starts
* 15 April 1707 – Leonhard Euler's birthday
* 18 April 1955 – Albert Einstein died
* 22 April 1904 – Robert Oppenheimer's birthday
* 24 April 1990 – Hubble Space Telescope launched
* 30 April 1777 – Carl Friedrich Gauss's birthday

May

* 11 May 1918 – Richard Feynman's birthday

June

* 13 June 1831 - James Clerk Maxwell's birthday

July

* July 1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter
* 16 July 1945 – Trinity test, named by Robert Oppenheimer
* 23 July 1995 – Comet Hale-Bopp discovered

August

* 8 August 1902 - Paul Dirac's birthday

September

* 7 September 1783 - Leonhard Euler died
* 9 September 2003 - Edward Teller died

October

* 1 October 1958 - NASA created to replace NACA

November

* November 1915 – Albert Einstein formulates GR
* 9 November 1934 – Carl Sagan's birthday
* 9 November 1676 – using his first quantitative measurement of the speed of light, Ole Rømer accurately predicts the delay of eclipse of Io

December

* December 1610 – Galileo Galilei observes phases of Venus.
* December 1995 – Hubble Deep Field images taken.
* 22 December 1968 – Apollo 8 launched.

Nobel Prize Winners In Physics

* 2006 - John C. Mather, George F. Smoot
* 2005 - Roy J. Glauber, John L. Hall, Theodor W. Hänsch
* 2004 - David J. Gross, H. David Politzer, Frank Wilczek
* 2003 - Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg, Anthony J. Leggett
* 2002 - Raymond Davis Jr., Masatoshi Koshiba, Riccardo Giacconi
* 2001 - Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, Carl E. Wieman
* 2000 - Zhores I. Alferov, Herbert Kroemer, Jack S. Kilby
* 1999 - Gerardus 't Hooft, Martinus J.G. Veltman
* 1998 - Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Störmer, Daniel C. Tsui
* 1997 - Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, William D. Phillips
* 1996 - David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff, Robert C. Richardson
* 1995 - Martin L. Perl, Frederick Reines
* 1994 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Clifford G. Shull
* 1993 - Russell A. Hulse, Joseph H. Taylor Jr.
* 1992 - Georges Charpak
* 1991 - Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
* 1990 - Jerome I. Friedman, Henry W. Kendall, Richard E. Taylor
* 1989 - Norman F. Ramsey, Hans G. Dehmelt, Wolfgang Paul
* 1988 - Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, Jack Steinberger
* 1987 - J. Georg Bednorz, K. Alex Müller
* 1986 - Ernst Ruska, Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer
* 1985 - Klaus von Klitzing
* 1984 - Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer
* 1983 - Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, William A. Fowler
* 1982 - Kenneth G. Wilson
* 1981 - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur L. Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn
* 1980 - James Cronin, Val Fitch
* 1979 - Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg
* 1978 - Pyotr Kapitsa, Arno Penzias, Robert Woodrow Wilson
* 1977 - Philip W. Anderson, Sir Nevill F. Mott, John H. van Vleck
