Many theoretical physicists have made important discoveries while doing calculations in transit. For 10 points each:
[10m] While travelling to England to accept a scholarship to study at Cambridge, this physicist calculated the largest mass a white dwarf can have before gravitational attraction overwhelms electron degeneracy pressure.
ANSWER: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (“soo-bruh-MUN-yun chun-druh-SHAY-kurr”) [accept Chandrasekhar limit]
[10h] On a train back to Cornell, Hans Bethe (“BAY-tuh”) used renormalization to compute this difference in energy between 2S½ (“two-S-one-half”) and 2P½ (“two-P-one-half”) states of hydrogen. This phenomenon provided the impetus for the creation of QED.
ANSWER: Lamb shift
[10e] Bethe’s derivation of the Lamb shift was not the first time he made an important calculation on a train. On a train to Manchester, he and Rudolf Peierls (“PIE-erls”) derived the theoretical basis of the photodisintegration of this isotope of hydrogen with one neutron.
ANSWER: deuterium [or D; accept deuteron; prompt on hydrogen-2 or heavy hydrogen]
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