 | Vernon W. Hughes |
Vernon W. Hughes, Sterling Professor Emeritus and elementary particle physicist, died on March 25 in New Haven at age 82.
Professor Hughes' career involved a broad spectrum of studies of physical phenomena ranging from very low to very high energy. His work consistently maintained the theme of understanding the physics of elementary particles and their interactions at the most fundamental level.
During World War II, he helped develop radar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Radiation Laboratory and was one of the co-editors of a volume of the Radiation Laboratory Series titled "Waveforms," a contribution that played a significant role in the development of the American electronics industry.
"He was never satisfied until he fully understood whatever phenomenon he studied," said D. Allan Bromley, Sterling Professor of the Sciences. "Hughes educated a generation of students who have become leaders in the international scientific community. He will be much missed worldwide by all his friends and collaborators, most especially by his colleagues at Yale who admired his endless supply of energy, drive and unyielding persistence."
Professor Hughes conducted extensive studies of the simple positronium atom (a hydrogen-like atom consisting of a positive and negative electron pair) and helium (an atom with two electrons).
The physicist was particularly well known for his study of atomic and particle physics using experiments with muonium, the atom formed by an electron bound to an elementary particle called the muon. Professor Hughes made the first observation of this fundamental atom in 1960. His experiments, evolved with precision measurements of the influences of magnetic fields on the atom, led to an improved measurement of the magnetic properties on the muon, and matured to extremely precise measurements. These 35 years of experimentation verified to high precision that the muon is a "heavy electron" and provided new avenues into the experimental study of quantum electrodynamics. This also created a tool to probe the highest energy scales of elementary particle physics.
Professor Hughes originated the use of polarized electrons in high-energy accelerators, another field of great importance. In the more common unpolarized beams, the individual electrons spin around themselves -- as the Earth does every 24 hours -- around axes of rotation that are randomly oriented. In a polarized beam they preferentially point in one direction. The existence of this preferred direction then allows for a whole new array of possible measurements.
Professor Hughes' interest in polarized electron beams began in 1959, and he developed the first polarized source for the Stanford two-mile accelerator. He made the first measurements of the internal structure of the proton that revealed not only the particles within, but also their spin, and the historic observation of parity non-conservation (the fact that nature distinguishes between an experiment and its mirror image). The recent successes of the Stanford Linear collider experiments are directly traceable to Professor Hughes' seminal work.
The researcher's pioneering work also opened the field of nuclear physics to investigations with polarized electrons at low-energy accelerators. He and collaborators at the Bates Linear Accelerator performed the first such experiment in this country that observed parity violation in polarized electron-carbon elastic scattering.
Professor Hughes led a large collaboration at the European accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland, in investigations in employing polarized muons scattering from polarized neutrons and protons. This work was stimulated by the "proton spin crisis" first observed by Professor Hughes and his group, and led to more complete understanding of the relationship between the nature of the constituents of the proton and its spin.
Most recently, Professor Hughes conceived of and led an experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory to greatly improve the measurement of magnetic properties of the muon. This quantity embodies knowledge of the interactions of elementary particles in one parameter. It has long served as a crucial parameter with which scientists can test new ideas in particle physics.
Born in Kankakee, Illinois on May 28, 1921, Vernon Hughes attended Columbia University, where he received a master's degree in 1941 and a Ph.D. in 1950. His sponsor was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, I.I. Rabi. His thesis, which he worked on with L. Grabner, observed for the first time a phenomenon involving the interaction of light with molecules. Hughes' work was a pioneering investigation of effects, which are important factors in modern laser studies of the properties of light and matter.
He was on the Yale faculty from 1954 until his retirement in 1991. He held a Sterling Professorship, the highest honor that Yale can bestow. He was chair of the physics department from 1961 to 1966 and presided over a large expansion of the department. His many honors include membership in the National Academy of Sciences, an honorary doctorate from the University of Heidelberg, and both the Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic Physics and the Tom R. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society.
Professor Hughes was predeceased by his first wife, Inge, and is survived by his second wife, Miriam, and two sons, Gareth of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Emlyn of Pasadena, California; and four grandchildren, Ariel, Isaac, Noah and Inge Jovana.
Contributions towards a fellowship for graduate students in Professor Hughes' name may be sent to Ramamurti Shankar, chair of Physics Department. P.O. Box 208120, New Haven, CT 06520-8120.
T H I S
Pioneering physicist and Sterling Professor
Vernon Hughes dies
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