Jump to content

Tom Kibble

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromTom W. B. Kibble)
For the rugby player, seeTom Kibble (rugby union).

Sir
Tom Kibble
CBEFRSMAE
Born
Thomas Walter Bannerman Kibble

(1932-12-23)23 December 1932
Madras,Madras Presidency,British India
Died2 June 2016(2016-06-02)(aged 83)
London,England
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh(BSc,MA,PhD)
Known forEinstein–Cartan–Sciama–Kibble theory
Kibble–Zurek mechanism
Higgs boson
Higgs mechanism
Cosmic strings
Spontaneous symmetry breaking
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical physics
Quantum field theory
InstitutionsImperial College London
ThesisTopics in quantum field theory: 1. Schwinger's action principle; 2. Dispersion relations for inelastic scattering processes(1958)
Doctoral advisorJohn Polkinghorne
Doctoral studentsJohn W. Barrett[2]
Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi[citation needed]
Jonathan Ashmore[3]

Sir Thomas Walter Bannerman KibbleCBEFRSMAE[1](/ˈkɪbəl/;23 December 1932 – 2 June 2016) was a Britishtheoretical physicist,senior research investigator at theBlackett Laboratoryand Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics atImperial College London.[4]His research interests were inquantum field theory,especially the interface between high-energyparticle physicsandcosmology.He is best known as one of the first to describe theHiggs mechanism,and for his research ontopological defects.From the 1950s he was concerned about thenuclear arms raceand from 1970 took leading roles in promoting the social responsibility of the scientist.[5]

Early life and education[edit]

Kibble was born inMadras,in theMadras PresidencyofBritish India,on 23 December 1932.[6][7]He was the son of the statistician Walter F. Kibble, and the grandson of William Bannerman, an officer in theIndian Medical Service,and the authorHelen Bannerman.His father was a mathematics professor atMadras Christian College,and Kibble grew up playing on the grounds of the college and solving mathematics puzzles his father gave him.[8]He was educated atDoveton Corrie Schoolin Madras and then in Edinburgh, Scotland, atMelville Collegeand at theUniversity of Edinburgh.[4]He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with aBScin 1955,MAin 1956 and aPhDin 1958.[6][9]

Career[edit]

Kibble worked on mechanisms ofsymmetry breaking,phase transitionsand thetopological defects(monopoles,cosmic stringsordomain walls) that can be formed.

He is most noted for his co-discovery of theHiggs mechanismandHiggs bosonwithGerald GuralnikandC. R. Hagen.[10][11][12]As part ofPhysical Review Letters50th anniversary celebration, the journal recognised this discovery as one of the milestone papers in PRL history.[13]He was awarded theAmerican Physical Society's2010J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics.[14]

While Guralnik, Hagen, and Kibble are widely considered to have authored the most complete of theearly paperson the Higgs theory, they werecontroversiallynot included in the 2013Nobel Prize in Physics.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][8]

In 2014, Nobel LaureatePeter Higgsexpressed disappointment that Kibble had not been chosen to share the Nobel Prize withFrançois Englertand himself.[22]

Kibble pioneered the study of topological defect generation in the early universe.[23]The paradigmatic mechanism of defect formation across a second-orderphase transitionis known as theKibble-Zurek mechanism.His paper on cosmic strings introduced the phenomenon into modern cosmology.[24]

He was one of the two co-chairs of an interdisciplinary research programme funded by theEuropean Science Foundation(ESF) on Cosmology in the Laboratory (COSLAB) which ran from 2001 to 2005. He was previously the coordinator of an ESF Network on Topological Defects in Particle Physics, Condensed Matter & Cosmology (TOPDEF).[9]

Awards and honours[edit]

Kibble was an electedFellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1980,[1][25]of theInstitute of Physics(1991), and of Imperial College London (2009). He was also a member of the American Physical Society (1958), theEuropean Physical Society(1975) and theAcademia Europaea(2000).[9]In 2008, Kibble was named an Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society.[5][26]

In addition to the Sakurai Prize, Kibble has been awarded theHughes Medal(1981) of the Royal Society, theRutherford(1984) andGuthrie Medals(1993) of the Institute of Physics,[9]theDiracMedal (2013),[27]theAlbert Einstein Medal(2014)[28]and the Royal Medal of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh(2014).[29]

He was appointed aCBEin the1998 Birthday Honoursand wasknightedin the2014 Birthday Honoursfor services to physics.[30][31]

Kibble was posthumously awarded theIsaac Newton Medalby the Institute of Physics for his outstanding lifelong commitment to the field.[32]

Publications[edit]

In 1966 Kibble authored a textbook,Classical Mechanics,[33]from the 3rd edition onwards withFrank H. Berkshire.which as of 2016 is still in print and is now in its 5th edition.[34]

Personal life and voluntary roles[edit]

Kibble was married to Anne Allan from 1957 until her death in 2005. Kibble had three children.[35][36][37][38][39]

In the 1950s and 1960s, Kibble became concerned about the nuclear arms race[40]and from 1970 he took leading roles in several organisations promoting scientists' social responsibility.[9]In the period 1970–1977, he was a national committee member, then treasurer, then chair of theBritish Society for Social Responsibility in Science;from 1976 he was a trustee of the Science and Society Trust; from 1981 to 1991 he was a national coordinating committee member, then vice-chair, then chair ofScientists against Nuclear Arms;he was a sponsor ofScientists for Global Responsibility;and from 1988 he was chair, and later a trustee, of the Martin Ryle Trust.[40]He was chair of the organising committee of the Second International Scientists' Congress, held at Imperial College in 1988, and was a co-editor of the proceedings.[41]

In retirement, Kibble chaired theRichmondbranch of theRamblers Association.[42]

