John Archibald Wheeler
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John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911April 13, 2008) was an American theoretical physicist. He was largely responsible for reviving interest in
general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...
in the United States after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Wheeler also worked with
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
to explain the basic principles of
nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactiv ...
. Together with Gregory Breit, Wheeler developed the concept of the Breit–Wheeler process. He is best known for popularizing the term "
black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
" for objects with gravitational collapse already predicted during the early 20th century, for inventing the terms " quantum foam", " neutron moderator", " wormhole" and "it from bit", and for hypothesizing the " one-electron universe". Stephen Hawking called Wheeler the "hero of the black hole story". At 21, Wheeler earned his doctorate at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
under the supervision of Karl Herzfeld. He studied under Breit and Bohr on a National Research Council fellowship. In 1939 he collaborated with Bohr on a series of papers using the liquid drop model to explain the mechanism of fission. During World War II, he worked with the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago, where he helped design
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...
s, and then at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington, where he helped DuPont build them. He returned to Princeton after the war but returned to government service to help design and build the
hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
in the early 1950s. He and Edward Teller were the main civilian proponents of thermonuclear weapons. For most of his career, Wheeler was a professor of physics at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, which he joined in 1938, remaining until 1976. At Princeton he supervised 46 PhD students, more than any other physics professor. Wheeler left Princeton at the age of 65. He was appointed director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
in 1976 and remained in the position until 1986, when he retired and became a
professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...
.


Early life and education

Wheeler was born in
Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
, on July 9, 1911, to librarians Joseph L. Wheeler and Mabel Archibald (Archie) Wheeler. He was the oldest of four children. His brother Joseph earned a PhD from Brown University and a Master of Library Science from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. His brother Robert earned a PhD in
geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...
from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
and worked as a geologist for oil companies and several colleges. His sister Mary studied library science at the University of Denver and became a librarian. They grew up in
Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...
, but spent a year in 1921 to 1922 on a farm in Benson, Vermont, where Wheeler attended a
one-room school One-room schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...
. When they returned to Youngstown he attended Rayen High School. After graduating from Baltimore City College high school in 1926, Wheeler entered
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
with a scholarship from the state of
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
. He published his first scientific paper in 1930, as part of a summer job at the National Bureau of Standards. He earned his doctorate in 1933. His dissertation research work, carried out under the supervision of Karl Herzfeld, was on the "Theory of the Dispersion and Absorption of Helium". He received a National Research Council fellowship, which he used to study under Gregory Breit at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
in 1933 and 1934, and then in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
under
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
in 1934 and 1935. In a 1934 paper, Breit and Wheeler introduced the Breit–Wheeler process, a mechanism by which
photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...
s can be potentially transformed into matter in the form of
electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...
positron pairs.