* 1976 - Burton Richter, Samuel C.C. Ting
* 1975 - Aage N. Bohr, Ben R. Mottelson, James Rainwater
* 1974 - Martin Ryle, Antony Hewish
* 1973 - Leo Esaki, Ivar Giaever, Brian D. Josephson
* 1972 - John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, Robert Schrieffer
* 1971 - Dennis Gabor
* 1970 - Hannes Alfvén, Louis Néel
* 1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
* 1968 - Luis Alvarez
* 1967 - Hans Bethe
* 1966 - Alfred Kastler
* 1965 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger, Richard P. Feynman
* 1964 - Charles H. Townes, Nicolay G. Basov, Aleksandr M. Prokhorov
* 1963 - Eugene Wigner, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, J. Hans D. Jensen
* 1962 - Lev Landau
* 1961 - Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Mössbauer
* 1960 - Donald A. Glaser
* 1959 - Emilio Segrè, Owen Chamberlain
* 1958 - Pavel A. Cherenkov, Il´ja M. Frank, Igor Y. Tamm
* 1957 - Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee
* 1956 - William B. Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain
* 1955 - Willis E. Lamb, Polykarp Kusch
* 1954 - Max Born, Walther Bothe
* 1953 - Frits Zernike
* 1952 - Felix Bloch, E. M. Purcell
* 1951 - John Cockcroft, Ernest T.S. Walton
* 1950 - Cecil Powell
* 1949 - Hideki Yukawa
* 1948 - Patrick M.S. Blackett
* 1947 - Edward V. Appleton
* 1946 - Percy W. Bridgman
* 1945 - Wolfgang Pauli
* 1944 - Isidor Isaac Rabi
* 1943 - Otto Stern
* 1942 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
* 1941 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
* 1940 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
* 1939 - Ernest Lawrence
* 1938 - Enrico Fermi
* 1937 - Clinton Davisson, George Paget Thomson
* 1936 - Victor F. Hess, Carl D. Anderson
* 1935 - James Chadwick
* 1934 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
* 1933 - Erwin Schrödinger, Paul A.M. Dirac
* 1932 - Werner Heisenberg
* 1931 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
* 1930 - Venkata Raman
* 1929 - Louis de Broglie
* 1928 - Owen Willans Richardson
* 1927 - Arthur H. Compton, C.T.R. Wilson
* 1926 - Jean Baptiste Perrin
* 1925 - James Franck, Gustav Hertz
* 1924 - Manne Siegbahn
* 1923 - Robert A. Millikan
* 1922 - Niels Bohr
* 1921 - Albert Einstein
* 1920 - Charles Edouard Guillaume
* 1919 - Johannes Stark
* 1918 - Max Planck
* 1917 - Charles Glover Barkla
* 1916 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
* 1915 - William Bragg, Lawrence Bragg
* 1914 - Max von Laue
* 1913 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
* 1912 - Gustaf Dalén
* 1911 - Wilhelm Wien
* 1910 - Johannes Diderik van der Waals
* 1909 - Guglielmo Marconi, Ferdinand Braun
* 1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
* 1907 - Albert A. Michelson
* 1906 - J.J. Thomson
* 1905 - Philipp Lenard
* 1904 - Lord Rayleigh
* 1903 - Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie
* 1902 - Hendrik A. Lorentz, Pieter Zeeman
* 1901 - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

List Of Famous Physicists

A

* Ernst Karl Abbe — Germany (1840–1905)
* Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov — Russia (1928- )
* Zhores Ivanovich Alferov — Russia (1930- )
* Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén — Sweden (1908–1995)
* Jim Al-Khalili — UK (1962- )
* William Allis — USA (1901-1999)
* Samuel King Allison — USA (1900-1965)
* Luis Walter Alvarez — USA (1911–1988)
* André-Marie Ampère — France (1775–1836)
* Anders Jonas Ångström — Sweden (1814–1874)
* Hans Henrik Andersen — Denmark (1937- )
* Carl David Anderson — USA (1905-1991)
* Philip Warren Anderson — USA (1923– )
* Edward Victor Appleton — UK (1892-1965)
* François Jean Dominique Arago - France (1786-1853)
* Archimedes — Syracuse (ca. 287–212 BC)
* Aristarchus of Samos — Samos (310 – ca. 230 BC)
* Aristotle — Athens, Greece (384–322 BC)
* Nima Arkani-Hamed - USA (1972- )

B

* Johann Jakob Balmer — Switzerland (1825–1898)
* John Bardeen — USA (1908–1991)
* Charles Glover Barkla — UK (1877-1944)
* Laura Maria Caterina Bassi — Italy (1711-1778)
* Nikolay Basov — Russia (1922-2001)
* Zoltán Lajos Bay — Hungary (1900–1992)
* Karl Bechert — Germany (1901-1981)
* Isaac Beeckman — Netherlands (1588-1637)
* John Stewart Bell — UK (1928–1990)
* Henri Becquerel — France (1852–1908)
* Johannes Georg Bednorz — Germany (1950- )
* Carl M. Bender — USA
* Daniel Bernoulli — Switzerland (1700–1782)
* Hans Bethe — Germany, USA (1906–2005)
* Gerd Binnig — Germany (1947- )
* Jean-Baptiste Biot — France (1774–1862)
* Raymond T. Birge — USA (1887–1980)
* Vilhelm Bjerknes — Norway (1862–1951)
* Patrick Blackett — UK (1897-1947)
* Felix Bloch — Switzerland (1905–1983)
* Nicolaas Bloembergen — Netherlands (1920- )
* David Bohm — USA (1917-1992)
* Niels Bohr — Denmark (1885–1962)
* Aage Niels Bohr — Denmark (1922– )
* Ludwig Boltzmann — Austria (1844–1906)
* Max Born — Germany, UK (1882–1970)
* Rudjer Josip Boscovich — Dubrovnik (1711–1787)
* Satyendra Nath Bose — India (1894–1974)
* Johannes Bosscha — Netherlands (1831-1911)
* Walther Bothe — Germany (1891-1957)
* Robert Boyle — Ireland, England (1627–1691)
* William Henry Bragg — UK (1862-1942)
* William Lawrence Bragg — Australia (1890-1971)
* Walter Houser Brattain — USA (1902-1987)
* Karl Ferdinand Braun — Germany (1850-1918)
* David Brewster — UK (1781–1868)
* Percy Williams Bridgman — USA (1882-1961)
* Bertram Brockhouse — Canada (1918-2003)
* Louis-Victor de Broglie — France (1892–1987)
* Thomas Townsend Brown — USA (1905–1985)
* Hermann Brück — Germany (1905-2000)
* Johannes Martinus Burgers — Netherlands (1895-1981)
* W. G. Burgers — Netherlands

C

* Nicolás Cabrera — Spain (1913–1989)
* Fritjof Capra — Austria, USA (1939– )
* Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot — France (1796–1832)
* Hendrik Casimir — Netherlands (1909-2000)
* Henry Cavendish — UK (1731–1810)
* James Chadwick — UK (1891-1974)
* Owen Chamberlain — USA (1920– )
* Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar — India, USA (1910–1995)
* Georges Charpak — France (1924- )
* Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov — Imperial Russia, Soviet Union (1904–1990)
* Ernst Chladni — Germany (1756–1827)
* Steven Chu — USA (1948– )
* Giovanni Ciccotti — Italy (1943– )
* Rudolf Clausius — Germany (1822–1888)
* Jacob Clay — Netherlands (1882-1955)
* John Cockcroft — UK (1897-1967)
* Claude Cohen-Tannoudji — France (1933- )
* Arthur Compton — USA (1892-1962)
* Edward Condon - USA (1902-1974)
* Leon Cooper — USA (1930- )
* Eric Allin Cornell — USA (1961- )
* Marie Alfred Cornu — France (1841–1902)
* Charles-Augustin de Coulomb — France (1736–1806)
* James Cronin — USA (1931- )
* Marie Curie — Poland, France (1867–1934)
* Pierre Curie — France (1859–1906)

D

* Jean le Rond d'Alembert — France (1717–1783)
* Gustaf Dalén — Sweden (1869-1937)
* John Dalton — UK (1766–1844)
* Charles Galton Darwin — UK (1887–1962)
* Paul Davies — Australia (1946– )
* Raymond Davis Jr. — USA (1914-2006)
* Clinton Davisson — USA (1881-1958)
* Peter Debye — Netherlands (1884-1966)
* Hans Georg Dehmelt — Germany, USA (1922- )
* Democritus — Abdera (circa 460–360 BC)
* Willem de Sitter — Netherlands (1872-1934)
* James Dewar — UK (1842–1923)
* Robbert Dijkgraaf — Netheralands (1960- )
* Savas Dimopoulos - USA
* Paul Dirac — UK (1902–1984)
* Revaz Dogonadze — Former Soviet Union, Georgia (1931–1985)
* Christian Doppler — Austria (1803–1853)
* Friedrich Ernst Dorn - Germany (1848-1916)
* Paul Drude - Germany (1863-1906)
* Freeman Dyson — UK, USA (1923– )

