SKYRME, Tony Hilton Royle v2

Published: 20 November, 2023  Author: admin

SKYRME_TONY_HILTON_ROYLE_v2

National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists under the guidance of the Royal Society's National Committee for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of TONY HILTON ROYLE SKYRME (1922 - 1987) Deposited in Birmingham University Library Compiled by Peter Harper and Timothy E Powell T9IS9 All rights reserved University of Bath H R Skyrme T NCUACS 10/3/89 The work of the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, and the production of this catalogue, are made possible by the support of the following societies and organisations: The Biochemical Society The British Library The .Gity..of Bath Pergamon Books The Royal Society The Geological Society The Institute of Physics The Royal Society of Chemistry The Society of Chemical Industry t HR Skyrme NCUACS 10/3/89 LIST OF CONTENTS Items INTRODUCTION SECTION NOTEBOOKS SECTION NOTES AND DRAFTS SECTION SECTION SECTION BIRMINGHAM PUBLICATIONS H R Skyrme T NCUACS 10/3/89 GENERAL INTRODUCTION PROVENANCE The material was received in May 1988 via Dr J E Bowcock, a colleague in the Department of Mathematics, University of Birmingham. OUTLINE OF THE CAREER OF T H R SKYRME Professor Tony Skyrme - an original thinker in nuclear died in June 1987 at the age of 64. At Harwell in the 1950s he put Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme was born in Lewisham on Royal Society's Hughes Medal for his contributions to theoretical, particle and nuclear physics. particle physics’. It was only from about 1983 that the significance physics who gave his name to a type of fundamental particle the Skyrmion - quantum field theory, proposing a model, the Skyrme model, which lay of this work was widely appreciated leading in 1985 to the award of the distinctly outside the mainstream of contemporary thinking in elementary forward (in the words of his Times obituarist) 'original ideas in non-linear In March 1944 he was sent to the USA to work first work with the Tube Alloys Directorate (the UK atomic bomb project) and joined R E (later Sir Rudolf) Peierls's group at Birmingham University 5 December 1922. He was educated at Eton (a King's Scholar) and Trinity College Cambridge where he studied for the Mathematical Tripos. After his final Cambridge examinations in June 1943 he was assigned to which was working on theoretical questions posed by the bomb's design and construction. T HoR Skyrme NcuacSs 10/3/89 in New York and then at Los Alamos on the atomic bomb project. On his return to England in 1946 Skyrme was admitted a Research Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge. as resided at Cambridge, working instead in Peierls's new Department of Mathematical Physics at Birmingham where he held a university research In fact he never In August 1948 he married Dorothy Millest, a fellowship 1946-48. lecturer in nuclear physics at Birmingham, and then spent two years In 1948-49 he was a Research Associate at the Massachusetts in the USA. Institute of Technology and in the following year he was a member of the Institute of Advanced Physics at Princeton. In 1950 Skyrme returned to England to take up the post of Senior Principal Scientific Officer in the Theoretical Physics Division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) Harwell where he was head of the Nuclear Physics Group. It was in his later he resigned in 1961 - that he did his most nucleons'. and India. Skyrme spent 1958-59 on leave from AERE Harwell. He He resigned from AERE Harwell in September 1961 to take 1959 and 1961 which, together with three related papers, achieved 1958, 'a nuclear theory based entirely on meson fields, without particulate was Visiting Professor for a term at the University of Pennsylvania before travelling back to the UK via California, Australia, Malaya years at AERE Harwell - important scientific research, especially the four papers on non-linear meson theories published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A In 1982 his Department was obliged to of Kuala Lumpur. England to take up the Chair in Mathematical Physics at Birmingham in He remained there until 1964 when he returned to up a Senior Lectureship in the Mathematics Department of the University succession to Peierls. H R Skyrme T NCUACS 10/3/89 amalgamate with the Mathematics Department and his Chair was redesignated a Chair in Applied Mathematics. Skyrme's move to a university teaching post in Malaya marked a decisive shift in his career away from research. He was net very active in research in his later years in Birmingham though he was always accessible to colleagues and researchers in other departments who brought mathematical problems to him. In many ways he remained aloof from the great interest in his early research which coincided with the last years of his life. However, he did agree to give the ‘Historical Introduction' to a small Workshop on Skyrmions in November 1984 and was only prevented from repeating the talk at the Peierls 80th Birthday Symposium by his death in 1987. For further information on the life and career of Skyrme see RH Dalitz 'Professor Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme: 1922-1987. A Brief Biography' in Dalitz and R B Stinchcombe eds. A Breadth of Physics (1988) DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION Physies A, Vol.3, No.12 (1988) . 