{{short description|Polish physicist}} {{more footnotes needed|date=July 2021}} {{EngvarB|date=March 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Myron Mathisson |image = |image_size = 200px |birth_name = Myron Mathisson |birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1897|12|04}} |birth_place = Warsaw, Poland |death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1940|09|13|1897|12|04}} |death_place = Cambridge, United Kingdom <!--|nationality = Poland, France, United Kingdom --> |fields = Theoretical Physics<br/>General relativity<br/>Hebrew translator<br/>Engineer |workplaces = University of Kazan<br/>University of Warsaw<br/>Jagiellonian University |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |academic_advisors = |doctoral_students = |notable_students = |known_for = Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equations |author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |influences = |influenced = |awards = |signature = |footnotes = |spouse= }}
'''Myron Mathisson''' (4 December 1897 – 13 September 1940) was a Polish theoretical physicist who made early contributions to the theory of general relativity, particularly in the motion of spinning bodies and the analysis of hyperbolic partial differential equations. His work on the equations of motion for extended bodies influenced later formulations such as the Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equations, and he made progress on aspects of the Hadamard conjecture in specific cases.<ref name="little">{{cite arXiv | eprint=0802.2971 | title=Myron Mathisson: what little we know of his life | author=Tilman Sauer |author2=Andrzej Trautman | date=2008-02-21 | class=physics.hist-ph }}</ref>
==Life and work== ===Education=== Mathisson was born in Warsaw, 4 December 1897. In 1915, Mathisson completed his secondary education at a philological gymnasium in Warsaw, graduating with a gold medal, a distinction awarded for academic excellence. He began his studies at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology. Then, from 1917 he studied at the University of Warsaw where he graduated in 1924 under the guidance of Czesław Białobrzeski.<ref name="little"/>
===Military service=== Between the years 1918–1919 he served in the military.
===Physics research=== In 1930, earned his doctorate at the University of Warsaw on the work of ''Sur le movement tournant d'un corps dans un champ de gravitation'', and began to live there in 1932. He became a professor at the University of Kazan in 1936. The following year, he returned to Warsaw. In the years 1937–1939, he worked at the Jagiellonian University, under {{Interlanguage link|Jan Weyssenhoff (physicist)|pl|3=Jan Weyssenhoff (fizyk)|lt=Jan Weyssenhoff}}.
Mathisson corresponded with Albert Einstein on theoretical aspects of relativity, as documented in archival correspondence. Niels Bohr invited him to Copenhagen.<ref name="little"/> During his career he also interacted with Jacques Hadamard in Paris in 1939 and with Paul Dirac in Cambridge, England. Later, Dirac arranged for the posthumous publication of some of his work and wrote an obituary in ''Nature''.<ref> {{Cite journal |last1=Dirac |first1=P. A. M. |year=1940 |title=Dr. M. Mathisson |journal=Nature |volume=146 |issue=3706 |pages=613 |bibcode=1940Natur.146..613D |doi=10.1038/146613b0 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
In chronological order; M. Mathisson,<ref> {{cite journal |last=Mathisson |first=M. |year=1937 |title=Neue Mechanik materieller Systeme |journal=Acta Physica Polonica |volume=6 |pages=163–209 }}</ref> A. Papapetrou,<ref> {{cite journal |last=Papapetrou |first=A. |year=1951 |title=Spinning Test-Particles in General Relativity. I |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A |volume=209 |issue=1097 |pages=248–258 |bibcode=1951RSPSA.209..248P |doi=10.1098/rspa.1951.0200 |s2cid=121464697 }}</ref> and W. G. Dixon<ref> {{cite journal |last=Dixon |first=W. G. |year=1970 |title=Dynamics of Extended Bodies in General Relativity. I. Momentum and Angular Momentum |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A |volume=314 |issue=1519 |pages=499–527 |bibcode=1970RSPSA.314..499D |doi=10.1098/rspa.1970.0020 |s2cid=119632715 }}</ref> contributed to the derivation of the equations for a spinning body moving in a gravitational field, now known as the Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equations.
===Other work===
Due to financial difficulties, Mathisson had to work as a Hebrew translator, as a draftsman producing technical drawings, and engineering calculations of the statics of reinforced concrete structures.{{citation needed|date=October 2013}}<!---need to expand and clarify--->
Mathisson died of tuberculosis in Cambridge, on 13 September 1940.