E

* William Eccles — UK (1875–1966)
* Carl Eckart — USA (1902-1973)
* Paul Ehrenfest — Austria-Hungary, Netherlands (1880–1933)
* Felix Ehrenhaft — Austria-Hungary, USA (1879–1952)
* Albert Einstein — Germany, Italy, Switzerland, USA (1879–1955)
* Loránd Eötvös — Austria-Hungary (1848–1919)
* Leo Esaki — Japan (1925- )
* Ernest Esclangon — France (1876–1954)
* Louis Essen — UK (1908–1997)
* Leonhard Euler — Switzerland (1707–1783)
* Paul Peter Ewald — Germany, USA (1888-1985)
* James Alfred Ewing — UK (1855–1935)

F

* Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit — (1686–1736)
* Michael Faraday — UK (1791–1867)
* Eugene Feenberg — USA (1906-1977)
* Enrico Fermi — Italy (1901–1954)
* Herman Feshbach — USA (1917-2000)
* Richard Feynman — USA (1918–1988)
* David Finkelstein — USA (1929- )
* Val Logsdon Fitch — USA (1923- )
* George Francis FitzGerald — Ireland (1851–1901)
* Hippolyte Fizeau — France (1819–1896)
* Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock — Imperial Russia, Soviet Union (1898–1974)
* James David Forbes — UK (1809–1868)
* Léon Foucault — France (1819–1868)
* Joseph Fourier — France (1768–1830)
* William Alfred Fowler — USA (1911-1995)
* James Franck — Germany, USA (1882-1964)
* Ilya Frank — Russia (1908-1990)
* Benjamin Franklin — USA (1706–1790)
* Joseph von Fraunhofer — Germany (1787–1826)
* Augustin-Jean Fresnel — France (1788–1827)
* Daniel Friedan — USA
* B. Roy Frieden — USA (1936– )
* Jerome Isaac Friedman — USA (1930- )
* Otto Frisch - Austria, UK (1904-1979)
* Erwin Fues - Germany (1893-1970)
* Harald Fuchs — Germany (1951-)

G

* Dennis Gabor — Hungary (1900—1979)
* Galileo Galilei — Italy (1564—1642)
* Sylvester James Gates — USA (1950— )
* Carl Friedrich Gauss — Germany (1777—1855)
* Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac — France (1778—1850)
* Murray Gell-Mann — USA (1929— )
* Howard Georgi — USA (1947— )
* Walter Gerlach — Germany (1889-1979)
* Josiah Willard Gibbs — USA (1839—1903)
* William Gilbert — England (1544—1603)
* Lev Gor'Kov — USA (1929— )
* Samuel Goudsmit — Netherlands, USA (1902—1978)
* Leo Graetz — Germany (1856-1941)
* Willem 's Gravesande — Netherlands (1688—1742)
* Brian Greene — USA (1963— )
* John Gribbin — UK (1946— )
* David Gross — USA (1941— )
* Feza Gürsey — Turkey (1921—1992)
* Alan Guth - USA (1947— )
* Martin Gutzwiller — Switzerland (1925— )

H

* Rudolf Haag — Germany (1922– )
* Wander Johannes de Haas — Netherlands (1878-1960)
* Edwin Hall — USA (1855–1938)
* William Rowan Hamilton — Ireland (1805–1865)
* Peter Andreas Hansen — Denmark (1795–1874)
* W.W. Hansen — USA (1909–1949)
* Douglas Hartree — UK (1897–1958)
* Stephen Hawking — UK (1942– )
* Oliver Heaviside — UK (1850–1925)
* Werner Karl Heisenberg — Germany (1901–1976)
* Walter Heitler — Germany/Ireland (1904-1981)
* Hermann von Helmholtz — Germany (1821–1894)
* Joseph Henry — USA (1797–1878)
* John Herapath — UK (1790–1868)
* Carl Hermann — Germany (1898–1961)
* Heinrich Rudolf Hertz — Germany (1857–1894)
* Peter Higgs — UK (1929-)
* George William Hill — USA (1838–1914)
* Gustave-Adolphe Hirn — France (1815-1890)
* Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin — England (1910-1994)
* Gilles Holst — Netherlands (1886-1968)
* Helmut Hönl — Germany (1903-1981)
* Gerardus 't Hooft — The Netherlands (1946– )
* Robert Hooke — England (1635–1703)
* William V. Houston — USA (1900-1968)
* Fritz Houtermans — Netherlands/Germany/Austria (1903-1996)
* John H. Hubbell — USA (born 1925)
* Friedrich Hund — Germany (1896-1997)
* Christiaan Huygens — The Netherlands (1629–1695)