2719-2744. Skyrme's historical talk on of Modern Physics (pp2745-2751) and in A Breadth of Physics. The Skyrmions is also published in the same. issue of the International Journal Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme (1922-1987)' in International Journal of Modern 205-219 and the same author's 'An Outline of the Life and Work of in the writing of this introduction and the listing of the manuscripts. compilers of this catalogue have drawn freely on these published sources Birmingham. amount of material relating to Skyrme's research at AERE Harwell and his of Contents. The collection, although small in size, offers a respectable teaching at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and the University of The material is presented in the order given in the List T HR Skyrme NCUACS 10/3/89 Section A, Notebooks, is a sequence of eighteen notebooks used for records of Skyrme's own research, conferences attended, and seminars at Harwell and Birmingham. Section B, Notes and drafts, covers the whole of Skyrme's scientific career from undergraduate notes at Trinity College Cambridge to records of his work at Birmingham at the end of his life. Although the section includes teaching material from his fellowship years at Birmingham, 1946-48, and the Visiting Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, 1958, and a few drafts for publications, it is principally a collection of unpublished research material. Section C, Malaya, and Section D, Birmingham, comprises records of Skyrme's teaching at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 1962-64, and at the University of Birmingham from 1965. also includes documentation of Skyrme's advice to colleagues on Section D mathematical problems. and Dalitz's articles on his life and work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS encouragement. Section E, Publications, comprises Skyrme's reprints We are very grateful to Dr Bowcock for making the material including the posthumously published talk on the origin of skyrmions Bath 1989 available and to Dr Bowcock and Professor RH Dalitz for advice and Peter Harper Timothy E Powell H R Skyrme T NCUACS 10/3/89 SECTION A NOTEBOOKS Two notebooks glued together, the back cover of the notebook used second glued to the front cover of the notebook used first. nd. - 216 with a contents ‘notes on scattering 'the completeness of the closed and quasi-closed ‘use of 'a model for the scattering equations'; ‘relation of &-decay with meson Topics covered are: The notebook used first is paginated 1 list: on pl, matrix'; states'; non-Hermitian operators'; theory'; new expansion for many-body problem'; coordinates in many-body problem'; scattering'; electron in the radiation field’. ‘on point interactions'; 'decay of free meson'; 'S-decay spectra'; ‘a ‘use of redundant definition of potential ‘equations of an The notebook used second is paginated 217-359. beta-decay begin on p219. Notes on - The Technology, H R Skyrme' and 'Rm 6-306 MIT" A few loose 3' inside front cover. Contents include notes on quantum electrodynamics. Notebook used for notes on atomic nuclear moments from 1948. Paginated 1 items are enclosed, including -AERE Harwell station circular nos 516,35 February L953. 91 with index at rear of book. Spiral notebook inscribed 'T on front cover and 'Notes - book is undated but probably used during Skyrme's Research Associateship at Massachusetts Institute of 1948-49, of topics at rear of book. Notebook used for notes on experimental methods from 1948. Paginated 1 Notebook '¢TI' used for experimental data on beta-decay and notes on the theory, nd. The remainder of the book is unused. Paginated 1-189 with index - 13. THR Skyrme NCUACS 10/3/89 Notebooks Notebook '8T2' used for notes on beta-decay, nd. Paginated 191-389 with index of topics at rear of book. Notebook used for notes on complex spectra, probably in (1952 bibliographical reference pl6é4). use early 1950s Paginated 1-167 with index of topics at rear of book. Notebook used for notes on the literature (principally Paginated 1-336 papers in Physical Review), (many pages unused) with index of authors at front of book. 1952-53. Notebook used for notes on relativistic quantum field theory, nd but probably in use in 1953 Review reference of topics at rear of book. Paginated 1-145 with index (latest Physical p1l08). (ppl9, 37). (many pages unused) with index of topics and used for a detailed record of the proceedings, At