Early career

The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...
made Wheeler an associate professor in 1937, but he wanted to be able to work more closely with experts in particle physics. He turned down an offer in 1938 of an associate professorship at Johns Hopkins University in favor of an assistant professorship at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
. Although it was a lesser position, he felt that Princeton, which was building up its physics department, was a better career choice. He remained a member of its faculty until 1976. In his 1937 paper "On the Mathematical Description of Light Nuclei by the Method of Resonating Group Structure", Wheeler introduced the
S-matrix In physics, the ''S''-matrix or scattering matrix is a Matrix (mathematics), matrix that relates the initial state and the final state of a physical system undergoing a scattering, scattering process. It is used in quantum mechanics, scattering ...
—short for scattering matrix—"a unitary matrix of coefficients connecting the asymptotic behavior of an arbitrary particular solution f the integral equationswith that of solutions of a standard form". Wheeler did not pursue this idea, but in the 1940s
Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...
developed the idea of the S-matrix into an important tool in elementary
particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...
. In 1938 Wheeler joined Edward Teller in examining Bohr's liquid drop model of the
atomic nucleus The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford at the Department_of_Physics_and_Astronomy,_University_of_Manchester , University of Manchester ...
; they presented their results at a meeting of the
American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
in New York. Wheeler's Chapel Hill graduate student Katharine Way also presented a paper, which she followed up in a subsequent article, detailing how the liquid drop model was unstable under certain conditions. Due to a limitation of the liquid drop model, they all missed the opportunity to predict
nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactiv ...
. In 1939, Bohr brought the news of
Lise Meitner Elise Lise Meitner ( ; ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish nuclear physicist who was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission. After completing her doctoral research in 1906, Meitner became the second woman ...
's and Otto Frisch's discovery of fission to America. Bohr told Leon Rosenfeld, who informed Wheeler. Bohr and Wheeler set to work applying the liquid drop model to explain the mechanism of nuclear fission. As the experimental physicists studied fission, they uncovered puzzling results. George Placzek asked Bohr why
uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
seemed to fission with both very fast and very slow
neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...
s. Walking to a meeting with Wheeler, Bohr had an insight that fission at low energies was due to the uranium-235
isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...
, while at high energies it was mainly due to the far more abundant uranium-238 isotope. They co-wrote two more papers on fission. Their first paper appeared in '' Physical Review'' on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland, starting
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Considering the notion that positrons were electrons traveling backward in time, in 1940 Wheeler conceived his one-electron universe postulate: that there was in fact only one electron, bouncing back and forth in time. His graduate student Richard Feynman found this hard to believe, but the idea that positrons were electrons traveling backward in time intrigued him, and Feynman incorporated the notion of the reversibility of time in his Feynman diagrams.


Nuclear weapons


Manhattan Project

Soon after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II, Wheeler accepted a request from Arthur Compton to join the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. He moved there in January 1942, joining Eugene Wigner's group, which was studying
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...
design. He co-wrote a paper with Robert F. Christy on "Chain Reaction of Pure Fissionable Materials in Solution", which was important in the plutonium purification process. It was declassified in December 1955. He gave the neutron moderator its name, replacing Enrico Fermi's term, "slower downer". After the
United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...
took over the Manhattan Project, it gave DuPont responsibility for the detailed design and construction of the reactors. Wheeler became part of DuPont's design staff. He worked closely with its engineers, commuting between Chicago and
Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...
, where DuPont had its headquarters. He moved his family to Wilmington in March 1943. DuPont's task was to build not just nuclear reactors, but an entire plutonium production complex at the Hanford Site in Washington. As work progressed, Wheeler relocated his family again in July 1944, to Richland, Washington, where he worked in the scientific buildings known as the 300 area. Even before the Hanford Site started up the B Reactor, the first of its three reactors, on September 15, 1944, Wheeler had been concerned that some nuclear fission products might be nuclear poisons, the accumulation of which would impede the ongoing nuclear chain reaction by absorbing many of the thermal neutrons needed to continue a chain reaction. In an April 1942 report, he predicted that this would reduce the reactivity by less than one percent so long as no fission product had a
neutron capture Neutron capture is a nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus and one or more neutrons collide and merge to form a heavier nucleus. Since neutrons have no electric charge, they can enter a nucleus more easily than positively charged protons, wh ...
cross section of more than 100,000 barns. After the reactor unexpectedly shut down, and then just as unexpectedly restarted about 15 hours later, he suspected iodine-135, with a half life of 6.6 hours, and its daughter product, xenon-135, which has a half life of 9.2 hours. Xenon-135 turned out to have a neutron capture cross-section of well over two million barns. The problem was corrected by adding additional fuel slugs to burn out the poison. Wheeler had a personal reason for working on the Manhattan Project. His brother Joe, fighting in Italy, sent him a postcard with a simple message: "Hurry up". It was already too late: Joe was killed in October 1944. "Here we were", Wheeler later wrote, "so close to creating a nuclear weapon to end the war. I couldn't stop thinking then, and haven't stopped thinking since, that the war could have been over in October 1944." Joe left a widow and baby daughter, Mary Jo, who later married physicist James Hartle.


