Dr. Hideki Yukowa
Received noble prize for his prediction of the existence of Mesons.
Year- 1949 Field- physics Prize share- 1:1
Prize motivation: his prediction of the existence of Mesons.
Who was Hideki Yukowa?
A Japanese theoretical physicist ( i.e he used mathematical models instead of experimental tools to predict natural phenomena) , who, for his love of research, became the First Japanese Nobel laureate.
Which field of physics he loved?
From the years of his graduation, he developed interests in Theory of Elementary particles.
In 1935, he published his research paper titled, “ On the Interaction of Elementary Particles” , wherein he predicted the existence of mesons.
Why was he awarded the Nobel prize?
In 1947, Cecil Powell Powell, Giuseppe Occhialini and Cesar Lattes , conducted successful experiments and discovered mesons, proving Yukowa’s prediction true.
This became the prize motivation for his work.
Why should we recognise him?
Nobel Prizes have large social impacts. After its terrible defeat in WWII, Yukowa’s nobel prize was a major encouragement for Japan’s scientific community. This award was a positive and prestigious recognition of Japan in the world.
At present, aged 114 he rests peacefully in his tomb at Kyoto, Japan.
Hideki Yukawa:
Yun-“ I was in the crowd. I clapped from the crowd. My hands striking each other, but the pain in palms, produced the melodious appraise for him. But he never at once looked.”,
Kid-“Look in the camera and say, Sir. Here, see my hands waving. Look at them and speak”
Tamao-“ As a drop of a huge wave, which amounts to it but solely has no character, your applause got blended in the huge roar of cheers in the auditorium. How could he have seen you?”
Yun-“When is this time you both are talking about?”
Tamao-“1949, when Hideki Yukawa was awarded the Nobel prize.”
Yun-“ Not to forget ,the first Japanese to win one.”
Tamao-“ Is your camera rolling and recording or are we just wasting our fishes here?”
Kid-“It is. I have a list of questions and you can answer them. How you know Hideki?”
Tamao-“ The verb admiration for me and jealousy for him. We three were friends.”
Kid-“You were jealous of Hideki?”
Yun-“Tch..Tch...Tch….Are..”
Kid-“You are jealous of Hideki?”
Yun-“ Pompously. You studied physics in college?”
Kid-“Just basic, not deep.”
Yun-“Coulomb's potential, inverse distance law. That is for electrostatic forces. Similarly in the nucleus, you know the nucleus?”
Kid-“It's inside an atom. Electrons, neutrons and protons, I can recall.”
Yun-“In nucleus, are nucleons. They are attracted with very strong, short range forces. This force is the Yukawa force.”
Tamao-“ He has a Yukawa potential and a Yukawa force named after him. He became immortal, didn't he? Thus and thus the jealousy.”
Kid-“ Why was he awarded the nobel?”
Yun-“Huh”
Kid-“Why Mr Hideki, was given the Nobel ?”
Yun-“Huh”
Kid-“Aargh.. Why, Hideki Yukawa became a Nobel Prize laureate?”
Yun-“Nobel is not your silly Oscars, which you win just by monkey dancing and crow singing in front of camera….”
Tamao-“ Psst..He hates Americans. He is from Hiroshima. I loved Titanic though..”
Yun-“Nobel, you earn by years of discipline alike sun, and for a theoretical physicist like Yukawa, all depends on theory being proved correct experimentally…..You spell Nobel like a swear word….”
Kid-“You admire or envy Hideki?”
Yun-“Movie’s about me or Hideki. If it goes like this I will not continue. No more personal questions. Tamao, tell him about mesons.”
Tamao-“Hideki predicted the existence of pi mesons. We will walk you through time.”
Yun-“Before 1932, all scientists, even us, believed two theories.
There are just two fundamental forces; the gravitational and electromagnetic.
Existence of just two elementary particles, the proton and the electron and both inside nucleus.
Who were neutrons, quarks, mesons, neutrinos then? “
Kid-“ What happened in 1932 ?”
