:Ben Roy Mottelson

{{Short description|American-Danish nuclear physicist (1926–2022)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Ben Roy Mottelson

| image = Mottelson,Ben 1963 Kopenhagen.jpg

| caption = Mottelson 1963 in Copenhagen

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|7|9|df=y}}

| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|05|13|1926|7|9|df=y}}

| death_place = Copenhagen, Denmark

| citizenship = American, Danish

| field = Nuclear physics

| work_institutions = Nordita

| alma_mater = Purdue University (BS)
Harvard University (PhD)

| doctoral_advisor = Julian Schwinger

| thesis_title = The ground states of lithium-6 and lithium-7

| thesis_year = 1950

| thesis_url = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/76993144

| known_for = Geometry of atomic nuclei

| prizes = Atoms for Peace Award (1969)
John Price Wetherill Medal (1974)
Nobel Prize in Physics (1975)
Marian Smoluchowski Medal (1980)

| spouse = Nancy Jane Reno (1948–1975; 3 children)
{{marriage|Britta Marger Siegumfeldt|1983}}

}}

Ben Roy Mottelson (9 July 1926 – 13 May 2022) was an American-Danish nuclear physicist. He won the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the non-spherical geometry of atomic nuclei.

Early life

Mottelson was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 9 July 1926, the son of Georgia (Blum) and Goodman Mottelson, an engineer. His family was Jewish.{{Cite web |title=Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Physics |url=https://www.jinfo.org/Nobels_Physics.html |access-date=2023-03-29 |website=www.jinfo.org}} After graduating from Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Illinois, he joined the United States Navy and was sent to attend officers training at Purdue University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1947. He then earned a PhD in nuclear physics from Harvard University in 1950. His thesis adviser was Julian Schwinger, the theoretical physicist who later won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his work on quantum electrodynamics.

Career

He moved to Institute for Theoretical Physics (later the Niels Bohr Institute) at the University of Copenhagen on the Sheldon Traveling Fellowship from Harvard, and remained in Denmark. In 1953 he was appointed staff member in CERN's Theoretical Study Group, which was based in Copenhagen,{{Cite web|url = http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/User:Ben_Mottelson | publisher=Scholarpedia | access-date=11 June 2015|title = Prof. Ben Mottelson}} a position he held until he became professor at the newly formed Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita) in 1957. He was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley in Spring 1959.{{cite web|title=Ben R. Mottelson – Biographical|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1975/mottelson-bio.html|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date=1 June 2017}} In 1971 he became a naturalized Danish citizen.{{Cite news |date=16 May 2022 |title=Ben Roy Mottelson er død |trans-title=Ben Roy Mottelson has died |work=Politiken |agency=Ritzau |url=https://politiken.dk/indland/art8773884/Ben-Roy-Mottelson-er-d%C3%B8d |access-date=16 May 2022}}

In 1950–1951, James Rainwater and Aage Bohr had developed models of the atomic nucleus which began to take into account the behaviour of the individual nucleons. These models, which moved beyond the simpler liquid drop treatment of the nucleus as having effectively no internal structure, were the first models which could explain a number of nuclear properties, including the non-spherical distribution of charge in certain nuclei. Mottelson worked with Aage Bohr to compare the theoretical models with experimental data. In 1952–1953, Bohr and Mottelson published a series of papers demonstrating close agreement between theory and experiment, for example showing that the energy levels of certain nuclei could be described by a rotation spectrum.{{cite journal|first1=Aage|last1=Bohr|author-link=Aage Bohr|title=The Coupling of Nuclear Surface Oscillations to the Motion of Individual Nucleons|year=1952|journal=Matematisk-fysiske Meddelelser|publisher=Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters|volume=26|issue=14|url=http://publ.royalacademy.dk/books/77/474?lang=en}}{{cite journal|first1=Aage|last1=Bohr|author-link=Aage Bohr|first2=Ben R.|last2=Mottelson|title=Collective and Individual-Particle aspects of Nuclear Structure|year=1953|journal=Matematisk-fysiske Meddelelser|publisher=Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters|volume=27|issue=16|url=http://publ.royalacademy.dk/books/76/460?lang=en}}{{cite journal |title=Interpretation of Isomeric Transitions of Electric Quadrupole Type |last1=Bohr |first1=Aage |last2=Mottelson |first2=Ben R. |journal=Physical Review |volume=89 |issue=1 |pages=316–317 | date=January 1953 |publisher=American Physical Society |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.89.316 |bibcode = 1953PhRv...89..316B }}{{cite journal |title=Rotational States in Even-Even Nuclei |last1=Bohr |first1=Aage |last2=Mottelson |first2=Ben R. |journal=Physical Review |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=717–719 | date=May 1953 |publisher=American Physical Society |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.90.717.2 |bibcode = 1953PhRv...90..717B }} This work stimulated new theoretical and experimental studies.

In the summer of 1957, David Pines visited Copenhagen, and introduced Bohr and Mottelson to the pairing effect developed in theories of superconductivity, which inspired them to introduce a similar pairing effect to explain the differences in the energy levels between even and odd atomic nuclei.{{cite journal | last1=Bohr | first1=A. | last2=Mottelson | first2=B. R. | last3=Pines | first3=D. | title=Possible Analogy between the Excitation Spectra of Nuclei and Those of the Superconducting Metallic State | journal=Physical Review | publisher=American Physical Society (APS) | volume=110 | issue=4 | date=15 May 1958 | issn=0031-899X | doi=10.1103/physrev.110.936 | pages=936–938| bibcode=1958PhRv..110..936B }}

=Nobel Prize (1975)=

Rainwater, Bohr and Mottelson were jointly awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection".[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1975/ Nobel prize citation]. Nobelprize.org. Retrieved on 18 February 2012.

