Jack Steinberger facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jack Steinberger
Steinberger in 2008
Born	Hans Jakob Steinberger (1921-05-25)May 25, 1921 Bad Kissingen, Germany
Died	December 12, 2020 (aged 99) Geneva, Switzerland
Nationality	United States
Known for	Discovery of the muon neutrino
Spouse(s)	Cynthia Alff; Joan Beauregard (1920-2009)
Children	4, including Joseph, Ned, Julia, and John
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1988) National Medal of Science (1988) Matteucci Medal (1990)
Scientific career
Fields	Particle physics
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley Columbia University CERN
Thesis	On the range of the electrons in meson decay. (1949)
Academic advisors	Edward Teller Enrico Fermi
Notable students	Melvin Schwartz Eric L. Schwartz Theodore Modis David R. Nygren

Jack Steinberger (born Hans Jakob Steinberger; May 25, 1921 – December 12, 2020) was a famous American physicist. He was born in Germany. He was known for his important work with tiny particles called neutrinos. These particles are like building blocks of everything around us.

In 1988, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He shared it with Leon M. Lederman and Melvin Schwartz. They won for discovering a special type of neutrino called the muon neutrino. Throughout his career, he worked at top universities and research centers. These included the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and CERN. He also received the United States National Medal of Science in 1988. In 1990, he received the Matteucci Medal from the Italian Academy of Sciences.

Early Life and Education

Jack Steinberger was born in Bad Kissingen, Bavaria, Germany. This was on May 25, 1921. When he was young, the Nazis came to power in Germany. They were very unfair to Jewish people. Because of this, his parents decided to send him out of the country. His father was a religious teacher.

At age 13, Jack moved to the United States with his brother Herbert. Jewish charities helped him find a foster family. He lived with Barnett Farroll in Winnetka, Illinois. Jack went to New Trier Township High School there. In 1938, his parents and younger brother joined him in the U.S.

Steinberger first studied chemical engineering. But he had to leave college to help his family. He later earned a chemistry degree from the University of Chicago in 1942. After that, he joined the Signal Corps at MIT.

Thanks to the G.I. Bill, he went back to the University of Chicago in 1946. He studied under famous scientists like Edward Teller and Enrico Fermi. His Ph.D. research looked at how muon particles break down. His findings showed that two neutral particles were involved in this process. These were later identified as the electron neutrino and muon neutrino.

Career Highlights

Early Physics Discoveries

After getting his doctorate, Steinberger spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1949, he published important work on the lifetime of a particle called the neutral pion.

Later in 1949, Steinberger joined the Radiation Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he showed how neutral pions are made and how they break down into light particles. He used new tools like the synchrotron and scintillation counters. However, he was asked to leave Berkeley in 1950. This was because he refused to sign a special oath.

Work at Columbia University

In 1950, Steinberger became a professor at Columbia University. He used a new particle beam at Nevis Laboratories. This allowed him to do many important experiments. He studied how pions are produced and found that they have an "odd parity." He also showed that pions have "spin zero."

He used a special target of liquid hydrogen for some experiments. This helped him study rare decays of pions. He also looked at how charged pions break down into an electron and a neutrino. This work helped scientists understand more about these tiny particles.

Exploring Strange Particles

From 1954 to 1955, Steinberger helped develop the bubble chamber. This device helps scientists see the paths of tiny particles. He used it to study particles called hadrons that have "strange quarks." These particles had puzzling properties.

In 1956, he used a larger bubble chamber. With it, he discovered the neutral Sigma hyperon. This discovery was important. It helped confirm the idea of "SU(3) flavor symmetry." This idea suggests that strange quarks exist.

Steinberger also studied how particles interact in a process called the "weak interaction." He showed that this interaction violates "parity symmetry." He did this by measuring the spins of many hyperons.

Neutrinos and the Nobel Prize

In the 1960s, scientists focused more on neutrinos. Jack Steinberger, Leon Lederman, and Melvin Schwartz built large detectors. In 1961, they used these detectors to study neutrinos. They created neutrinos by breaking down pions and kaons.

They used a powerful particle accelerator at Brookhaven. Their experiments showed that when muons were produced, no electrons appeared. This proved that there was a special type of neutrino linked to muons. This neutrino was different from the one made in beta decay. For this discovery, they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988.

Studying CP Violation

In 1964, scientists found something called "CP violation" in neutral kaons. This means that certain particle interactions are not perfectly symmetrical. Steinberger realized he could measure this effect.

While working at CERN in 1965, he did an experiment with Carlo Rubbia. They clearly showed this interference effect. They also precisely measured the mass difference between two types of neutral kaons.

Back in the U.S., Steinberger continued to study CP violation. His experiments helped measure the "epsilon" parameter very accurately. This parameter tells us how much CP violation is happening. His work also confirmed that "CPT symmetry" is a good symmetry in nature.

Work at CERN

In 1968, Steinberger moved to CERN in Switzerland. He became a department director there. He built a new experiment using special detectors called "multi-wire proportional chambers" (MWPC). These detectors, invented by Georges Charpak, allowed scientists to record many more particle events.

In the early 1970s, he published new results on neutral kaons. This included observing a rare decay of neutral kaons. These new techniques were very important. They helped show the first direct evidence of CP violation.

In the 1980s, Steinberger worked on the NA31 experiment at CERN. This experiment used a powerful proton accelerator. NA31 proved that direct CP violation is real.

He also worked on the ALEPH experiment at the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP). He was the spokesperson for this experiment. ALEPH helped measure the number of fundamental particle families in the Standard Model of physics.

Steinberger retired from CERN in 1986. He then became a professor in Italy. He continued to visit CERN into his 90s.

Nobel Prize Recognition

Jack Steinberger, Leon M. Lederman, and Melvin Schwartz won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988. They were honored "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino." All three scientists were working at Columbia University at the time.

Their experiment used beams of charged pions. These pions broke down into muons and neutrinos. The muons were detected in front of a thick steel wall. The neutrinos were detected behind the wall using special spark chambers. When muons and neutrinos were detected together, it showed that a second type of neutrino was created with muons. Later experiments proved this neutrino was different from the electron-type neutrino. They published their important work in 1962.

Steinberger gave his Nobel medal to New Trier High School in Illinois. This was the high school he attended. He also received the National Medal of Science in 1988 from President Ronald Reagan. In 1990, he was given the Matteucci Medal from the Italian Academy of Sciences.

Personal Life

Jack Steinberger had four children from his two marriages. His son Ned Steinberger is known for creating special guitars and basses. His daughter Julia Steinberger is an ecological economist.

Jack Steinberger was an atheist and a humanist. He enjoyed playing tennis, climbing mountains, and sailing.

In the 1980s, Steinberger reconnected with his hometown of Bad Kissingen, Germany. He visited often. In 2001, the school he attended there was named Jack-Steinberger-Gymnasium in his honor. In 2006, he became an honorary citizen of Bad Kissingen. He said he felt welcome and like a German again.

Jack Steinberger passed away on December 12, 2020, at his home in Geneva, Switzerland. He was 99 years old.

See also

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates