Valentine Bargmann

Valentine "Valya" Bargmann (April 6, 1908 – July

20, 1989)[1] was a German-American mathematician Valentine Bargmann
and theoretical physicist. Born 6 April 1908
Berlin, Prussia, Germany
Died 20 July 1989 (aged 81)
Biography Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Alma mater University of Berlin
Born in Berlin, Germany, to a German Jewish family,
Known for Bargmann algebra
Bargmann studied there from 1925 to 1933. After the
Bargmann kernel
National Socialist Machtergreifung, he moved to
Bargmann's limit
Switzerland to the University of Zürich where he
Bargmann's theorem
received his Ph.D. under Gregor Wentzel.
Bargmann–Wigner equations
He emigrated to the U.S., barely managing Bargmann–Michel–Telegdi equation
immigration acceptance, as his German passport was Segal–Bargmann space
to be revoked with only two days of validity left. Representation theory of SL2(R)
Awards Max Planck Medal (1988)
At the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton Wigner Medal (1978)
(1937–1946) he worked as an assistant to Albert
Scientific career
Einstein,[2] publishing with him and Peter Bergmann
on classical five-dimensional Kaluza–Klein theory Fields Physics

(1941). He taught at Princeton University from 1946 Institutions Princeton University

for the rest of his career. Thesis Über die durch Elektronenstrahlen
in Kristallen angeregte
He pioneered understanding of the irreducible Lichtemission (https://uzb.swisscov
unitary representations of SL2(R) and the Lorentz ery.slsp.ch/permalink/41SLSP_UZ
group (1947). He further formulated the Bargmann– B/1d8t6qj/alma9900757893302055
Wigner equations with Eugene Wigner (1948), for 08) (1937)
particles of arbitrary spin, building up on work of
Doctoral Gregor Wentzel
several theorists who pioneered quantum
[3][4] advisor
mechanics.

Bargmann's theorem (1954) on projective unitary representations of Lie groups gives a condition for
when a projective unitary representation of a Lie group comes from an ordinary unitary representation of
its universal cover.

Bargmann further discovered the Bargmann–Michel–Telegdi equation (1959) describing relativistic

precession; Bargmann's limit of the maximum number of QM bound states of a potential (1952); the
notion of Bargmann potentials[5] for the radial Schrödinger equations with bound states but no non-
trivial scattering, which play a basic role in the theory of Solitons, and the holomorphic representation in
the Segal–Bargmann space (1961), including the Bargmann kernel.
Bargmann was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1968.[6] In 1978, he
received the Wigner Medal, together with Wigner himself, in the founding year of the prize. In 1979,
Bargmann was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.[7] In 1988, he received the Max Planck
Medal of the German Physical Society.

He was also a talented pianist.

He died in Princeton in 1989.

References
1. "Valentine Bargmann". Biographical Memoirs, Vol. 76 (https://books.google.com/books?isbn
=0309064341). National Academy Press. 1999. pp. 37–50. ISBN 0-309-06434-1.
2. Witten, E. (2014). "A Note On Einstein, Bergmann, and the Fifth Dimension",
arXiv:1401.8048 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.8048)
3. V. Bargmann Irreducible Unitary Representations of the Lorentz Group (https://www.jstor.or
g/stable/1969129) The Annals of Mathematics 2nd Ser., Vol. 48, No. 3 (Jul., 1947), pp. 568-
640
4. Bargmann, V.; Wigner, E. P. (1948). "Group theoretical discussion of relativistic wave
equations" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079095). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
USA. 34 (5): 211–23. Bibcode:1948PNAS...34..211B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/194
8PNAS...34..211B). doi:10.1073/pnas.34.5.211 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.34.5.211).
PMC 1079095 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079095). PMID 16578292
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16578292).
5. V. Bargmann (1949). "On the Connection between Phase Shifts and Scattering Potential",
Reviews of Modern Physics, 21(3), 488–493. doi:10.1103/revmodphys.21.488
6. "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B" (http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMe
mbers/ChapterB.pdf) (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 17,
2011.
7. "NAS Membership Directory" (http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-membe
rs/58006.html). National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved March 22, 2020.

