Bruno Bertotti (24 December 1930 – 20 October 2018) was an Italian physicist, emeritus professor at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

. He was one of the last students of physicist

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

. Bertotti was well known for his contributions to

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 ...

– particularly the Bertotti–Robinson electrovacuum, an exact solution of the

Einstein field equation In the general theory of relativity, the Einstein field equations (EFE; also known as Einstein's equations) relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it. The equations were published by Albert Einstein in 1915 in the ...

. He pioneered the

post-Minkowskian expansion In physics, precisely in the general theory of relativity, post-Minkowskian expansions (PM) or post-Minkowskian approximations are mathematical methods used to find approximate solutions of Einstein's equations by means of a power series develop ...

. He has also obtained a more accurate measurement of the parameter gamma of the

parameterized post-Newtonian formalism In physics, precisely in the study of the theory of general relativity and many alternatives to it, the post-Newtonian formalism is a calculational tool that expresses Einstein's (nonlinear) equations of gravity in terms of the lowest-order de ...

, with the '' Cassini'' radioscience experiment. The PPN gamma parameter measures the curvature of space in the metric theory of gravitation and it is equal to one in

. More recent studies revealed that the measured value of the PPN parameter gamma is affected by gravitomagnetic effect caused by the orbital motion of Sun around the

barycenter In astronomy, the barycenter (or barycentre; ) is the center of mass of two or more bodies that orbit one another and is the point about which the bodies orbit. A barycenter is a dynamical point, not a physical object. It is an important con ...

of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. The gravitomagnetic effect in the Cassini radioscience experiment was implicitly postulated by Bertotti as having a pure general relativistic origin but its theoretical value has been never tested in the experiment which effectively makes the experimental uncertainty in the measured value of gamma actually larger (by a factor of 10) than that claimed by Bertotti and co-authors in Nature. Between 1953 and 1956, Bertotti worked as a scholar at the

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) () is a statutory independent research institute in Dublin, Ireland. It was established, under the Institute For Advanced Studies Act 1940, by the government of the then Taoiseach, Éamon de Vale ...

. Following, Bertotti was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in Princeton, in 1958-59.Institute for Advanced Study: A Community of Scholars
/ref> In 2007 he was awarded the Italian Gold Medal for Merit in Science and Culture. Among the last scholars in relativity from the University of Pavia are Alessandro Spallicci and Alberto Vecchio.

References

1930 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Italian physicists Academic staff of the University of Pavia Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Scientists from Mantua {{Italy-physicist-stub Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

See also

References