=Post–Nobel Prize work=

Bohr and Mottelson continued to work together, publishing a two-volume monograph, Nuclear Structure. The first volume, Single-Particle Motion, appeared in 1969,{{cite book |last1=Bohr |first1=Aage |last2=Mottelson |first2=Ben R. |title=Nuclear structure |date=1969 |publisher=W.A. Benjamin |isbn=978-0-8053-1016-0}}{{cite journal |last1=Breit |first1=G. |title=Nuclear Structure, Vol. 1, Aage Bohr and Ben R. Mottelson |journal=Physics Today |date=September 1970 |volume=23 |issue=9 |pages=58–60 |doi=10.1063/1.3022342 |url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.3022342 |access-date=21 May 2022 |format=Book review|url-access=subscription }} and the second volume, Nuclear Deformations, in 1975.{{cite book |last1=Bohr |first1=Aage |last2=Mottelson |first2=Ben R. |title=Nuclear Structure: Volume II (Nuclear Deformations) |date=1975 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-8053-1016-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpofAQAAMAAJ |access-date=21 May 2022 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Breit |first1=Gregory |last2=Brown |first2=Gerald E. |title=Nuclear Structure, Vol. 2: Nuclear Deformations, A. Bohr and B. R. Mottelson |journal=Physics Today |date=March 1977 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=59–62 |doi=10.1063/1.3037453 |url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.3037453 |access-date=21 May 2022 |format=Book review |issn=0031-9228|url-access=subscription }}

Professor Mottelson was a member of the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.[http://www.thebulletin.org/content/about-us/board-of-sponsors Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – Board of Sponsors] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090420084037/http://www.thebulletin.org/content/about-us/board-of-sponsors |date=20 April 2009 }}. Thebulletin.org. Retrieved on 18 February 2012.

He was an honorary member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, a member of the American Philosophical Society,{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Ben+R.+Mottelson&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=31 March 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} and a foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences{{cite web|url=http://www.bas.org.bd/list-of-fellows/userslist.html |title=List of Fellows of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences |access-date=4 August 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415000333/http://www.bas.org.bd/list-of-fellows/userslist.html |archive-date=15 April 2010 }} and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.{{cite web|url=http://www.dnva.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40118|title=Gruppe 2: Fysikkfag (herunder astronomi, fysikk og geofysikk)|publisher=Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters|language=no|access-date=7 October 2010|archive-date=27 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927171005/http://www.dnva.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40118|url-status=dead}} In 1969, he received the Atoms for Peace Award.{{cite journal |last1=Marshak |first1=Robert E. |title=Atoms for Peace Awards: Six scientists are honored for their contributions in development of peaceful uses for the atom. |journal=Science |date=27 June 1969 |volume=164 |issue=3887 |pages=1496–1498 |doi=10.1126/science.164.3887.1496 |jstor=1726917 |pmid=17748526 |s2cid=4249080 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1726917 |access-date=21 May 2022 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }} He acted as director of ECT* (Trento, Italy) from 1993 to 1997.{{cite web |title=ECT* Past Directors |url=https://www.ectstar.eu/ect-past-directors/ |website=FBK ECT* |publisher=European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas |access-date=21 May 2022}}

Personal life

Mottelson was a dual citizen, as he held both Danish and American passports. He lived in Copenhagen. Mottelson was married to Nancy Jane Reno from 1948 until her death in 1975, and they had two sons and one daughter. Mottelson then married Britta Marger Siegumfeldt in 1983.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X6w-AQAAIAAJ&q=Britta+Marger+Siegumfeldt |title = MTI ki kicsoda|year = 2009|isbn = 978-963-17-8728-3}}

He died on 13 May 2022, in Copenhagen at the age of 95.{{cite web | url=https://www.bt.dk/samfund/ben-roy-mottelson-er-doed|title=Ben Roy Mottelson er død| date=16 May 2022|access-date=18 May 2022|publisher=BT.dk|lang=da}}{{Cite web|url=https://politiken.dk/indland/art8773884/Ben-Roy-Mottelson-er-død| publisher=Politiken|title=Dansk nobelprisvinder er død|lang=da|date=16 May 2022|access-date=17 May 2022}}{{cite news |last1=McClain |first1=Dylan Loeb |title=Ben Roy Mottelson Dies at 95; Shed Light on the Shape of Atoms |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/science/ben-roy-mottelson-dead.html |access-date=20 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=19 May 2022}}

References

External links

[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1975/press.html Nobel prize press release]
{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture "Elementary Modes of Excitation in the Nucleus" (11 December 1975)

Category:1926 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:21st-century American physicists

Category:American Nobel laureates

Category:American nuclear physicists

Category:Atoms for Peace Award recipients

Category:Danish Jews

Category:Danish Nobel laureates

Category:Danish nuclear physicists

Category:20th-century Danish physicists

Category:Fellows of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences