James M. Bardeen
Encyclopedia
James Maxwell Bardeen is an American physicist, well known for his work in general relativity
, particularly his role in formulating the laws of black hole mechanics. He also discovered the Bardeen vacuum, an exact solution
of the Einstein field equation.
Bardeen graduated from Harvard in 1960 and earned his doctorate at Caltech under the direction of Richard Feynman
. He is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Washington
in Seattle.
Bardeen is the son of two-time Nobel Laureate John Bardeen
. His brother, William A. Bardeen
, is also a physicist, and his sister is married to Thomas J. Greytak, a physicist at MIT.
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
, particularly his role in formulating the laws of black hole mechanics. He also discovered the Bardeen vacuum, an exact solution
Exact solutions in general relativity
In general relativity, an exact solution is a Lorentzian manifold equipped with certain tensor fields which are taken to model states of ordinary matter, such as a fluid, or classical nongravitational fields such as the electromagnetic field....
of the Einstein field equation.
Bardeen graduated from Harvard in 1960 and earned his doctorate at Caltech under the direction of Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
. He is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in Seattle.
Bardeen is the son of two-time Nobel Laureate John Bardeen
John Bardeen
John Bardeen was an American physicist and electrical engineer, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a...
. His brother, William A. Bardeen
William A. Bardeen
William Allen Bardeen is an American theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is the son of John Bardeen and Jane Maxwell Bardeen....
, is also a physicist, and his sister is married to Thomas J. Greytak, a physicist at MIT.