Hydrogen bomb

In August 1945 Wheeler and his family returned to Princeton, where he resumed his academic career. Working with Feynman, he explored the possibility of physics with particles, but not fields, and carried out theoretical studies of the muon with Jayme Tiomno, resulting in a series of papers on the topic, including a 1949 paper in which Tiomno and Wheeler introduced the "Tiomno Triangle", which related different forms of radioactive decay. He also suggested the use of muons as a nuclear probe. This paper, written and privately circulated in 1949 but not published until 1953, resulted in a series of measurements of the Chang radiation emitted by muons. Muons are a component of cosmic rays, and Wheeler became the founder and first director of Princeton's Cosmic Rays Laboratory, which received a grant of $375,000 from the Office of Naval Research in 1948. Wheeler received a
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
in 1946, which allowed him to spend the 1949–50 academic year in Paris. The 1949 detonation of Joe-1 by the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
prompted an all-out effort by the United States, led by Teller, to develop the more powerful
hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
in response. Henry D. Smyth, Wheeler's department head at Princeton, asked him to join the effort. Most physicists were, like Wheeler, trying to reestablish careers interrupted by the war and reluctant to face more disruption. Others had moral objections. Those who agreed to participate included Emil Konopinski, Marshall Rosenbluth, Lothar Nordheim, and Charles Critchfield, but there was also now a body of experienced weapons physicists at the Los Alamos Laboratory, led by Norris Bradbury. Wheeler agreed to go to Los Alamos after a conversation with Bohr. Two of his graduate students from Princeton, Ken Ford and John Toll, joined him there. At Los Alamos, Wheeler and his family moved into the house on " Bathtub Row" that Robert Oppenheimer and his family had occupied during the war. In 1950 there was no practical design for a hydrogen bomb. Calculations by Stanisław Ulam and others showed that Teller's "Classical Super" would not work. Teller and Wheeler created a new design known as "Alarm Clock", but it was not a true thermonuclear weapon. Not until January 1951 did Ulam come up with a workable design. In 1951 Wheeler obtained Bradbury's permission to set up a branch office of the Los Alamos laboratory at Princeton, known as Project Matterhorn, which had two parts. Matterhorn S (for stellarator, another name coined by Wheeler), under Lyman Spitzer, investigated
nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction, reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nuclei, nuclei/neutrons, neutron by-products. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the rele ...
as a power source. Matterhorn B (for bomb), under Wheeler, did nuclear weapons research. Senior scientists remained uninterested and aloof from the project, so he staffed it with young graduate and postdoctoral students. Matterhorn B's efforts were crowned by the success of the Ivy Mike nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific, on November 1, 1952, which Wheeler witnessed. The yield of the Ivy Mike "Sausage" device was reckoned at , about 30 percent higher than Matterhorn B had estimated. In January 1953 Wheeler was involved in a security breach when he lost a highly classified paper on lithium-6 and the hydrogen bomb design during an overnight train trip. This resulted in an official reprimand. Matterhorn B was discontinued, but Matterhorn S endures as the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.


Later academic career

After concluding his Matterhorn Project work, Wheeler resumed his academic career. In a 1955 paper, he theoretically investigated the geon, an
electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
or
gravitational wave Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that Wave propagation, travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravity, gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside i ...
held together in a confined region by the attraction of its own field. He coined the name as a contraction of "gravitational electromagnetic entity". He found that the smallest geon was a toroid the size of the Sun, but millions of times heavier. He later showed that geons are unstable, and would quickly self destruct if they were ever to form.


Geometrodynamics

During the 1950s, Wheeler formulated geometrodynamics, a program of physical and ontological reduction of every physical phenomenon, such as gravitation and
electromagnetism In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...
, to the geometrical properties of a curved space-time. His research on the subject was published in 1957 and 1961. Wheeler envisaged the fabric of the universe as a chaotic subatomic realm of quantum fluctuations, which he called " quantum foam".