I

* Nathan Isgur - USA, Canada (1947-2001)

J

* Ali Javan — Iran (1928– )
* Edwin Jaynes — USA (1922–1998)
* Irene Joliot-Curie - France (1897-1956)
* Pascual Jordan - Germany (1902-1980)
* Brian David Josephson — UK (1940– )
* James Prescott Joule — UK (1818–1889)

K

* Michio Kaku — USA (1947- )
* Heike Kamerlingh Onnes — Netherlands (1853-1926)
* William R. Kanne — USA
* Pyotr Kapitza — UK, Soviet Union (1894-1984)
* Alfred Kastler — France (1902-1984)
* Heinrich Kayser — German (1853-1940)
* Willem Hendrik Keesom — Netherlands (1876-1956)
* Edwin C. Kemble — USA (1889-1984)
* Johannes Kepler — Germany (1571–1630)
* John Kerr — UK (1824–1907)
* Julii Khariton — Soviet Union (1904-1996)
* Gustav Robert Kirchhoff — Germany (1824–1887)
* Jacob Kistemaker — Netherlands (1917- )
* Arthur Korn — Germany (1870-1945)
* Matthew Koss — USA (1961 - )
* Walther Kossel — Germany (1888-1956)
* Hendrick Kramers — Netherlands (1894-1952)
* Lawrence Krauss — USA (1954- )
* August Krönig — Germany (1822–1879)
* Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov — Soviet Union (1903–1960)
* Behram Kurşunoğlu — Turkey (1922-2003)

L

* Joseph-Louis Lagrange — France (1736–1813)
* Lev Davidovich Landau — Imperial Russia, Soviet Union (1908–1968)
* Kenneth Lane — USA
* Irving Langmuir — USA (1851–1957)
* Max von Laue — Germany (1879–1960)
* Ernest Lawrence — USA (1901–1958)
* Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev — Imperial Russia (1866–1912)
* Georges-Louis Le Sage — Switzerland (1724–1803)
* Tsung-Dao Lee — China, USA (1926– )
* Benjamin Lee — Korea, USA (1935-1977)
* Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — Germany (1646–1716)
* Robert B. Leighton — USA (1919-1997)
* Philipp Lenard — Hungary, Germany (1862-1947)
* John Leslie — UK (1766–1832)
* Walter Lewin — Netherlands, USA
* Robert von Lieben Austria-Hungary — (1878-1913)
* David Lindley — USA (1956– )
* Karl L. Littrow — Austria (1811–1877)
* Maurice Loewy — Austria/France (1833–1907)
* Robert K. Logan — USA (1939– )
* Alfred Loomis — USA (1887–1975)
* Hendrik Lorentz — Netherlands (1853–1928)
* Johann Loschmidt — Germany (1821–1895)
* Archibald Low — Britain (1888–1956)
* Lucretius — Rome (98?–55 BC)
* Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov — Imperial Russia (1857–1918)

