Michael Nauenberg

Professor of Physics (emeritus)
University of California, Santa Cruz

I received my Ph.d in physics at Cornell under Hans Bethe in 1960. After a year and a half as a fellow at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, I taught and did research in particle physics at Columbia and Stanford before coming in 1966 to the University of California at Santa Cruz. I was a founding member of its Physics Dept. initiating its program of particle and theoretical condensed matter physics. I retired from teaching in 1994 and now I am a Reseach Professor of Physics. My primary research interests have been in particle physics, condensed matter physics, astrophysics, and nonlinear dynamics. I also have had a long standing interest in the history of physics and mathematics, particularly during the 17-century, and I published articles on the works of Hooke, Newton and Huygens, and book reviews in this field. More recently I have written about more contemporary scientist like Poincare, Chandrasekhar and Stoner. I also have been in various activities which have brought historians of science and physicists together.


For a list of publications and other activities, see publications, recent publications


Videos of recent physics colloquia and lectures:

Sometimes it takesa short while before the videos appear. To watch these videos full screen, click on the four petal icon at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.


Quantum mechanics, relativity, and the Mass limit of compact stars


Quantum mechanics, relativity, and the mass limit of compact stars from Michael Nauenberg on Vimeo.

Kitchen sink experiments in fluid flow


Kitchen sink experiment in fluid flow from Michael Nauenberg on Vimeo.




The Physics underlying how dogs and cats lap from Michael Nauenberg on Vimeo.

Solution of the mystery of Huygen's anomalous supension
[anomalous suspension]

The Science of Leonardo from Michael Nauenberg on Vimeo.

Recollections of UCSC: 1966-1996

[pdf]


Some meetings organized in the past

• A session on Hooke and Newton at the 1993 Santa Fe meeting of the History of Science Society (with E. Drake)
• The Forum for the history of Physics session at the 1995 March meeting of the American Physical Society
  featuring a keynote talk on Newton by S. Chandrasekhar
• A symposium on Newtonian scholarship, held at the Royal Society of London on March 1997 (with R. Dalitz and J.B. Brackenridge)

  Symposium on Newtonian Scholarship

• A debate on science and science studies at UCSC on May 1997 (with T. Porter) featuring Alan Sokal and a cast of celebrities in the so called science-wars.

  Science Studies

• The Forum of the History of Physics session of the April 2000 meeting of the American Physical Society.
  The topic of this session was " New Perspectives on the History of Ancient Astronomy"
  The speakers were Owen Gingerich (Harvard), George Saliba (Columbia) and James Evans (Washington Univ.).
  See an animation of the orbit of Mars according to Ptolemy's model, Mars' orbit , compared with Kepler's drawing of this orbit in Astronomia Nova (1609))

  FHP session on New Perspective on the Development of Ancient Astronomy

  Summary of talks on the History of Ancient Astronomy

  History of Science and Technology Initiative

  The Birth of Quantum Theory

  The Foundations of Newtonian Scholarship

  Animations of periodic orbits

• C. Moore of the Santa Fe Institute and I found several new 3-d period orbits for n equal masses which move symmetrically under the action of gravitational forces. To see some video animations of these orbits, click below
  

  3-D period orbits of n equal masses, n=3,4,6,12

  fig8 with 3 masses

  2 intersecting Lagrange orbits with 3 masses each

  3 intersecting Lagrange orbits with 2 masses each

  28 masses orbiting under gravitational forces

  hiphop

  Science News article: Strange Orbits

  [animation of figure 8 orbit with 3 equal masses]

  [animation of figure 8 orbit with 21 equal masses]

  [animation of criss-cross orbit with equal masses]

  [animation of criss-cross orbit with mass ratio 1:2:3]

• Figure 8 orbit rotating around the x-axis of symmetry. Blue, red and green are the segments of the orbit occupied by each of the 3 particles shown at discrete time intervals T/12. The dashed lines correspond to the orbit below the x-y plane. [postcript]

  [animation of 3 masses rotating with omega=0.]

  [animation of 3 masses rotating with omega=.5]

  [animation of 3 masses rotating with omega=.9]

  [animation of 3 masses rotating with omega=1.0]

  [animation of 9 masses rotating with omega=.5]

• Figure 8 orbit rotating around the y-axis of symmetry. [postcript]

  [animation of 3 masses rotating with omega=.5] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Publications in history of science