External links
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir (http://www.nasonline.org/publications/b
iographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/bargmann-valentine.pdf) by J R Klauder
The Princeton Mathematics Community in the 1930s, interview of Valentine Bargmann at
Princeton University on 12 April 1984 (https://web.archive.org/web/20121016000334/http://w
ww.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/mathoral/pmc02.htm)
Valentine Bargmann (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=117922) at the Mathematics
Genealogy Project
 Photo from a website (http://digilib.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/digitallibrary/servlet/Scaler?dw=425
&dh=600&fn=permanent/einstein_exhibition/images/bargmann1&)

Selected bibliography
1934: "Über den Zusammenhang zwischen Semivektoren and Spinoren und die Reduktion
der Diracgleichung für Semivektoren". Helv. Phys. Acta 7:57-82.
1936: "Zur Theorie des Wasserstoffatoms". Z. Phys. 99:576-82.
1937: "Über die durch Elektronenstrahlen in Kristallen angeregte Lichtemission". Helv. Phys.
Acta 10:361-86.
1941: With A. Einstein and P. G. Bergmann. "On the five-dimensional representation of
gravitation and electricity". In Theodore von Kármán Anniversary Volume, pp. 212–25,
(Pasadena, California Institute of Technology).
1944: With A. Einstein. "Bivector fields". Ann. Math. 45:1-14.
1945: "On the glancing reflection of shock waves". Applied Mathematics Panel Report No.
108
1946: With D. Montgomery and J. von Neumann. "Solution of linear systems of high order".
Report to the Bureau of Ordinance, U. S. Navy.
1947: "Irreducible unitary representations of the Lorentz group". Ann. Math. 48:568-640.
1948: With E. P. Wigner. "Group theoretical discussion of relativistic wave equations". Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 34:211-23.
1949: "Remarks on the determination of a central field of force from the elastic scattering
phase shifts". Phys. Rev. 75:301-303.
"On the connection between phase shifts and scattering potential". Rev. Mod. Phys.
21:488-93.
1952: "On the number of bound states in a central field of force". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
U.S.A. 38:961-66.
1954: "On unitary ray representations of continuous groups". Ann. Math. 59:1-46.
1959: With L. Michel and V. Telegdi. "Precession of the polarization of particles moving in a
homogeneous electromagnetic field". Phys. Rev. Lett. 2:435-36.
1960: "Relativity". In Theoretical Physics in the Twentieth Century (Pauli Memorial Volume),
eds., M. Fierz and V. F. Weisskopf, pp. 187–98. New York: Interscience Publishers.
With M. Moshinsky. "Group theory of harmonic oscillators. I. The collective modes". Nucl.
Phys. 18:697-712.
1961: With M. Moshinsky. "Group theory of harmonic oscillators. II. The integrals of motion
for the quadrupole-quadrupole interaction". Nucl. Phys. 23:177-99.
"On a Hilbert space of analytic functions and an associated integral transform. Part I."
Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 14:187-214.
1962: "On the representations of the rotation group". Rev. Mod. Phys. 34:829-45.
1964: "Note on Wigner’s theorem on symmetry operations". J. Math. Phys. 5:862-68.
1967: "On a Hilbert space of analytic functions and an associated integral transform. Part II.
A family of related function spaces application to distribution theory". Commun. Pure Appl.
Math. 20:1-101.
1971: With P. Butera, L. Girardello, and J. R. Klauder. "On the completeness of the coherent
states". Rep. Math. Phys. 2:221-28.
1972: "Notes on some integral inequalities". Helv. Phys. Acta 45:249-57.
1977: With I. T. Todorov. "Spaces of analytic functions on a complex cone as carriers for the
symmetric tensor representations of SO(n)". J. Math. Phys. 18:1141-48.
 1979: "Erinnerungen eines Assistanten Einsteins". Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden
Gesellschaft in Zürich, Jahrgang 124, Heft 1, pp. 39–44. Zürich: Druck und Verlag Orell
Fussli Graphische Betriebe AG.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valentine_Bargmann&oldid=1263385313"