Myron Mathisson

Myron Mathisson (December 4, 1897 – September 13, 1940) was a theoretical physicist of Polish and Jewish descent. He is known for his work in general relativity, for developing a new method to analyze the properties of fundamental solutions of linear hyperbolic partial differential equations, and proved, in a special case, the Hadamard conjecture on the class of equations that satisfy the Huygens principle.

Myron Mathisson
Born	Myron Mathisson 4 December 1897 Warsaw, Poland
Died	13 September 1940 (aged 42) Cambridge, United Kingdom
Citizenship	Poland, France, United Kingdom
Known for	Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equations
Scientific career
Fields	Theoretical Physics General relativity Hebrew translator Engineer
Institutions	University of Kazan University of Warsaw Jagiellonian University

Life and work

Education

Mathisson was born in Warsaw, 4 December 1897. He graduated from a Russian philological gymnasium with a gold medal in 1915. He began his studies at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology. Then, from 1917 he studied at the University of Warsaw where he graduated in 1924 under the guidance of Czesław Białobrzeski.

Military service

Between the years 1918–1919 he served in the military.

Physics research

In 1930, earned his doctorate at the University of Warsaw on the work of Sur le movement tournant d'un corps dans un champ de gravitation, and began to live there in 1932. He became a professor at the University of Kazan in 1936. The following year, he returned to Warsaw. He corresponded with Albert Einstein. In the years 1937–1939, he worked at the Jagiellonian University, under Jan Weyssenhoff.

His works have been recognized by Wacław Dziewulski. Niels Bohr invited him to Copenhagen. In 1939 he went to Paris, where he met with Jacques Hadamard, and to Cambridge, where he met with Paul Dirac who was impressed enough to publish his recent work posthumously, and to post his obituary.[1]

In chronological order; M. Mathisson,[2] A. Papapetrou,[3] and W. G. Dixon[4] contributed to the derivation of the equations for a spinning body moving in a gravitational field, now known as the Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equations.

Other work

Due to financial difficulties, Mathisson had to work as a Hebrew translator, as a draftsman producing technical drawings, and engineering calculations of the statics of reinforced concrete structures.

Mathisson died of tuberculosis in Cambridge, on 13 September 1940.

Publications

During his short lifetime, he published the following 12 scientific papers:

• — (1931). "Die Beharrungsgesetze in der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie". Zeitschrift für Physik (in German). 67 (3–4): 270–277. Bibcode:1931ZPhy...67..270M. doi:10.1007/BF01394605.
• — (1931). "Die Mechanik des Materieteilchens in der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie". Zeitschrift für Physik (in German). 67 (11–12): 826–844. Bibcode:1931ZPhy...67..826M. doi:10.1007/BF01390764.
• — (1931). "Bewegungsproblem in der Physik und Elektronenkonstanten". Zeitschrift für Physik (in German). 69 (5–6): 389–408. Bibcode:1931ZPhy...69..389M. doi:10.1007/BF01391361.
• — (1933). "Eine Lösungsmethode für Differentialgleichungen vom normalen hyperbolischen Typus". Mathematische Annalen (in German). 107 (1): 400–419. doi:10.1007/BF01448901.
• — (1933). "Eine neue Integrationsmethode für Differentialgleichungen von normalem hyperbolischem Typus". Mathematische Annalen (in German). 107 (1): 648. doi:10.1007/BF01448913.
• — (1934). "Die Parametrixmethode in Anwendung auf hyperbolische Gleichungssysteme" (PDF). Prace Matematyczno-Fizyczne (in German). 41 (1): 177–185.
• — (1937). "Neue Mechanik materieller Systeme". Acta Physica Polonica (in German). 6: 163–209.
• — (1937). "Das zitternde Elektron und seine Dynamik". Acta Physica Polonica (in German). 6: 218–224.
• — (1939). "Le problème de M. Hadamard relatif à la diffusion des ondes". Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris (in French). 208: 1776–1778.
• — (1939). "Le problème de M. Hadamard relatif à la diffusion des ondes". Acta Mathematica (in French). 71 (1): 249–282. doi:10.1007/BF02547756.
• With Bielecki, A. & Weyssenhoff, J. W. (1939). "Sur un théorème concernant une transformation d'intégrales quadruples en intégrales curvilignes dans l'espace de Riemann". Bulletin International de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences et Lettres de Cracovie, Classe des Sciences Mathématiques et Naturelles, Section A (in French): 22–28. JFM 65.1415.01.
• — (1940). "The variational equation of relativistic dynamics". Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 36 (3): 331–350. Bibcode:1940PCPS...36..331M. doi:10.1017/S0305004100017370.
• — (1942). "Relativistic dynamics of a spinning magnetic particle". Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 38 (1): 40–60. Bibcode:1942PCPS...38...40M. doi:10.1017/S0305004100022210.

See also

• Józef Lubański

References

1. Dirac, P. A. M. (1940). "Dr. M. Mathisson". Nature. 146 (3706): 613. Bibcode:1940Natur.146..613D. doi:10.1038/146613b0.
2. Mathisson, M. (1937). "Neue Mechanik materieller Systeme". Acta Physica Polonica. 6: 163–209.
3. Papapetrou, A. (1951). "Spinning Test-Particles in General Relativity. I". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A. 209 (1097): 248–258. Bibcode:1951RSPSA.209..248P. doi:10.1098/rspa.1951.0200.
4. Dixon, W. G. (1970). "Dynamics of Extended Bodies in General Relativity. I. Momentum and Angular Momentum". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A. 314 (1519): 499–527. Bibcode:1970RSPSA.314..499D. doi:10.1098/rspa.1970.0020.

Further reading

• Lucia, U. (2005), "Myron Mathisson", in O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (eds.), MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
• Bartnik, E. A. "A short history of Theoretical Physics at Hoza 69..." Warsaw University.
• Sauer, T.; Trautman, A. (2008). "Myron Mathisson: What little we know of his life". arXiv:0802.2971 [physics.hist-ph].
• Eisenstaedt, J.; Kox, A. J. (1992). Studies in the History of General Relativity. Einstein Studies. Vol. 3. Springer. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-817-634-797.