M

* Ernst Mach — Austria-Hungary (1838–1916)
* Theodore Maiman — USA (1927– )
* Ettore Majorana — Italy (1906-1938 presumed dead)
* Juan Martín Maldacena — Argentina (1968– )
* Etienne-Louis Malus — France (1775–1812)
* Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam — Imperial Russia, Soviet union (1879–1944)
* Guglielmo Marconi — Italy (1874–1937)
* Henry Margenau — Germany/ USA (1901-1977)
* William Markowitz — USA (1907–1998)
* Harrie Massey — Australia (1908-1983)
* James Clerk Maxwell — UK (1831–1879)
* Maria Goeppert Mayer — Germany, USA (1906-1972)
* Ronald E. McNair — USA (1950–1986)
* Simon van der Meer — Netherlands (1925- )
* Fulvio Melia — USA (1956- )
* Macedonio Melloni — Italy (1798–1854)
* Lise Meitner - Austria (1878-1968)
* Thomas Corwin Mendenhall — USA (1841–1924)
* Albert Abraham Michelson — USA (1852–1931)
* Robert Andrews Millikan — USA (1868–1953)
* John J. Montgomery — USA (1858-1911)
* Jagadeesh Moodera — India, USA (1950— )
* Henry Moseley — UK (1887–1915)
* Nevill Mott — UK (1905-1996)
* Amédée Mouchez — Spain, France (1821–1892)
* José Enrique Moyal — Palestine, France, UK, USA, Australia (1910-1998)
* Richard A. Muller — USA (1944– )
* Pieter van Musschenbroeck — Netherlands (1692-1762)

N

* Yoichiro Nambu - Japan, USA (1921- )
* Jayant Narlikar - India (1938 - )
* Ann Nelson - USA (1958- )
* John von Neumann — Austria-Hungary, USA (1903–1957)
* Simon Newcomb — USA (1835–1909)
* Sir Isaac Newton — England (1642–1727)
* Leopoldo Nobili — Italy (1784–1835)
* Emmy Noether - Germany (1882-1935)
* Lothar Nordheim - Germany (1899-1985)

O

* Georg Ohm — Germany (1789–1854)
* Lars Onsager — Norway (1903–1976)
* Robert Oppenheimer — USA (1904–1967)
* Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh - Ireland (1933-2000)
* Nicole Oresme — France (1325–1382)
* Leonard Salomon Ornstein — Netherlands (1880-1941)
* Egon Orowan — Austria-Hungary/ USA (1901–1989)
* Yuri Orlov — Soviet Union, USA (1924– )
* Hans Christian Ørsted — Denmark (1777–1851)

P

* Thanu Padmanabhan — India (1957- )
* Blaise Pascal — France (1623–1662)
* Jogesh Pati — USA (1937- )
* Wolfgang Ernst Pauli — Austria-Hungary (1900–1958)
* G. B. Pegram — USA (1876–1958)
* Rudolf Peierls — Germany/UK (1907-1995)
* Roger Penrose — UK (1931– )
* Saul Perlmutter — USA (1959- )
* Bernhard Philberth — Germany (1927– )
* Max Planck — Germany (1858–1947)
* Joseph Plateau — Belgium (1801–1883)
* John Polkinghorne — UK (1930– )
* Henri Poincaré — France (1854–1912)
* Heraclides Ponticus — Greece (387–312 BC)
* John Henry Poynting — UK (1852–1914)
* Aleksandr Prokhorov — Soviet/Russian (1916-2002)
* William Prout — UK (1785–1850)
* Ivan Pulyuy — Ukraine (1845-1918)
* Michael Pupin — Austria-Hungary/USA (1858-1935)

Q

* Helen Quinn - USA (1943- )

R

* I. I. Rabi — Austria, USA (1898-1988)
* Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman — India (1888–1970)
* Edward Ramberg — USA (1907-1995)
* Carl Ramsauer — Germany (1879-1955)
* Lisa Randall — USA (1962– )
* Lord Rayleigh — UK (1842–1919)
* Sidney Redner — Canada, USA (1951– )
* Hubert Reeves — Canada (1932– )
* Louis Rendu — France (1789–1859)
* Osborne Reynolds — UK (1842–1912)
* Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen — Germany (1845–1923)
* Marshall Rosenbluth — USA (1927–2003)
* Carl-Gustav Arvid Rossby — Sweden, USA (1898–1957)
* Carlo Rubbia — Italy (1934– )
* Serge Rudaz — Canada, USA (1954– )
* David Ruelle — Belgium, France (1935– )
* Ernest Rutherford — New Zealand, UK (1871–1937)
* Janne Rydberg — Sweden (1854–1919)

