Charles W. Misner

Charles W. Misner

Born	(1932-06-13) June 13, 1932 Jackson, Michigan, United States
Fields	General relativity
Institutions	Princeton University University of Maryland
Alma mater	Princeton University
Doctoral advisor	John Wheeler
Doctoral students	Carl H. Brans Ralph F. Baierlein Lawrence C. Shepley Walter C. Hernandez Jr. Richard A. Isaacson Richard A. Matzner Vincent Moncrief C. V. Vishveshwara Samaresh C. Maitra Michael P. Ryan Jr. D. M. Chitre Leslie G. Fishbone Beverly K. Berger Reinhard A. Breuer Paul L. Chrzanowski James M. Nester James A. Isenberg William A. Hiscock Terrence J. Honan Mark D. Somers Christopher R. Stephens David R. Fiske Conrad Schiff
Known for	Gravitation Mixmaster universe Misner space ADM formalism
Notable awards	Guggenheim Fellowship^[1] Heineman Prize (1994)
Signature

Charles W. Misner (/ˈmɪsnər/; born June 13, 1932) is an American physicist and one of the authors of Gravitation. His specialties include general relativity and cosmology. His work has also provided early foundations for studies of quantum gravity and numerical relativity.

Biography

Academic training and university positions

Misner received his B.S. degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1952. He then moved to Princeton University where he earned an M.A. in 1954 and completed his Ph.D. in 1957. His dissertation, Outline of Feynman Quantization of General Relativity; Derivation of Field Equations; Vanishing of the Hamiltonian, was completed under John Wheeler.

Prior to completing his Ph.D., Misner joined the faculty of Princeton Physics Department with the rank of Instructor (1956–1959) and was subsequently promoted to assistant professor (1959–1963). In 1963 he moved to the University of Maryland, College Park as an associate professor and achieved full professor status there in 1966. Since 2000, Misner has been Professor Emeritus of Physics, which is part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland, where he continues to be a member of the Gravitation Theory Group. During his career, Misner advised 22 Ph.D. students primarily at Princeton and at the University of Maryland.

Misner has held visiting positions at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (also known as the Albert Einstein Institute); the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara; the Pontifical Academy of Cracow (Poland); the Institute for Physical Problems in Moscow (during the time of the Soviet Union); the California Institute of Technology, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge.

Research

Most of Misner's research falls into the area of general relativity, which describes the gravitational interactions of very massive bodies. He has contributed to the early understanding of cosmology where he was one of the first to point out the horizon problem, the role of topology in general relativity, quantum gravity, and numerical relativity. In the areas of cosmology and topology, he first studied the mixmaster universe, which he devised in an attempt to better understand the dynamics of the early universe, and developed a solution to the Einstein field equation that is now known as Misner space. Together with Richard Arnowitt and Stanley Deser, he published a Hamiltonian formulation of the Einstein equation that split Einstein's unified spacetime back into separated space and time. This set of equations, known as the ADM formalism, plays a role in some attempts to unify quantum mechanics with general relativity. It is also the mathematical starting point for most techniques for numerically solving Einstein's equations.

Books by Misner

Misner, Charles W.; Kip S. Thorne; John Archibald Wheeler (September 1973). Gravitation. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-0344-0.
Misner, Charles W.; Patrick A. Cooney (1991). Spreadsheet Physics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-16410-8.

References

↑ Charles W. Misner, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation

External links

Relativity

Special
relativity

Background	Principle of relativity Special relativity

Foundations	Frame of reference Speed of light Hyperbolic orthogonality Rapidity Maxwell's equations

Formulation	Galilean relativity Galilean transformation Lorentz transformation

Consequences	Time dilation Relativistic mass Mass–energy equivalence Length contraction Relativity of simultaneity Relativistic Doppler effect Thomas precession Relativistic disks

Spacetime	Light cone World line Spacetime diagram Biquaternions Minkowski space

General
relativity

Background	Introduction Mathematical formulation

Fundamental concepts	Special relativity Equivalence principle World line Riemannian geometry Minkowski diagram

Phenomena	Black hole Event horizon Frame-dragging Geodetic effect Lenses Singularity Waves Ladder paradox Twin paradox Two-body problem

Equations	ADM formalism BSSN formalism Einstein field equations Geodesic equation Friedmann equations Linearized gravity Post-Newtonian formalism Hamilton–Jacobi–Einstein equation

Advanced theories	Brans–Dicke theory Kaluza–Klein Mach's principle Quantum gravity

Solutions	Schwarzschild (interior) Reissner–Nordström Gödel Kerr Kerr–Newman Kasner Taub–NUT Milne Robertson–Walker pp-wave van Stockum dust Weyl−Lewis−Papapetrou

Scientists

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 65189047 LCCN: n90646387 ISNI: 0000 0001 1028 4324 GND: 133190811 SUDOC: 033270058 BNF: cb124152990 (data) MGP: 93783

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