F J Dyson
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F J Dyson∗ The Man Who Would Make Patterns and Disturb the Universe Patrick Das Gupta
Freeman J. Dyson, a brilliant theoretical physicist and a gifted mathematician, passed away on 28 February 2020 at the age of 96. A vignette of his outstanding contributions to physical sciences, ranging from the subject of quantum electrodynamics to gravitational waves, is provided in this article. Dyson’s futuristic ideas concerning the free will of ‘intelligent life’ influencing the remote future of the cosmos with ‘Eternal Intelligence’, Dyson tree, Dyson sphere and so on, have also been discussed briefly.
Patrick Das Gupta is currently researching on the generation of gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from dyon-dyon bound systems. He is also actively studying the
1 Introduction Let me begin with some curious observations: A brilliant young person after publishing research papers of significance in pure mathematics, moved over to physics and, within a year or so, published a far-reaching article that would continue to guide future theories. This gem of a research paper synthesized, in a very elegant manner, discordant formalisms propounded independently by three other outstanding theoretical physicists, who later shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work. With time, our bright and innovative protagonist kept trotting peripatetically in the realm of physical sciences from one field to another. Several distinct scientific ideas are named after him in the area of physical sciences. To top it all, this individual never had an official PhD degree. How often, in the history of science, does one encounter such a sequence of events?
formation of supermassive black holes from the gravitational collapse of Bose–Einstein condensates of ultra-light bosons like axions. The topic of Fast Radio Bursts is another area in which he is at present carrying out some investigations.
Keywords Dyson,
QED,
ferromagnets,
Dyson-bound.
The immensely gifted person, I am referring to, is none other
∗
Vol.25, No.10, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-020-1054-3
RESONANCE | October 2020
1319
GENERAL ARTICLE
than Freeman John Dyson, who sadly left this world on 28 February 2020. Freeman Dyson was born in England to Mildred Lucy Atkey and George Dyson on 15 December 1923. It is generally acknowledged that Dyson’s father, Sir George, had been a very talented composer as well as a teacher-musician. Freeman Dyson excelled in his school studies and at the age of twelve, he moved to Winchester College after winning the first position in a scholarship test in 1936. While he was vigorously pursuing mathematics, concentrating on his favourite subject, number theory, Dyson had already studied Eddington’s The Mathematical Theory of Relativity by 1939.
“You’ll have received an application from Mr. Freeman Dyson to come to work with you as a graduate student. I hope that you will accept him. Although he is only 23 he is in my view the best mathematician in England.” – Geoffrey Ingram Taylor to Hans Bethe.
In 1941, Dyson