==Publications== During his short lifetime, he published the following 12 scientific papers:
*{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1931 |title=Die Beharrungsgesetze in der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie |language=de |journal=Zeitschrift für Physik |volume=67 |issue=3–4 |pages=270–277 |bibcode=1931ZPhy...67..270M |doi=10.1007/BF01394605 |s2cid=121043524 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1931 |title=Die Mechanik des Materieteilchens in der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie |language=de |journal=Zeitschrift für Physik |volume=67 |issue=11–12 |pages=826–844 |bibcode=1931ZPhy...67..826M |doi=10.1007/BF01390764 |s2cid=120479236 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1931 |title=Bewegungsproblem in der Physik und Elektronenkonstanten |language=de |journal=Zeitschrift für Physik |volume=69 |issue=5–6 |pages=389–408 |bibcode=1931ZPhy...69..389M |doi=10.1007/BF01391361 |s2cid=121158482 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1933 |title=Eine Lösungsmethode für Differentialgleichungen vom normalen hyperbolischen Typus |language=de |journal=Mathematische Annalen |volume=107 |issue=1 |pages=400–419 |doi=10.1007/BF01448901 |s2cid=122168307 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1933 |title=Eine neue Integrationsmethode für Differentialgleichungen von normalem hyperbolischem Typus |language=de |journal=Mathematische Annalen |volume=107 |issue=1 |page=648 |doi=10.1007/BF01448913 |doi-access=free }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1934 |title=Die Parametrixmethode in Anwendung auf hyperbolische Gleichungssysteme |url=http://matwbn.icm.edu.pl/ksiazki/pmf/pmf41/pmf41117.pdf |language=de |journal=Prace Matematyczno-Fizyczne |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=177–185 }} *{{cite journal |last=Mathisson |first=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1937 |title=Neue Mechanik materieller Systeme |language=de |journal=Acta Physica Polonica |volume=6 |pages=163–209 }} *{{cite journal |last=Mathisson |first=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1937 |title=Das zitternde Elektron und seine Dynamik |language=de |journal=Acta Physica Polonica |volume=6 |pages=218–224 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1939 |title=Le problème de M. Hadamard relatif à la diffusion des ondes |language=fr |journal=Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris |volume=208 |pages=1776–1778 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1939 |title=Le problème de M. Hadamard relatif à la diffusion des ondes |language=fr |journal=Acta Mathematica |volume=71|issue=1 |pages=249–282 |doi=10.1007/BF02547756 |doi-access=free }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |last2=Bielecki |first2=A. |last3=Weyssenhoff |first3=J. W. |author-mask=With |name-list-style=amp |year=1939 |title=Sur un théorème concernant une transformation d'intégrales quadruples en intégrales curvilignes dans l'espace de Riemann |language=fr |journal=Bulletin International de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences et Lettres de Cracovie, Classe des Sciences Mathématiques et Naturelles, Section A |pages=22–28 |jfm=65.1415.01 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1940 |title=The variational equation of relativistic dynamics |journal=Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=331–350 |bibcode=1940PCPS...36..331M |doi=10.1017/S0305004100017370 |s2cid=122742158 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mathisson |first1=M. |author-mask=1 |year=1942 |title=Relativistic dynamics of a spinning magnetic particle |journal=Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=40–60 |bibcode=1942PCPS...38...40M |doi=10.1017/S0305004100022210 |s2cid=122107717 }}
==See also==
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{MacTutor |last=Lucia |first=U. |date=2005 |title=Myron Mathisson |id=Mathisson }} *{{cite web |last=Bartnik |first=E. A. |title=A short history of Theoretical Physics at Hoza 69... |url=http://info.fuw.edu.pl/~bartnik/hist.html |publisher=Warsaw University }} *{{cite arXiv |last1=Sauer |first1=T. |last2=Trautman |first2=A. |year=2008 |title=Myron Mathisson: What little we know of his life |eprint=0802.2971 |class=physics.hist-ph }} *{{cite book |last1=Eisenstaedt |first1=J. |last2=Kox |first2=A. J. |year=1992 |title=Studies in the History of General Relativity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDHCF_3vIhUC&pg=PA403 |publisher=Springer |volume=3 |page=400 |isbn=978-0-817-634-797 |series=Einstein Studies }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathisson, Myron}} Category:Polish relativity theorists Category:Quantum physicists Category:20th-century Polish Jews Category:University of Warsaw alumni Category:Jewish physicists Category:1897 births Category:1940 deaths