Edward Tryon
Edward Tryon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edward Polk Tryon September 4, 1940 (age 75) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Cornell University University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Proposing the idea that our universe originated from a quantum fluctuation of the vacuum |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | Columbia University Hunter College of the City University of New York |
| Doctoral advisor | Steven Weinberg |
Edward P. Tryon (born September 4, 1940)[1] is an American scientist and a professor emeritus of physics at Hunter College of the City University of New York.[2] He was the first physicist to say our universe originated as a quantum fluctuation of the vacuum.[3][4]
Early life
He was born and raised in Terre Haute, Indiana.[5] Soon after he took his first physics course in his junior year at Wiley High School, he knew he wanted to be a physicist.[6]
Academia and intellectual influences
He entered Cornell University in 1958. He was very influenced by Noble Laureate Hans Bethe, who was one of his professors. He was especially affected by some advice Bethe gave him. "Our intuition is based on our experiences in the macroscopic world. There is no reason to expect our intuition to be valid for microscopic phenomena".[7] He graduated from Cornell University in 1962, earning a bachelors in physics.[8] He would then go on to do his graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. Here he would be very much influenced by Steven Weinberg. He took courses he taught and would become a mentor to him.[9] His doctoral thesis would focus on the relationship between general relativity and quantum field theory.[10] His doctoral thesis was titled: "Classical and Quantum Field-Theoretic Derivations of Gravitational Theory."[11] He would graduate from the University of California, Berkeley with a PhD in physics in 1967.
Career at Columbia University
In 1967 he would begin working at Columbia University as a research assistant.[12] In 1968 he began working as an assistant professor for Columbia University and he would work at this university until 1971.[13]
Dennis Sciama and the idea that the universe is a vacuum fluctuation
In 1969 (some versions of this story say 1970), Tryon was at a lecture taking place at Columbia University being given by British cosmologist Dennis Sciama.[14] And when Sciama paused for a moment in his speaking, Tryon suddenly said out loud: "Maybe the universe is a vacuum fluctuation?"[15] Everyone laughed, assuming it was a joke.[16] He was embarrassed and so did not explain to anyone that this was not a joke. And Tryon says he only remembered this incident after he was reminded of it after he published a paper about this subject matter.[17]
Hunter College of the City University of New York
In 1971 Tryon left Columbia University and began working at Hunter College of the City University of New York.[18] He would spend the rest of his academic career teaching as a professor at Hunter College.
Is the universe a vacuum fluctuation
In the early 1970s, there was still a strong belief among physicist that no one could speak about what came before the Big Bang and stay within the boundaries of science.[19] It was almost universally accepted that no scientist could explain why there is something and not nothing. This was the scientific climate Tryon existed in as he was getting settled at working at Hunter College. And it was this environment Tryon existed in as he settled down to teaching at Hunter College. But soon after arriving at Hunter College he found himself doing a lot of research about all the modern views on how we see our universe.[20] And in studying all these ways we saw our universe, he thought he discovered a way it might have come into existence that no one had ever thought of. And he then wrote his idea up as a scientific paper and tried to get it published. He submitted his paper to Physical Review Letters, but they rejected it. He then sent it to the British scientific journal Nature, hoping it might be accepted as a "letter to the editor." An editor from the journal didn't just accept it, but decided to make it a feature article.[21]
Career
Tryon's specialization is in theoretical quark models, theoretical general relativity, and cosmology. In 1973, he proposed that the universe is a large-scale quantum fluctuation in vacuum energy. This is called vacuum genesis or the zero-energy universe hypothesis. He has been quoted as saying, "the universe is simply one of those things that happens from time to time."[22]
Works
- Tryon, Edward P. "Is the Universe a Vacuum Fluctuation?", in Nature, 246(1973), pp. 396–397.
References
- ^ Reynosa, Peter. "Why Isn't Edward P. Tryon A World-famous Physicist?". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
- ^ Reynosa, Peter. "Why Isn't Edward P. Tryon A World-famous Physicist?". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
- ^ Impey, Chris (2012). How it Began: A Time-Traveler's Guide to the Universe. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 411. ISBN 978-0-393-08002-5.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Tryon, Edward P. "Is the Universe a Vacuum Fluctuation?". Nature. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
- ^ Gribbon, John (1998). In Search of the Big Bang: The Life and Death of the Universe (New ed.). London: Penguin Books. p. 303. ISBN 0-14-026989-4.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Parker, Barry (1988). Creation: The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe. New York: Plenum Press. p. 186. ISBN 0-306-42952-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Parker, Barry (1988). Creation: The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe. New York: Plenum Press. pp. 186–187. ISBN 0-306-42952-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Gribbin, John (1998). In Search of the Big Bang: The Life and Death of the Universe (New ed.). London: Penguin Books. p. 303. ISBN 0-14-026989-4.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Parker, Barry (1988). Creation: The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe. New York: Plenum Press. pp. 187–188. ISBN 0-306-42952-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Parker, Barry (1988). Creation: The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe. New York: Plenum Press. p. 188. ISBN 0-306-42952-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ "Classical and Quantum Field-Theoretic Derivations of Gravitational Theory". Harvard Education. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
- ^ Reynosa, Peter. "Why Isn't Edward P. Tryon A World-famous Physicist?". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
- ^ Reynosa, Peter. "Why Isn't Edward P. Tryon A World-famous Physicist?". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
- ^ Guth, Alan H. (1997). The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins. New York: Basic Books. p. 12. ISBN 0-201-14942-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Gribbin, John (1986). In Search of the Big Bang: The Life and Death of the Universe. London: Penguin Books. p. 304. ISBN 0-14-026989-4.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Vilenkin, Alex (2006). Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes. New York: Hill and Wang. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-8090-9523-0.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Parker, Barry (1988). Creation: The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe. New York: Plenum Press. p. 189. ISBN 0-306-42952-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Parker, Barry (1988). Creation: The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe. New York: Plenum Press. p. 189. ISBN 0-306-42952-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Chaisson, Eric (1981). Cosmic Dawn: The Origins of Matter and Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 42. ISBN 0-393-30587-2.
- ^ Parker, Barry (1988). Creation: The Story of the Origin and Evolution of the Universe. New York: Plenum Press. pp. 189–190. ISBN 0-306-42952-7.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Guth, Alan H. (1997). The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins. New York: Perseus Publishing. p. 271. ISBN 0-201-14942-7.
- ^ Holt, Jim (1994). "Nothing Ventured" DBanach.com (accessed August 21, 2006)
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