Richard Lewis Arnowitt (May 3, 1928 – June 12, 2014) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

known for his contributions to theoretical

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and ...

and to

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. ...

. Arnowitt was a Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, where he was a member of the Department of Physics. His research interests were centered on

supersymmetry In a supersymmetric theory the equations for force and the equations for matter are identical. In theoretical and mathematical physics, any theory with this property has the principle of supersymmetry (SUSY). Dozens of supersymmetric theories e ...

and

supergravity In theoretical physics, supergravity (supergravity theory; SUGRA for short) is a modern field theory that combines the principles of supersymmetry and general relativity; this is in contrast to non-gravitational supersymmetric theories such as ...

, from

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

(namely how to find evidence for supersymmetry at current and planned

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Large accelerators are used for fun ...

s or in the guise of

dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...

) to more theoretical questions of string and M theory.Arnowitt's homepage at Texas A&M
In the context of

, he was best known for his development (with

Stanley Deser Stanley Deser (born 1931) is an American physicist known for his contributions to general relativity. Currently, he is emeritus Ancell Professor of Physics at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and a senior research associate at Califo ...

and

Charles Misner Charles W. Misner (; born June 13, 1932) is an American physicist and one of the authors of ''Gravitation''. His specialties include general relativity and cosmology. His work has also provided early foundations for studies of quantum gravity ...

) of the

ADM formalism The ADM formalism (named for its authors Richard Arnowitt, Stanley Deser and Charles W. Misner) is a Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity that plays an important role in canonical quantum gravity and numerical relativity. It was fir ...

, roughly speaking a way of describing

spacetime In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why diffe ...

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually con ...

evolving in

time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

, which allows a recasting of Einstein's theory in terms of a more general formalism used in physics to describe dynamical systems, namely the Hamiltonian formalism. In the framework of that formalism, there is also a straightforward way to globally define quantities like

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

or, equivalently,

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

(so-called ADM mass/energy) which, in general relativity, is not trivial at all. Arnowitt was also known for his work (with

Ali Chamseddine Ali H. Chamseddine ( ar, علي شمس الدين, link=no, born 20 February 1953) is a Lebanese physicist known for his contributions to particle physics, general relativity and mathematical physics. , Chamseddine is a physics Professor at th ...

and Pran Nath) which developed the theory of supergravity grand unification (with gravity mediated breaking). This work allowed for the unification of the three forces of microscopic physics at a very high mass scale (a result subsequently indirectly verified at the CERN LEP accelerator). The simplest version, called mSUGRA, is now commonly used to search for new physics at high energy accelerators. In addition, Arnowitt's work (with Marvin Girardeau) on many body theory of liquid Helium has stimulated many applications in that field.

References

External links

Arnowitt's homepage at Texas A&M
1928 births 2014 deaths American relativity theorists Harvard University alumni Northeastern University faculty Texas A&M University faculty {{US-physicist-stub