S

* Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov — Soviet Union (1929–1989)
* Oscar Sala — Brazil (1922– )
* Abdus Salam — Pakistan, UK (1926–1996)
* Jack Sarfatti — USA (1939– )
* Isidor Sauers — Austria (1948- )
* Felix Savart — France (1791–1841)
* Otto Scherzer — Germany (1909-1982)
* Kees A. Schouhamer Immink — Netherlands (1946- )
* John Robert Schrieffer — USA (1931- )
* Erwin Schrödinger — Austria-Hungary (1887–1961)
* Julian Schwinger — USA (1918-1994)
* Emilio G. Segrè — USA/Italy (1905–1989)
* Robert Serber — USA (1909-1997)
* Ludwik Silberstein — Poland, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada (1872-1948)
* John C. Slater — USA (1900-1976)
* Louis Slotin — USA (1910-1946)
* George Smoot — USA (1945- )
* Willebrord Snel van Royen (Snellius) — Netherlands (1580–1626)
* Arnold Sommerfeld — Germany (1868-1951)
* Johannes Stark — Germany (1874-1957)
* Jožef Stefan — Austria-Hungary, Slovenia (1835–1893)
* Karl August von Steinheil — Germany (1801–1870)
* George Gabriel Stokes — UK (1819–1903)
* Oleg Sushkov — Australia-Russia (~1950- )
* Joseph Wilson Swan — UK (1828–1914)
* Leó Szilárd — Austria-Hungary, USA (1898–1964)
* Shen Kuo — China (1031 - 1095)

T

* Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm — Imperial Russia, Soviet union (1895–1971)
* Max Tegmark — Sweden, USA (1967– )
* Edward Teller — Austria-Hungary/USA (1908–2003)
* Nikola Tesla — Serbia(nation)/Croatia(home country)/USA (1856–1943)
* Joseph John Thomson — UK (1856–1940)
* William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) — UK (1824–1907)
* Kip Stephen Thorne — USA (1940– )
* Evangelista Torricelli — Italy (1608–1647)
* Bruno Touschek — Italy (1921-1978)
* Charles Townes — USA (1915– )
* Johann Georg Tralles — Germany (1763–1822)
* Sam Treiman — USA (1926- )
* John J. Turin — USA (1913-1973)

U

* George Eugene Uhlenbeck — Netherlands, USA (1900-1988)

V

* Balthasar van der Pol — Netherlands (1889-1959)
* Johannes Diderik van der Waals — Netherlands (1837–1923)
* Sergei Vavilov — Soviet Union (1891–1951)
* Martinus J. G. Veltman — Netherlands, USA (1931- )
* Gabriele Veneziano — Italy (1942- )
* Giovanni Battista Venturi — Italy (1746–1822)
* Émile Verdet — France (1824-1866)
* Woldemar Voigt — Germany (1850-1919)
* Alessandro Volta — Italy (1745–1827)

W

* Ludwig Waldmann — Germany (1913-1980)
* Ernest Walton — Republic of Ireland (1903 - 1995)
* Aaldert Wapstra — Netherlands (1923-2006)
* Gleb Wataghin — Ukraine/Italy/Brazil (1896–1986)
* John James Waterston — UK (1811–1883)
* James Watt — UK (1736–1819)
* Denis Weaire — Republic of Ireland (194?- )
* Wilhelm Weber — Germany (1804–1891)
* Steven Weinberg — USA (1933– )
* Victor Frederick Weisskopf — Austria, USA (1908–2002)
* Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker — Germany (1912-2007)
* Heinrich Welker — Germany (1912-1981)
* Peter Westervelt - USA (1919-)
* Gregor Wentzel — Germany (1898-1978)
* John Archibald Wheeler — USA (1911-)
* Gian-Carlo Wick — Italy (1909-1992)
* Emil Wiechert - Prussia (1861-1928)
* Wilhelm Wien - Germany (1864-1928)
* Arthur Wightman — USA (1922– )
* Eugene Wigner — Austria-Hungary/USA (1902–1993)
* Frank Wilczek — USA (1951– )
* Robert R. Wilson — USA (1914–2000)
* Mark B. Wise – Canada/USA (1953– )
* Edward Witten — USA (1951– )
* Emil Wolf -Czechoslovakia, USA (1922- )
* Lincoln Wolfenstein — USA (1923-)
* Robert W. Wood — USA (1868–1955)
* Chien-Shiung Wu — USA (1912-1997)