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • - Newton's Early Computational Method for Dynamics
    Archives for History of Exact Science, 46 (1994) 221-251 pdf
  • - Hooke, Orbital motion, and Newton's Principia
    American Journal of Physics., 62,(1994) 331-350 pdf
  • - Newton's Principia and Inverse Square Orbits
    The College Mathematics Journal, 25 (1994) 211-222 pdf
  • - Huygens and Newton on Curvature and its applications to Dynamics
    De Zeventiende eeuw, Cultuur in de Nederlanden in interdisciplinair
    perspectief, 12 (1996) 215-234
  • - On Hooke's 1685 Manuscript on Orbital Mechanics
    Historia Mathematica 25 (1998) 89-93. pdf
  • - Newton's unpublished perturbation method for the lunar motion
    Pergamon International Journal of Engineering Science 36 (1998), 1391-1405.
  • - Comment on "An analysis of Newtons Projectile diagram"
    European Journal of Physics 21 (2000) L5-6
    See also reply by D. Topper and D.E. Vincent in
    European Journal of Physics 21 (2000) L7-8
    
  • -"Newton's Curvature Measure of Force: New Findings"
    "A New translation and Guide to Newton's Principia" by I.B. Cohen
    (University of California Press (1999)
    
  • - Newton's perturbation methods and it application to Lunar motion
    "Isaac Newton's Natural Philosophy" edited by I.B. Cohen and J. Buchwald, (M.I.T Press, 2001) Book
    
  • - Curvature in Newton's Dynamics ( with J.B. Brackenridge)
    in the "Cambridge Companion to Newton" edited by I. B. Cohen and G. Smith ( Cambridge, 2002)
  • - "Robert Hooke's Seminal Contributions to Orbital Dynamics" [pdf]
    Physics in Perspective 7, (March 2005) 4-34
    Reprinted in "Robert Hooke Tercentennial Studies,
    edited by Michael Cooper and Michael Hunter (Ashgate, London 2006) pp. 3-32
  • -" Hooke's memorandum on the development of orbital dynamics"
    Early Science and Medicine, v.4 n.4, Nov. (2005) [pdf]
  • -"How Einstein discovered the Photon"
    History of Physics Newsletter IX, no. 6 (2006), 18-19
  • -"Einstein and Bose"
    Letter to the Editor, Physics Today, June 2007 [pdf]
  • -"Edmund C. Stoner and the discovery of the maximum mass of white dwarfs
    Journal for the History of Astronomy 39, (2008) 297-312 pdf
    Synopsis in History of Physics Newsletter 10 (2008), 9
  • -"Early application of the calculus to the inverse square force problem"
    Archive for History of Exact Sciences 64 (2010) 269-300 pdf
  • -" Placing Chandra's work in historical context"
    Letter to Editor, Physics Today 64 (2011), Issue 7, p. 8 pdf
  • -"Proposition 10, Boo2, in the Principia, revisited"
    Archive for the History of Exact Sciences (2011) (to be published) pdf
  • -"Barrow and Leibniz on the Fundamental Theorem of the Calculus"
    Historia Mathematica (2011) (to be published) pdf
  • -" The reception of Newton's Principia" pdf

    Recent publications in Physics and in Astrophysics

  • - Correlated Wave packet treatment of neutrino and neutral
    meson oscillations
    [Abstract] [Postscript]
    Physics Letters B 447 (1999) 23-30
    
  • - "Wave packets: Past and Present". Inntroduction to Wave Packets in Chemistry and Physics edited by T. Uzer and J. Yeazell (Wiley, 2000) [Postscript]
  • - Periodic orbits for three equal mass particles with finite angular momentum
    Phys. Lett A 292 (2001)93-99
    [Postscript]
  • Determination of masses and other properties of extra-solar planetary systems with more than one planet,
    Astrophysical Journal 568, 369-376 (2002)
    [pdf]
  • Fit to the most recent stellar oscillations of GJ 876
    ( Zero of time is the time of the first Keck data point published by Marcy et. al., ApJ. July 20, 2001)
    [Postscript]
  • Stability and eccentricity for two planets in a 1:1 resonance, and application to extrasolar planetary systems.
    Astronomical Journal 124,2332 (2002) [Postscript]
  • On the possible existence of quark stars (with George Chapline)
    Annals N.Y. Academy of Sciences 302,192-196 (1977)
    [PDF]
  • "A critique of q-entropy for thermal statistics"
    Physical Review E 67, 036114 (2003)
    [Postscript]
  • Reply to C. Tsallis's "Comments on critique of q-entropy for thermal statistics by M. Nauenberg"
    Physical Review E 69, 038102 (2004)
  • - Kepler's Area Law in the Principia: Filling in some details in Newton's proof of Proposition 1
    Historia Mathematica 30, 441-456 (2003)
    
  • "The evolution of radiation towards thermal equilibrium:
    A soluble model which illustrates the foundations of statistical mechanics"
    American Journal of Physics 72, 313 (2004)
  • -"A stochastic treatment for radiation in equilibrium with a thermal reservoir"
    preprint (2006)
    
  • -"Curvature in Orbital Dynamics"
    American Journal of Physics 73, 340 (2005)
    
  • " Period relation for the 2:1 resonance in the GJ876 planetary system "
    astro-ph/0507217, 8 July 2005
    [PDF]
    
