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Tadi C: Ivan Supek and Theoretical Physics - .

1) Ivan Supek directed a theoretical physics seminar in Zagreb and sent many of its brightest members to work with top physicists abroad like Niels Bohr, helping launch their careers in theoretical physics. 2) Two members, Alaga and Glaser, went on to highly successful careers in nuclear and particle physics, publishing influential works. 3) Supek also contributed to experimental physics in Zagreb by directing some seminar members into careers in experimental physics to help build up the field.

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87 views1 page

Tadi C: Ivan Supek and Theoretical Physics - .

1) Ivan Supek directed a theoretical physics seminar in Zagreb and sent many of its brightest members to work with top physicists abroad like Niels Bohr, helping launch their careers in theoretical physics. 2) Two members, Alaga and Glaser, went on to highly successful careers in nuclear and particle physics, publishing influential works. 3) Supek also contributed to experimental physics in Zagreb by directing some seminar members into careers in experimental physics to help build up the field.

Uploaded by

Bio Lesner
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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tadić: ivan supek and theoretical physics . . .

father. Alaga was a member of the first group that visited the Bohr Institute in
Copenhagen (the others were Z. Janković and S. Kurepa). There he started his
brilliant career in theoretical physics by writing a joint paper with the future Nobel-
prize winners A. Bohr and B. Mottelson. Alaga’s selection rules are still referred
to in nuclear physics and he was the author of the most quoted paper among those
produced by the Zagreb theory group. He died as the head of the Theoretical
Physics Department.
Glaser was probably the most talented member of the Seminar, exceeding in
mathematical brilliance, which made him later, when he was on the CERN staff,
an undisputed authority for mathematical problems. Among CERN mathemati-
cal physicists he was known as the “pope”, stressing his mathematical infallibility.
Supek directed him towards QED and problems connected with field-theory nor-
malization. He was sent to Goettingen to spend some time in Heisenberg’s group.
After his return to Zagreb he published (1955) the book Kovarijantna kvantna elek-
trodinamika (Covariant QED), which still provides a useful reading with many in-
teresting insights. He also collaborated with Lehman, Szymanzik and Zimmerman,
helping further development of (for some time) the famous LSZ formalism. While
in Zagreb, he found his much appreciated exact solution of the two-dimensional
Thirring model field theory. He left Zagreb for good in the late fifties, and died
while serving as a distinguished staff-member at CERN.
Jakšić was introduced by Supek to meson physics and sent to work under
Rosenfeld in Manchester. Later he became the head of the Theory Group at the
Rud–er Bošković Institute, gathering many talented young people in the field of
theoretical physics, and finding them suitable fellowships abroad. He was expert in
mathematical problems, especially nonrelativistic scattering. Together with Glaser
he produced a noted work on electromagnetic form factors, which contained many
relations which were used by later researchers. He left Zagreb in the sixties.
Supek’s Seminar was later jointed by K. Ljolje and A. Grossmann, who grew
to be theoretical physicists. Other members, K. Ilakovac, M. Petravić, M. Cerineo,
B. Leontić and V. Knapp, were directed and persuaded to become experimen-
tal physicists, all being given foreign fellowships. This was dictated by an urgent
need to develop experimental research in Zagreb, connected with the newly built
Rud–er Bošković Institute. Same was the fate of even newer Seminar members N.
Cindro and I. Šlaus. Most of these scientists were, and still are, the backbone of
the experimental physics in Zagreb.
One of the Seminar members, M. Randić, was offered, by Supek, a fellowship
under the condition to specialize in theoretical chemistry. He is now a well-known
authority in that field. Although he left Zagreb a long time ago, his occassional
visits are useful to the Zagreb theoretical chemistry group.
Supek also contributed to the education of undergraduates by writing the first
Croatian theoretical physics textbook Teorijska fizika i struktura materije (1949).
This book is important for our science and our culture in general, as it is the first
book on quantum mechanics ever published in Croatia. Since then it has had many
editions being enlarged and modernized by his numerous former students (G. Alaga,

FIZIKA A 1 (1992) 1, 7–10 9

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