TRIBUTE PAID TO MARTIN L. PERL, NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING PHYSICIST

TRIBUTE PAID TO

 MARTIN L. PERL, NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING PHYSICIST

Martin L. Perl, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, dies at 87,who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics, died Sept. 30 ,2014,at 87.Martin L. Perl, a physicist who was credited with unveiling a previously unknown subatomic building block of matter, a discovery for which he shared a Nobel Prize and that broadened the field of physics, died Sept. 30 at a hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 87.The cause was a heart attack, said his son Jed Perl.

Dr. Perl seemed to embody the image of the undaunted scientist who pursues a question even when the answer appears unreachable, and despite the skeptics who might doubt that it exists at all.He spent decades as a research professor at Stanford University, where, in the 1960s, he and colleagues at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center began the work that would be honored with the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics.At the time, the prevailing belief among scientists was that the physical world included two types of particles known as leptons — electrons and muons — and the associated members of their families. Dr. Perl sensed that there had to be at least one more group.“Why are there just these two particles?” he asked himself, according to an account in the San Jose Mercury News. “Why does nature just have these two things?”With his colleagues, Dr. Perl identified the tau lepton. More than 3,000 times heavier than an electron, and highly unstable, it exists for less than a trillionth of a second before breaking into smaller elements. To document its existence, Dr. Perl studied its residue.The findings, made between 1974 and 1977, were initially doubted by physicists who could not independently detect the particle.

“People didn’t believe for three more years,” Dr. Perl told the San Jose paper. “Those were the three most difficult years of my life. Others couldn’t find it, so I thought I must be doing something wrong. It was a wrenching experience. I kept going over the data, looking for a bias.”His data later helped lead to the completion of the Standard Model, which is used by physicists to explain the structure of matter.Dr. Perl shared the Nobel with Frederick Reines, a physicis from the University of California at Irvine who was credited with leading the discovery of the neutrino, another infinitesimally small component of matter.

നോ­ബൽ പു­ര­സ്‌­കാ­ര­ജേ­താ­വാ­യ ഭൗ­തീ­ക ശാ­സ്‌­ത്ര­ജ്ഞൻ മാർ­ട്ടിൻ ലെ­വി­സ്‌ പേൾ (87) അ­ന്ത­രി­ച്ചു. വ്യാ­ഴാ­ഴ്‌­ച സ്റ്റാൻ­ഫോർ­ഡി­ലെ സ്വ­കാ­ര്യ ആ­ശു­പ­ത്രി­യി­ലാ­യി­രു­ന്നു അ­ന്ത്യം. 1995ലെ ഭൗ­തീ­ക ശാ­സ്‌­ത്ര­ത്തി­നു­ള്ള നോ­ബൽ പു­ര­സ്‌­കാ­രം ഇ­ദ്ദേ­ഹം അ­മേ­രി­ക്കൻ ഭൗ­തീ­ക ശാ­സ്‌­ത്ര­ജ്ഞൻ ഫെ­ഡ­റി­ക്ക്‌ റി­ന­സു­മാ­യി പ­ങ്കു­വെ­ച്ചു.
ടാ ലെ­പ്‌­റ്റോൺ എ­ന്ന അ­സ്ഥി­ര­മാ­യ ക­ണ­ത്തി­ന്റെ ക­ണ്ടെ­ത്ത­ലി­നാ­ണ്‌ മാർ­ട്ടി­ന്‌ നോ­ബൽ സ­മ്മാ­നം ല­ഭി­ച്ച­ത്‌.ന്യു­യോർ­ക്കി­ലാ­ണ്‌ മാർ­ട്ടിൻ ജ­നി­ച്ച­ത്‌. പോ­ള­ണ്ടിൽ നി­ന്ന്‌ കു­ടി­യേ­റി­പ്പാർ­ത്ത­വ­രാ­ണ്‌ ഇ­ദ്ദേ­ഹ­ത്തി­ന്റെ മാ­താ­പി­താ­ക്കൾ. കൊ­ളം­ബി­യ യൂ­ണി­വേ­ഴ്‌­സി­റ്റി­യിൽ നി­ന്നാ­ണ്‌ ഭൗ­തീ­ക ശാ­സ്‌­ത്ര­ത്തിൽ പി­എ­ച്ച്‌­ഡി പൂർ­ത്തി­യാ­ക്കി­യ­ത്‌.
നോ­ബൽ പു­ര­സ്‌­കാ­ര­ജേ­താ­വാ­യ ഇ­സ­ദോർ ഐ­സ­ക്ക്‌ റാ­ബി­യു­ടെ കീ­ഴി­ലാ­യി­രു­ന്നു ഗ­വേ­ഷ­ണം.

Prof. John Kurakar