Eugene P. Wigner - in the light of unexpected events

1. Eugene P. Wigner- in the light of unexpected events László Koblinger Wigner 111 Scientific Symposium – Budapest, 2013.

2. 1963: Nobel Prize for Physics „for his contribution to the theory of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles, first of all for the discovery and application of the fundamental symmetry principles” • nuclear engineering: an intermezzo

3. Personal interest: • Monte Carlo methods: • random processes • randomness in other areas (music!) • in everyday life • selection for prizes…

4. 1963: Nobel Prize for Physics • Comments in newspapers • results • personality • polite, modest • Lectures in Budapest • Oak Ridge • colleagues memories • nice, polite, modest

5. TV interview (HU) • Concentrating on nuclear… • Contrast Wigner vs. Reporter • „surprising event” of the chain-reaction • „atomic age” • „greatest invention” • Inherent kindness + irony

6. V. Telegdi – asking help (Phys. Rev.) Wigner: „I can’t do anything at the American Physical Society, I am only the president there” Nobel Prize comment: Wigner: not expected „I never expected to get my name in the newspapers without doing something wicked”

8. Education Lutheran secondary school (Gimnázium) (László Rátz) Interest: Mathematics, Physics Practical reasons: Chemical engineering (in Berlin) Work: in a leather factory (tannery), Budapest

9. Invitations (unexpected?): Berlin (assistant professor of physics) Göttingen (assistant to Hilbert) Princeton Theoretical physics Turning point (unexpected?) World War II

10. „Thoughts of being murdered focus your mind wonderfully” 1st action: translation of the Einstein-Szilárd letter Manhattan project • work connected to the first reactor (pile) • work with Fermi in Chicago • „first nuclear reactor engineer” (A. Weinberg)

11. (Charles Barton’s blog) „…theoretical physicists usually think in terms of very large scale entities and events, or in terms ofvery small scale entities or events. Chemical engineers think of intermediate, human scale objects and events.” „Wigner was a great deal more that a chemical engineer.”  

12. Fermi reactor: • reactor: no cooling, no shielding Hanford: plutonium production • Cooling: „Helium, which absorbed no neutrons at all, was the coolant of choice at first, but Hungarian theoretical physicist Eugene Wigner, trained as an engineer, held out for water despite its neutron-scavenging propensities because it would be simpler and thus faster to engineer.” (Richard Rhodes: Hanford and History,B Reactor 60th Anniversary Banquet Address, 2004)

13. „Wigner and his team had completed a task of almost unbelievable proportions, perhaps without equal in the annals of science and engineering.” „Wigner’s personal imprint was on every aspect of the design.” (F. Seitz, E. Vogt and A. Weinberg: E.P.Wigner)

14. „When duPont drawings came, it was very important – with due respect to duPont – that we reviewed them.” (cited in: J.Mehra: Eugen Paul Wigner: A Biographical Sketch) „I think DuPont never quite trusted any of Wigner’s group… To be blunt, Wigner didn’t trust DuPont either” (A. Weinberg:The First Nuclear Era )

15. Legacy of Wigner – for present nuclear engineers Wigner effect (discomposition effect) - Windscale fire Breit-Wigner formula „Wigner designed a water-cooled, water-moderated converter … making him the grandfather of today's research reactors, naval reactors, and nuclear power plants” (ORNL Review, Vol. 36. No. 1, 2003)