Tamao“ In 1932 Chadwick, James discovered neutron. This led to turmoil in nuclear physics.”
Yun-“ Heisenberg, Tamao was a dear friend of his, gave a model. He proposed that the strong nuclear force between proton and neutron was due to exchange of electrons.”
Tamao-“Kid, you should understand this, there are strong nuclear forces between protons and neutrons and a carrier is needed for such force. But till then ,no explanation could be given and dear Heisenberg, considered electrons to be that carrier.”
Yun-“ This model, though solving some,created more problems. Most influential was that, during study of beta decay spectra, conservation of momentum and energy were ignored.
Scientists,even we, believed these laws became invalid at a nuclear level.”
Tamao-“ But years before, I guess 1930 was it, Pauli faced the same problem of conservation. He suggested a zero charge, half spin and small mass particle, to explain beta decay.”
Yun-“ Scientists however, could not affirm the existence of an unobserved particle , rather believed more in physical laws breaking at a final scale.”
Tamao-“ Fermi, was unlike us. He believed what Pauli proposed, and in 1933, gave a theory on the existence of this particle and called it ‘neutrino’.”
Yun-“This theory proved to be satisfying. So neutrino lifted from the status of a hypothesis to acceptance.”
Tamao-“Still the question of forces between nucleons laid ahead of us, and we in all our fancy cars could not chase it.”
Yun-“Our friend Yukawa, comes into light here. You kid, what, are a filmmaker. You must know how before introducing the protagonist, the plot is well explained.”
Tamao-“That was the plot, here's what you are filming for.”
Yun-“Yukawa proposed the existence of another unobserved particle, mass whose was 200 times of electron, and who was the carrier of strong force between nucleons.”
Tamao-“Yukawa potential,
U= g2e-km/r , he proposed this.”
Yun-“ 1935, he published this theory, but as it happened, it went unnoticed for 2 straight years.”
Tamao-“ We laughed at the theory. We both remember, giggling at it. For us and other theory physicists, it was distasteful to introduce a new imaginary particle, to explain some phenomenon.”
Yun-“ We wanted some crispy theory,a revolutionised theory that explained the violation of conservation laws.”
Tamao-“ We were laughing with closed minds and in closed rooms. This laughter echoed back to us when in 1937, a new particle, mass between electron and proton, was found during cosmic rays observation.”
Yun-“Yukawa and others went after this particle and it was pleasing Yukawa’s theoretical predictions. His theory was accepted, and the particle was christened Mesotron / Meson.”
Tamao-“So scientists, such as a sheep who just follows the one in front, now began researching on, before unaccepted, Meson theory.”
Yun-“ A problem arose. This mesotron could not satisfy all the theoretical predictions.”
Tamao-“ Yukawa, then gave another proposal. Existence of mesons of two types, and the one he wanted was still playing hide and seek with us.”
Yun-“ This time we did not laugh, but were not serious either. First you propose one, you don't get, then you propose another. You are talking of atoms, dear friend, not some magician’s hat.”
Tamao-“Who said physics is not magic? 1947 and group of scientists, after almost a decade, discovered the meson predicted by Yukawa. It was named pi meson/pion.Pion turned out to be the carrier of nuclear force between nucleons and….”
Yun-“ and 1949, just two years after, he received the Nobel Prize. I was in the auditorium clapping, and he did not notice me.”
Kid-“ You both proud of him?”
Yun-“ 1939-45, the black years of ww2. Lives lost, lands burnt, economies collapsed. Japan supported the Axis. Kid, you know Axis power ?”
Kid-“I’m afraid ,no. “
Yun-“ We lived through WWII, and you can’t even study. You should. Italy,Germany and Japan were major axis powers. And after we lost WWII, we had not so good reputation”
Tamao-“Yukawa winning an international award, gave prestigious global recognition to Japan. A major encouragement for Japanese scientific community.”
Kid-“What you do now?”
Yun-“We both are professors.”
Kid-“Where?”
Yun-“At Kyoto University.The last question I’m answering.”
Tamao-“Come on, don’t mask it now. We both are professors at Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University.”