  • "Continuity and Stability of families of figure eight orbits with finite angular momemtum"
    arXiv: math.DS/0504283, 13 April 2005
    Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy 97 (2007) 93-99
    [PDF]
  • "New periodic orbits for the N-body problem"
    arXiv: math.DS/0511219, 8 Nov. 2005
    Journal of Computation and Nonlinear Dynamics 1, 307 ( 2006)
    Special Issue Honoring the 60th birthday of Phillip Holmes.
    [PDF]
    
  • "Solved: The mystery of Huygens' anomalous suspension"
    [anomalous suspension]
  • "Orbites periodiques du probleme des trois corps: les origins, les contributions de Hill et de Poincare, et quelques developpements recents"
    L`heritage scientifique de Poincare, eds. E. Charpertier, E. Ghys, et A. Lesne (Belin, Paris, 2006), 128-157
  • Comment on "Hot gases:the transition from line spectra to thermal radiation"
    American Journal of Physics 75, (2007), 215-223 [PDF]

    Book Reviews

  • - Chandrasekhar, Newton' Principia for the Common Reader
    [review]
    Am. J. Phys. 64 (1996)
  • - The Mathematical principles underlying the Principia revisited
    Essay Review of "The Key to Newton's Dynamics: The Kepler problem and the Principia", by Bruce Brackenridge,
    and "Newton's Principia" by Dana Densmore
    in Journal for History of Astronomy, 29 (1998) 286-300
  • -Niccolo Guicciardini, "Reading the Principia"
    Centaurus, March (2001) [PDF]
    
  • -N. Kollerstrom, "Newton and the Lunar Motion, Essay Review of "Newton's forgotten Lunar Theory",
    Journal for History of Astronomy, 32 (2001)162-168 [PDF]
    
  • -Ofer Gal, "Meanest Foundations and Nobler Superstructures:
    Hooke, Newton and the Compounding of the Celestiall Motions of the Planets"
    Isis (Sept. 2005) [PDF]
    
  • - B. Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner, "Quantum Enigma: Physics encounters Consciousness"
    Foundations of Physics 37, (2007) 215-223 [PDF]
    
  • Niccolo Guicciardini, " Isaac Newton on Mathematical Certainty and Method", MIT Press 2009
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
    [http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24393-isaac-newton-on-mathematical-certainty-and-method/]

    Letters to the Editor

  • "Refereeing Reform Recommendations"
    [Physics Today, April 1994]
    
  • "How Santa Cruz faculty built itself up"
    [Physics Today, May 1994]
    
  • Ex-Cathedra
    The Scientist 40 (2000) 3 The Sun in the Church
  • "Theory, Phenomenology, and `Who ordered that'n"
    [Physics Today, January 2001]
    
  • "Did Newton need Hooke's program to Divine Planetary motion?"
    Physics Today, Sept. 2003
    
  • "Hooke, Newton, Divining Planetary Motion"
    [Physics Today, February 2004]
    
  • "Hooke, Newton, and the Trials of Historical Examination"
    [Physics Today, August 2004]
    
  • "Gap in Einstein's early argument for the existence of photons"
    [Physics Today, October, 2005 17-18]
  • " Articles on non-extensive statistical mechanics in Europhysics News"
    [Europhysics news, n.2 v. 57 (2006)]
    
  • " Bose Statistics"
    [Physics Today, June 2007)
  • "On D. Mermin's review of `Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness
    [American Journal of Physics 75 (2007) 1061]
    
  • "What is bad about this habit?"
    [Physics Today, Sept. 2009]
    
  • "Fluid dynamics and Pollock's paint applicators"
    [Physics Today, Nov. 2010]
    
  • "Time symmetric quantum mechanics questioned"
    [Physics Today, May. 2011]
    
  • "Placing Chandra in historical contexts"
    [Physics Today, July. 2011]
    
  • "Nature's manifest absurdity: A cautionary tale"
    [Physics Today, June. 2012]
    

    Books

  • - The Foundations of Newtonian Scholarship
    edited by R.Dalitz and M. Nauenberg (World Scientific, 2000) B

    Invited Lectures

    -----------------------------------
  • - "Robert Hooke's Seminal Contributions to Orbital Dynamics" [PDF]
    Lecture presented at the Hooke Tercentenary conference at the London Royal Society, July 7-8, 2003
    Published in Physics in Perspective 7, (March 2005) 4-34 [Background]
    [PDF]
    
  • - "The Early history of the three-body problem and the legacy of Poincare"
    Lecture presented at the Colloque Henri Poincare
    on the 150 anniversary of his birth, Paris Dec. 16-18 (2004)
    
  • -"Einstein's quantum theory of radiation revisited"
    APS meeting, March 23, and NCAAPT meeting , April 9,2005
    [abstract]
    
  • "Edmund C. Stoner pioneering work on white dwarfs"
    Physics colloquium at the University of Leeds, England, Nov. 29 (2007) and in Paris, Dec. 5 (2007) [pdf]