He died in London on 2 June 2016 at the age of 83.[43][8]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcAnon (1980)."Sir Thomas Kibble CBE FRS".royalsociety.org.London:Royal Society.Archived fromthe originalon 13 November 2015.One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available underCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."--"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies".Archived from the original on 25 September 2015.Retrieved9 March2016.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^"Academy of Europe: CV".
  3. ^Ashmore, Jonathan Felix (1972).Aspects of quantum field theory.ethos.bl.uk(PhD thesis). University of London.hdl:10044/1/16203.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ab"Science – It's not Fiction; Tom Kibble".FP News, The magazine and Annual Review of The Stewart's Melville FP Club.Daniel Stewart's and Melville College Former Pupils Club. December 2014. p. 13.Retrieved28 July2015.
  5. ^abGauntlett, Jerome (2016). "Thomas Kibble (1932–2016) Theoretical physicist and Higgs-boson pioneer".Nature.534(7609): 622.Bibcode:2016Natur.534..622G.doi:10.1038/534622a.PMID27357788.S2CID4401102.
  6. ^ab"Kibble, Sir Thomas (Walter Bannerman)".Who's Who.Vol. 2016 (onlineOxford University Pressed.). Oxford: A & C Black.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  7. ^The International Who's Who 1996–97(60 ed.). Europa Publications. 1996. pp. 826–827.ISBN978-1-85743-021-9.
  8. ^abcYin, Steph (19 July 2016)."Tom Kibble, Physicist Who Helped Discover the Higgs Mechanism, Dies at 83".New York Times.Retrieved19 March2019.
  9. ^abcdeKibble, Tom (2011)."Thomas Walter Bannerman (Tom) Kibble – Biography".Curriculum vitae.The Academy of Europe.
  10. ^"Phys. Rev. Lett. 13, 585 (1964) – Global Conservation Laws and Massless Particles".Physical Review Letters.doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.13.585.Archived fromthe originalon 27 May 2020.Retrieved28 February2008.
  11. ^Guralnik, Gerald S. (2009). "The History of the Guralnik, Hagen and Kibble development of the Theory of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Gauge Particles".International Journal of Modern Physics A.24(14): 2601–2627.arXiv:0907.3466.Bibcode:2009IJMPA..24.2601G.doi:10.1142/S0217751X09045431.S2CID16298371.
  12. ^"Guralnik, G S; Hagen, C R and Kibble, T W B (1967). Broken Symmetries and the Goldstone Theorem. Advances in Physics, vol. 2"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 24 September 2015.Retrieved16 September2014.
  13. ^"Physical Review Letters – Letters from the Past – A PRL Retrospective".Physical Review Letters.
  14. ^"APS Physics – DPF – J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics".aps.org.Retrieved30 January2023.
  15. ^APS News - 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics and Landmark Papers in PRL History (8 October 2013)
  16. ^"Nobel committee's 'Rule of Three' means some Higgs boson scientists were left out." Washington Post (8 October 2013)
  17. ^"The 2013 Nobel prizes. Higgs's bosuns." Economist (12 October 2013)
  18. ^"Why are some scientists unhappy with the Nobel prizes?" Economist.com (9 October 2013)
  19. ^"House of dreams. Scientists race to explain why the Higgs boson matters." Economist.com (3 March 2012)
  20. ^Guralnik, G. S; Hagen, C. R (2014). "Where have all the Goldstone bosons gone?".Modern Physics Letters A.29(9): 1450046.arXiv:1401.6924.Bibcode:2014MPLA...2950046G.doi:10.1142/S0217732314500461.S2CID119257339.
  21. ^"Gerald Guralnik, 77, a 'God Particle' Pioneer, Dies".The New York Times.3 May 2014.
  22. ^"Early night cost Higgs credit for big physics theory".BBC News.18 February 2014.Retrieved18 February2014.
  23. ^ Kibble, T. W. B. (1976). "Topology of cosmic domains and strings".J. Phys. A: Math. Gen.9(8): 1387–1398.Bibcode:1976JPhA....9.1387K.doi:10.1088/0305-4470/9/8/029.
  24. ^Hindmarsh, M.; Kibble, T. (1995). "Cosmic strings".Rep. Prog. Phys.58(5): 477–562.arXiv:hep-ph/9411342.Bibcode:1995RPPh...58..477H.doi:10.1088/0034-4885/58/5/001.S2CID118892895.
  25. ^Duff, M. J.; Stelle, K. S. (2021)."Sir Thomas Walter Bannerman Kibble. 23 December 1932—2 June 2016".Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.70:225–244.arXiv:2011.13257.doi:10.1098/rsbm.2020.0040.S2CID227209669.
  26. ^"APS Journals – Outstanding Referees".aps.org.
  27. ^"Kibble, Peebles and Rees Share the 2013 Dirac Medal".International Centre for Theoretical Physics.8 August 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 3 December 2021.Retrieved8 June2016.
  28. ^"Faces & Places – Kibble receives Albert Einstein Medal".CERN Courier.13 July 2014.Retrieved19 March2019.
  29. ^"Academic excellence recognised as RSE announces Royal Medals and Prizes"(PDF).Royal Society of Edinburgh.19 March 2014. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 6 March 2016.Retrieved8 June2016.
  30. ^"No. 60895".The London Gazette(Supplement). 14 June 2014. p. b2.
  31. ^"Queen's birthday honours list 2014: Knights".the Guardian.13 June 2014.
  32. ^Ghosh, Pallab (1 July 2016)."Late scientist Tom Kibble wins award for particle work".BBC News.BBC.Retrieved30 August2016.
  33. ^Kibble T W B (1966)Classical Mechanics.McGraw-Hill,London.
  34. ^Kibble, T W B and Berkshire, F H (2004)Classical Mechanics.McGraw-Hill,London.
  35. ^"Sad farewell to physicist who transformed our understanding of the universe".Imperial College London.3 June 2016.
  36. ^"Higgs pioneer and IOP fellow Sir Thomas Kibble has died".Institute of Physics.3 June 2016.
  37. ^"Sir Tom Kibble, physicist – obituary".The Daily Telegraph.8 June 2016.
  38. ^Close, Frank(8 June 2016)."Sir Tom Kibble, physicist obituary. One of the world's foremost theoretical physicists".The Guardian.
  39. ^Gauntlett, Jerome (10 June 2016)."Sir Tom Kibble: a tribute".Imperial College London.
  40. ^abSGR Sponsors
  41. ^Hassard, John; Kibble; Tom and Lewis, Patricia; (eds) (1989)Ways Out of the Arms Race: from the nuclear threat to mutual security.World Scientific, Singapore.
  42. ^"Arise Sir Tom!".Richmond Ramblers.Retrieved19 March2019.[permanent dead link]
  43. ^"Tom Kibble, UK physicist who worked on Higgs boson dies, says university".The Daily Telegraph.2 June 2016.Retrieved2 June2016.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toT. W. B. Kibble.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_Kibble&oldid=1226241928"