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Marshall Rosenbluth

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Marshall Rosenbluth
Rosenbluth in 1994
Born(1927-02-05)February 5, 1927
Albany, New York,US
DiedSeptember 28, 2003(2003-09-28)(aged 76)
San Diego, California,US
Alma materHarvard University(BS)
University of Chicago(PhD)
Known forPlasma Physics
Rosenbluth potentials
Metropolis algorithm
Rosenbluth formula
Spouse(s)Arianna Rosenbluth
Sara Rosenbluth
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsGeneral Atomics
UC San Diego
Princeton University
University of Texas at Austin
Doctoral advisorEdward Teller

Marshall Nicholas Rosenbluth(5 February 1927 – 28 September 2003) was anAmericanplasma physicistand member of theNational Academy of Sciences,[1]and member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[2]In 1997 he was awarded theNational Medal of Sciencefor discoveries in controlled thermonuclear fusion, contributions toplasma physics,and work in computationalstatistical mechanics.He was also a recipient of theE.O. LawrencePrize (1964), theAlbert Einstein Award(1967), theJames Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics(1976), theEnrico Fermi Award(1985), and theHannes Alfvén Prize(2002).

Early life and education

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Rosenbluth was born into a Jewish family[3]and graduated fromStuyvesant High Schoolin 1942.[4]He did his undergraduate study at Harvard, graduating in 1946 (B.S.,Phi Beta Kappa), despite also serving in theU.S. Navy(1944–46) during this period. He received his Ph.D. in 1949 from theUniversity of Chicago.[5]

Career

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During his first post-doctoral position atStanford University(1949–1950), he derived theRosenbluth formula,which was the basis of the analysis used byRobert Hofstadterin his Nobel prize-winning experimental investigation ofelectron scattering.Hofstadter refers to this in his 1961Nobel Lecture:"This behavior can be understood in terms of the theoretical scattering law developed by M. Rosenbluth in 1950".

In 1950 his doctoral advisorEdward Teller,[6]who is considered the father of thehydrogen bomb,recruited Rosenbluth to work atLos Alamos.[7]Rosenbluth maintained this position until 1956. The research he conducted at Los Alamos led to the development of the H-bomb.

... Rosenbluth went to theSouth Pacific to prepare for the first H-bomb test.He had trouble sleeping, and was pondering the bomb design when he realised the scientists had made a calculating error that could result in a dud. The flaw was remedied by modifying the detonator, and the bomb vaporised amile-wide island with a power 700 times greater than that of theatom bomb dropped on Hiroshimain 1945.[8]

In 1953, Rosenbluth derived theMetropolis algorithm,[9]based on generating aMarkov chainwhich sampled fluid configurations according to theBoltzmann distribution.This algorithm was first presented in the paper "Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines",[10]coauthored with his wifeArianna Rosenbluth(who wrote the first computer program to implement the method),Nicholas Metropolis,Augusta H. TellerandEdward Teller.This now-famous paper was cited inComputing in Science and Engineeringas being among the top 10 algorithms having the "greatest influence on the development and practice of science and engineering in the 20th century."[11]He and Arianna subsequently introduced the configurational-bias Monte Carlo method for simulating polymers.[12]

By the late 1950s, Rosenbluth turned his attention to the burgeoning discipline of plasma physics and quickly laid the foundation for many avenues of research in the field, particularly the theory ofplasma instabilities.Although he continued to work on plasma physics for the remainder of his career, he often made forays into other fields. For example, around 1980, he and coworkers produced a detailed analysis of thefree electron laser,indicating how its spectral intensity can be optimized.

In 1956, Rosenbluth left Los Alamos to join an atomic energy firm, General Atomics. In 1960, while still employed with General Atomics he joined the faculty of theUniversity of California at San Diego.Later, he joined theInstitute for Advanced StudyinPrinceton, New Jersey(1967). In 1980, he went to theUniversity of Texas at Austin.He then went back to University of California at San Diego in 1987. In 1993, he retired from UCSD became the chief scientist of the central team for the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor, where he worked until 1999.[13][14]He maintained a high productivity rate throughout his entire career. Indeed, only a few years before his death, Rosenbluth discovered the existence of residual flows (so-calledRosenbluth-Hinton flows), a key result for understanding turbulence intokamaks.[15]

Additional information

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Upon his retirement, he took on the responsibility of chief scientist of the Central Team for theInternational Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER) until 1999. Rosenbluth also served as a member of theJASON Defense Advisory Group.

Rosenbluth was affectionately known as thePope of Plasma Physicsin reference to his deep understanding of the field.[16]

Personal life

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Arianna Rosenbluthwas his first wife; they were married in 1951, while he was at Stanford. They had four children together. They later divorced; he married Sara Rosenbluth (formerly Sara Unger), an artist and educator in 1980, and they were together until his death.[17][18]

Notes

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  1. ^"M. N. Rosenbluth".www.nasonline.org.Retrieved2021-12-06.
  2. ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.Retrieved2021-12-06.
  3. ^"Jewish Physicists".
  4. ^Larry R. Faulkner; Sue Alexander Greninger (2004-09-24)."In Memoriam - Marshall N. Rosenbluth".UT Austin.Retrieved2007-10-31.
  5. ^G. Segrè and B. Hoerlin, The Pope of Physics, Picador 2016, pp. 268
  6. ^"Rosenbluth, M. N."history.aip.org.Retrieved2023-04-28.
  7. ^Teller, Edward, The Work of Many People, Science, New Series, Vol. 121, No. 3139 (Feb. 25, 1955), pp. 267-275, page 271
  8. ^Wright, Pearce(4 October 2003)."Obituary. Marshall Rosenbluth".The Guardian.
  9. ^J.E. Gubernatis (2005)."Marshall Rosenbluth and the Metropolis Algorithm".Physics of Plasmas.12(5): 057303.Bibcode:2005PhPl...12e7303G.doi:10.1063/1.1887186.
  10. ^Metropolis, N.;Rosenbluth, A.W.;Rosenbluth, M.N.;Teller, A.H.;Teller, E.(1953)."Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines".Journal of Chemical Physics.21(6): 1087–1092.Bibcode:1953JChPh..21.1087M.doi:10.1063/1.1699114.OSTI4390578.S2CID1046577.
  11. ^I. Beichl and F. Sullivan (2000)."The Metropolis Algorithm".Computing in Science and Engineering.2(1): 65–69.Bibcode:2000CSE.....2a..65B.doi:10.1109/5992.814660.S2CID42433198.
  12. ^Rosenbluth, Marshall N.; Rosenbluth, Arianna W. (1955-02-01)."Monte Carlo Calculation of the Average Extension of Molecular Chains".The Journal of Chemical Physics.23(2): 356–359.Bibcode:1955JChPh..23..356R.doi:10.1063/1.1741967.ISSN0021-9606.
  13. ^"UTPhysicsHistorySite: Letter from Larry S. Faulkner, President of University of Texas-Austin".2017-08-12. Archived fromthe originalon 2017-08-12.Retrieved2024-07-21.
  14. ^Diamond, Patrick H.; Goldberger, Marvin L.; Sagdeev, Roald Z.; Berk, Herbert L. (2004)."Marshall Nicholas Rosenbluth".Physics Today.57(11): 81–82.Bibcode:2004PhT....57k..81D.doi:10.1063/1.1839386.
  15. ^Rosenbluth, M. N.; Hinton, F. L. (1998-01-26)."Poloidal Flow Driven by Ion-Temperature-Gradient Turbulence in Tokamaks".Physical Review Letters.80(4): 724–727.Bibcode:1998PhRvL..80..724R.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.724.
  16. ^Kim A. McDonald,Nuclear Fusion Pioneer At UC San Diego Dies At 76Archived2011-03-23 at theWayback Machine,obituary at theUniversity of Californiawebsite. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
  17. ^Dyson, Freeman (Jun 2006)."Marshall N. Rosenbluth".Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.150(2): 403–407.ProQuest220909545– via ProQuest.
  18. ^"UTPhysicsHistorySite".2017-08-12. Archived fromthe originalon 2017-08-12.Retrieved2024-07-21.

References

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