least one page is missing Unpaginated. Participants include Bethe, A Bohr, Hofstadter, Weisskopf and Wilkinson. Notebook used for notes on meson theory, nd but there are references to the preceding book Paginated 1-125 at rear of book. Notebook inscribed inside front cover 'Amsterdam Conference 1956' 2-7 July. from the front of the notebook. continued... Notebook used for records of theoretical physics colloquia and seminars, visits and conferences, November 1956 - December 1957. and topics at front of book. Paginated 1-249 with index of individuals The colloquia etc are dated and the name of the speaker and topic given but not usually the location which probably indicates that most of the occasions took place at Harwell. T H R Skyrme NCUACS 10/3/89 A 2 cont “a Notebooks D Ter: Haar on 'Excitors & Polarons' Jd Blin-Stoyle on 'Beta Interactions’ Speakers include ( pp4-7), R and W Marshall on ‘Critical Scattering’ There are also notes on the Physical Society Conference on 'Nuclear & High Energy Physics', Harwell, 16-17 January 1957 (misdated 1956 by Skyrme), (ppl42-147). (pp54-75). (ppl2-14) Notebook used for records of theoretical physics colloquia (mis- and seminars, visits and conferences, January 1958 - May 1960 (continuation of A.1l). dated 1957 by Skyrme) Paginated 1-252 with index of individuals and topics at front of book. A few loose items are enclosed. The colloquia etc are dated and the name of the speaker and topic given but not usually the location which probably indicates that most of the occasions took place at Harwell. Relations’ of Nuclear Matter' 'Parity Conservation in Strong Interactions' There are also notes on the Physical Society Conference, Cambridge, 10-11 April 1958 (pp53-68). Speakers include A Salam on ‘Dispersion F Weisskopf on 'Properties (ppl9-21) and D H Wilkinson on (ppll-13), V 19) 1960 and (pp36-38). The conferences are: Paginated 1-200 with incomplete index of Notebook used for records of conferences 1957, LO6a%s conferences at front. Seventh Rochester Conference, 15-19 April 1957. Participants include Alvarez, Bethe, Dalitz, Feynman, Fowler, Hofstadter, Marshak and Oppenheimer. The revised programme is enclosed at front of book. continued... Parity Conference, Harwell, 13 May and seminar on "Neutrino Theory', 14 May 1957. Rehovoth Conference, Israel, Participants include Flowers and Wilkinson. September 1957. H R Skyrme T NCUACS 10/3/89 Notebooks Ai lA cont'd Physical Society Meeting, Liverpool, 30-31 March 1960. Participants include Flowers, P Matthews and Merrison. Physical Society Conference, Birmingham, 17-19 April 1961. Manchester Rutherford Jubilee Conference, 4-8 September 1961. Participants include Dalitz, Flowers and Peierls. Spiral notebook used for records of extended overseas EL py oo. Skyrme visited USA including discussions with Feynman at Cal Tech); (Canberra including C Institute), F Powell's lectures); January - August 1959. Australia India (Tata (East coast, Texas, Los Alamos, California Speakers include A Salam on *Weak Interactions' P Matthews on ‘Strong Interactions' on ‘Bubble Chambers' He also used the book for notes on 'Kiev Conference Reports', Harwell theoretical physics colloquium 14 October 1959, and visit to Birmingham 3 March 1960. Notebook used for records of theoretical physics colloquia etc., June 1960 - July 1961 (continuation of A.13). Paginated 1-254 with index of indivicuals and topics at front of book. Participants include Dalitz, Gell-Mann, Kibble and Peierls. Spiral notebook used for record of Department of Mathematical Physics seminars, Birmingham, October 1964 - January 1967. Conference on Elementary Particles |); September 1965. Includes notes on 'Oxford Conference! [International (pp93-95) and C C Butler (ppl17-118). (pp75-79), H R Skyrme T NcuACS 10/3/89 Notebooks Spiral notebook used for record of Department of Mathematical Physics postgraduate courses, Birmingham, 1964-65, 1966-67. Staff assignment, books, topics, notes on elementary notes particle theory and group theory for 1964-65; on 'Phenomenology (NMQ)' for 1966-67. T H R Skyrme NCUACS 10/3/89 SECTION B NOTES AND DRAFTS Section B comprises manuscript and typescript notes and the whole of Skyrme's scientific career from drafts covering (almost) undergraduate notes at Trinity College Cambridge to records of his work at Birmingham at the end of his life. notes from his research fellowship years at Birmingham 1946-48 (B.3) and his Visiting Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania 1958 (B.28, B.28A, B.30), (B.21, B.22) the section is principally an assemblage of unpublished research and a few drafts for published work Although it includes some lecture material. The notes and drafts are presented in two sequences, dated and undated, and where possible titles and pagination are given. R Bose Belo, B25 and, C2aik Bole Be 2 Dated Notes and Drafts This material is to be found at B.8, B.9, Vole 3,No-z12. C988), 2743.