How is it possible to place myself next to Einstein?

This lunch meeting took place at a seafood restaurant near Princeton in 1991. While in Berlin, in 1928, Wigner had this photo with Werner Heisenberg.

I never met Einstein personally. On the other hand, I am able to build my bridge to Einstein using one of the papers published by Eugene Paul Wigner.

Einstein's name is well known to everybody in the world. Wigner's name is well known among physicists but not widely known to the public.

When I was a student at Princeton, I became interested in one of Wigners's papers published in 1939. This paper was highly mathematical and was published in the Annals of Mathematics.

1. I explained how this paper enables us to extend Einstein's theory of relativity to the inner world of particles.

   When Einstein formulated his theory of relativity, all the particles were point particles. The hydrogen atom was small enough to be regarded as a point particle. However, this small atom has a non-zero radius with very rich internal structure, which eventually led to the present form of quantum mechanics.

2. I used this extended Einstein's theory to explain the quark-parton puzzle: while the proton at rest is a bound state of three quarks (Gell-Mann), it appears like a collection of an infinite number of partons (Feynman) when it moves with a speed close to that of light. for detailed explanations.

Yet, I managed to do enough work to make Eugene Wigner happy to become known as Wigner's youngest student. Here is my last photo with Wigner taken in 1991.

1. He was one of the six Hungarian-born physicists who developed the nuclear bomb during World War II. He studied chemical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin.

2. Wigner was particularly interested in symmetry problems in crystals. This interest later became his interest in translational symmetry in "inhomogeneous" Lorentz group.

3. He was interested in symmetry problems in atoms, and talked occasionally with Werner Heisenberg who developed quantum mechanics. Here is his photo with Heisenberg.

4. In 1930, Wigner came to Princeton University. In 1936, he had to go to the University of Wisconsin. In 1938, he was rehired by Princeton University.

   Here are important dates. Wigner submitted his 1939 paper on the inhomogeneous Lorentz group in 1937 from the University of Wisconsin. This means that Wigner started his research on this long paper while at Princeton, but

   Princeton did not like what he was doing.

5. In 1938, Wigner came back to Princeton. I do not know exactly why Princeton decided to invite him back, but I assume their decision was influenced by John von Neumann who came to Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study in 1933. Wigner and von Neumann attended the same high school in Budapest (Hungary). I visited their high school in 1988, and here are photos from that high school.

6. I wrote many papers based on this Wigner's 1939 paper. There were enough people who disliked my papers. This caused the delay of my promotions in the academic ranks by 20 years. This delay is not inconsistent with the punishments Wigner received.

Einstein received his Nobel prize in 1921, but not for E = mc².

The problem was and still is why the Nobel Committee did not give credits to his formulation of special relativity leading to his E = mc ². This question is still debated in the physics literature.

from the Reviews of Modern Physics (October 1962)

We do not know how the Committee's decision was made, but it is safe to assume that the committee members examined carefully the special issue of the Reviews of Modern Physics dedicated to Eugene Paul Wigner on his 60th Birthday. You may click here for this issue. If your computer cannot reach this journal, you may click here for the cover and contents pages of this issue.

In this issue, Paul A. M. Dirac is the only author who mentioned Wigner's

1939 paper on the inhomogeneous Lorentz group.

Dirac mentioned this paper in general terms, but he did not discuss Wigner's little groups carrying specific physical interpretations. No other authors in this issue mentioned this paper.

Thus, we cannot blame the Nobel Committee for not mentioning this paper as Wigner's major contribution. Wigner was happy to receive his Nobel prize, but not 100-percent happy because he did not receive the full credit for the paper dearest to his heart.

I told Wigner that he deserved one full Nobel prize for his 1939 paper on his little groups governing the

internal pace-time symmetries in the Lorentz-covariant world.

I presented to him the following table, which I published in J. Math. Phys. (1986), with my younger colleagues (D. Han and D. Son).

Contents of Einstein's E = mc2

Paricle Variables Massive/Slow between Massless/Fast

Einstein Energy Momentum E=p2/2m Einstein's E=(m2 + p2)1/2 E= cp

Wigner Helicity Spin, Gauge S3 S1 S2 Winner's Little Group Helicity Gauge Trans.

There cannot be any disputes on one full Nobel for Einstein's row on the energy-momentum relation in the above table. Likewise, Wigner deserved one full Nobel for his row on the spin-helicity-gauge. This was exactly what Wigner wanted to hear.

Who were Wightman and Michel?

I must have been close to both Michel and Wightman because I took these photos with my cameras. They became quite upset when I approached Wigner directly without their clearance.

1. Arthur Wightman was a professor of physics when I was a graduate student at Princeton (1958-61), and I learned the Lorentz group in his class. He took over the Jones professorship after Wigner formally retired from the University. He liked me and I still like him. However, he behaved like King Herod on this issue.

   Since he sent me a letter telling me the above table is wrong, he must have told Wigner the same story. Wigner and Wightman had their offices in the same building (Jadwin Hall at Princeton University).

2. Louis Michel was the most respected French mathematical physicist, who also made a major contribution in neutrino physics, known as the Michel parameters. I also learned the Wigner stuff from Michel when he gave a series of lectures at the Univ. of Maryland.

3. Wigner thanks both Michel and Wightman in the English version of his book entitled "Group Theory and Its Applications to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra." Thus, they had enough reason to regard themselves as the guardians of the Wigner Castle and to get upset when I approached Wigner without their permission. They were OK. I still like them. They deserve their Herod complexes, and I also enjoy my own Herod complex.

   John S. Toll used become very happy when Wigner came to the Univ. of Maryland. This photo was taken in 1986 at the presidential mansion.

4. There were some other characters who attempted to destroy my approach to Wigner, but they are not worth mentioning. In spite of all those noises, I enjoyed the full support from John S. Toll, who was the president of my university at that time. He used to become very happy whenever Wigner came to his campus at my invitation.

5. Who was John S. Toll? He was John A. Wheeler's student at Princeton. From Princeton in 1953, He came directly to the Univ. of Maryland to become the chairman of the physics department. He hired me as an assistant professor in 1962. I was a young man at that time looking like a graduate student.

   The best thing John Toll did for me was to assign me as a personal servant to Paul A. M. Dirac in 1962 when he visited Maryland for two weeks. Click here to see what I learned from Dirac at that time.

at the Birthplace of E = mc2 in Bern (Switzerland 2014) If I sing Einstein, who will listen? Click here!