General relativity

General relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...
had been considered a less respectable field of physics, being detached from experiment. Wheeler was a key figure in its revival, leading the school at Princeton, while Dennis William Sciama and Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich developed the subject at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
and the University of Moscow, respectively. Wheeler and his students made substantial contributions to the field during the Golden Age of General Relativity. While working on mathematical extensions to Einstein's general relativity in 1957, Wheeler introduced the concept and word '' wormhole'' to describe hypothetical "tunnels" in
space-time In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three-dimensional space, three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum (measurement), continu ...
. Bohr asked whether they were stable and further research by Wheeler determined that they are not. His work in general relativity included the theory of gravitational collapse. He used the term ''
black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
'' in 1967 during a talk he gave at the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS), although the term had been used earlier in the decade. Wheeler said the term was suggested to him during a lecture when a member of the audience was tired of hearing Wheeler say "gravitationally completely collapsed object". Wheeler was also a pioneer in the field of
quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics. It deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the v ...
due to his development, with Bryce DeWitt, of the Wheeler–DeWitt equation in 1967. Stephen Hawking later described Wheeler and DeWitt's work as the equation governing the "
wave function In quantum physics, a wave function (or wavefunction) is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The most common symbols for a wave function are the Greek letters and (lower-case and capital psi (letter) ...
of the Universe".


Quantum information

Wheeler left Princeton in 1976 at age 65. He was appointed director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
in 1976 and remained in the position until 1986, when he retired and became a
professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...
. Misner, Thorne and Wojciech Zurek, all former students of Wheeler, wrote: Wheeler's delayed-choice experiment describes a family of
thought experiment A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is ...
s in
quantum physics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
that he proposed, with the most prominent of them appearing in 1978 and 1984. These experiments seek to discover whether light somehow "senses" the experimental apparatus that it travels through in the double-slit experiment, adjusting its behavior to fit by assuming an appropriate determinate state, or whether it remains in an indeterminate state, neither wave nor particle, and responds to the "questions" the experimental arrangements ask of it in either a wave-consistent manner or a particle-consistent manner.


Teaching

Wheeler's graduate students included Jacob Bekenstein, Hugh Everett, Richard Feynman, David Hill, Bei-Lok Hu, John R. Klauder, Charles Misner, Kip Thorne, William Unruh, Robert M. Wald, Katharine Way, and Arthur Wightman. Wheeler gave teaching high priority, and continued to teach freshman and
sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...
physics, saying that young minds were the most important. At Princeton he supervised 46 PhDs, more than any other physics professor. Wheeler wrote a supportive review article to help Hugh Everett's work, wrote to and met with
Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...
in Copenhagen seeking his approval of Everett's approach, and continued to advocate for Everett even after Bohr's rejection. With Kent Harrison, Kip Thorne, and Masami Wakano, Wheeler wrote ''Gravitation Theory and Gravitational Collapse'' (1965). This led to the voluminous general relativity textbook '' Gravitation'' (1973), co-written with Misner and Thorne. Its timely appearance during the golden age of general relativity and its comprehensiveness made it an influential relativity textbook for a generation. Wheeler and Edwin F. Taylor wrote ''Spacetime Physics'' (1966) and ''Scouting Black Holes'' (1996). Alluding to Wheeler's "mass without mass", the
festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
honoring his 60th birthday was titled ''Magic Without Magic: John Archibald Wheeler: A Collection of Essays in Honor of his Sixtieth Birthday'' (1972). His writing style could also attract parodies, including one by "John Archibald Wyler" that was affectionately published by a relativity journal.


Participatory anthropic principle

Wheeler speculated that reality is created by observers in the universe. "How does something arise from nothing?", he asked about the existence of space and time. He also coined the term "Participatory Anthropic Principle" (PAP), a version of a strong anthropic principle. In 1990, Wheeler suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. According to this "it from bit" doctrine, all things physical are information-theoretic in origin: In developing the participatory anthropic principle, an interpretation of quantum mechanics, Wheeler used a variant on Twenty Questions, called Negative Twenty Questions, to show how the questions we choose to ask about the universe may dictate the answers we get. In this variant, the respondent does not choose or decide upon any particular or definite object beforehand, but only on a pattern of "Yes" or "No" answers. This variant requires the respondent to provide a consistent set of answers to successive questions, so that each answer can be viewed as logically compatible with all the previous ones. In this way, successive questions narrow the options until the questioner settles upon a definite object. Wheeler's theory was that, in an analogous manner, consciousness may play some role in bringing the universe into existence. From a transcript of a radio interview on "The Anthropic Universe":


Opposition to parapsychology

In 1979, Wheeler spoke to the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
(AAAS), asking it to expel
parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...
, which had been admitted ten years earlier at Margaret Mead's request. He called it a pseudoscience, saying he did not oppose earnest research into the questions, but thought the "air of legitimacy" of being an AAAS affiliate should be reserved until convincing tests of at least a few so-called psi effects could be demonstrated. In the question-and-answer period following his presentation "Not consciousness, but the distinction between the probe and the probed, as central to the elemental quantum act of observation", Wheeler incorrectly said that J. B. Rhine had committed fraud as a student, for which he apologized in a subsequent letter to the journal ''
Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
''. His request was turned down and the Parapsychological Association remained a member of the AAAS.


Personal life

For 72 years, Wheeler was married to Janette Hegner, a teacher and social worker. They became engaged on their third date, but agreed to defer marriage until he returned from Europe. They were married on June 10, 1935, five days after his return. Employment was difficult to find during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. Arthur Ruark offered Wheeler a position as an assistant professor at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...
, at an annual salary of $2,300, which was less than the $2,400 Janette was offered to teach at the Rye Country Day School. They had three children. Wheeler and Hegner were founding members of the Unitarian Church of Princeton, and she initiated the Friends of the Princeton Public Library. In their later years, Hegner accompanied him on sabbaticals in France, Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Netherlands, and Japan. Hegner died in October 2007 at the age of 96.


Death and legacy

Wheeler won numerous prizes and awards, including the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1966, the Enrico Fermi Award in 1968, the Franklin Medal in 1969, the Einstein Prize in 1969, the
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
in 1971, the Niels Bohr International Gold Medal in 1982, the Oersted Medal in 1983, the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize in 1984, and the Wolf Foundation Prize in 1997. He was a member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
, the
Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and the Century Association. He received honorary degrees from 18 different institutions. In 2001, Princeton used a $3 million gift to establish the John Archibald Wheeler/Battelle Professorship in Physics. After his death, the University of Texas named the John A. Wheeler Lecture Hall in his honor. On April 13, 2008, Wheeler died of pneumonia at the age of 96 in
Hightstown, New Jersey Hightstown is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Nestled within the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region, Hightstown is an historic, commercial, and cultural hub of Cent ...
.


Bibliography

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Notes


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Sources

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External links



Voices of the Manhattan Project
1986 Audio Interview with John Wheeler by S. L. Sanger
Voices of the Manhattan Project
A Collection of John Archibald Wheeler's Published and Unpublished Works


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John Wheeler
telling his life story a
Web of Stories

Wheeler —Biographical stories

John Archibald Wheeler: A Study of Mentoring in Modern Physics

Kip S. Thorne, "John A. Wheeler", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2019)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, John Archibald American nuclear physicists American particle physicists American relativity theorists 1911 births 2008 deaths Albert Einstein Medal recipients Critics of parapsychology Enrico Fermi Award recipients Manhattan Project people Foreign members of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Physical Society Members of JASON (advisory group) National Medal of Science laureates Niels Bohr International Gold Medal recipients Wolf Prize in Physics laureates Princeton University faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Baltimore City College alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni New York University alumni Deaths from pneumonia in New Jersey People from Hightstown, New Jersey People from Jacksonville, Florida 20th-century American physicists Recipients of the Matteucci Medal Presidents of the American Physical Society Recipients of Franklin Medal Members of the American Philosophical Society