Y

* Rosalyn Yalow — USA (1921- )
* Chen Ning Yang — China (1922– )
* Thomas Young — UK (1773–1829)
* Hideki Yukawa — Japan (1907–1981)

Z

* Anthony Zee — USA
* Pieter Zeeman — Netherland (1865-1943)
* Frits Zernike — Netherland (1888-1960)
* Barton Zwiebach — USA (1954- )

Relativity

Major Sub-topics
Special relativity, General relativity, Einstein field equations

Concepts
Covariance, Einstein manifold, Equivalence principle, Four-momentum, Four-vector, General principle of relativity, Geodesic motion, Gravity, Gravitoelectromagnetism, Inertial frame of reference, Invariance, Length contraction, Lorentzian manifold, Lorentz transformation, Mass-energy equivalence, Metric, Minkowski diagram, Minkowski space, Principle of Relativity, Proper length, Proper time, Reference frame, Rest energy, Rest mass, Relativity of simultaneity, Spacetime, Special principle of relativity, Speed of light, Stress-energy tensor, Time dilation, Twin paradox, World line

Quantum Mechanics

Major Sub-topics
Path integral formulation, Scattering theory, Schrödinger equation, Quantum field theory, Quantum statistical mechanics

Concepts
Adiabatic approximation, Blackbody radiation, Correspondence principle, Free particle, Hamiltonian, Hilbert space, Identical particles, Matrix Mechanics, Planck's constant, Observer effect, Operators, Quanta, Quantization, Quantum entanglement, Quantum harmonic oscillator, Quantum number, Quantum tunneling, Schrödinger's cat, Dirac equation, Spin, Wavefunction, Wave mechanics, Wave-particle duality, Zero-point energy, Pauli Exclusion Principle, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Thermodynamics and Statistical mechanics

Major Sub-topics
Heat engine, Kinetic theory

Concepts
Boltzmann's constant, Conjugate variables, Enthalpy, Entropy, Equation of state, Equipartition theorem, Free energy, Heat, Ideal gas law, Internal energy, Laws of thermodynamics, Maxwell relations, Irreversible process, Ising model, Mechanical action, Partition function, Pressure, Reversible process, Spontaneous process, State function, Statistical ensemble, Temperature, Thermodynamic equilibrium, Thermodynamic potential, Thermodynamic processes, Thermodynamic state, Thermodynamic system, Viscosity, Volume, Work, Granular material

Electromagnetism

Major Sub-Topics
Electrostatics, Electrodynamics, Electricity, Magnetism, Magnetostatics, Maxwell's equations, Optics

Concepts
Capacitance, Electric charge, Current, Electrical conductivity, Electric field, Electric permittivity, Electric potential, Electrical resistance, Electromagnetic field, Electromagnetic induction, Electromagnetic radiation, Gaussian surface, Magnetic field, Magnetic flux, Magnetic monopole, Magnetic permeability

Classical Mechanics

Major Sub-topics
Newton's laws of motion, Lagrangian mechanics, Hamiltonian mechanics, Kinematics, Statics, Dynamics, Chaos theory, Acoustics, Fluid dynamics, Continuum mechanics

Concepts
Density, Dimension, Gravity, Space, Time, Motion, Length, Position, Velocity, Acceleration, Galilean invariance, Mass, Momentum, Force, Energy, Angular momentum, Torque, Conservation law, Harmonic oscillator, Wave, Work, Power, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, Tait-Bryan angles, Euler angles

What Is Physics

Physics, is the branch of science concerned with the discovery and characterization of universal laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time. The role of physics, then, is to provide a logically ordered picture of nature in agreement with experience.

Physics

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