Felix Pirani

Felix Pirani
Born(1928-02-02)2 February 1928
England
Died31 December 2015(2015-12-31) (aged 87)[1][2][3]
London, England
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materUniversity of Toronto
Carnegie Institute of Technology
University of Cambridge
Known forGeneral relativity
Gravitational wave solution
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist
InstitutionsKing's College London
Doctoral advisorsAlfred Schild
Hermann Bondi
Doctoral studentsValentine Joseph
Peter Szekeres

Felix Arnold Edward Pirani (2 February 1928 – 31 December 2015) was a British theoretical physicist, and professor at King's College London, specialising in gravitational physics and general relativity.[1][2] [4] Pirani and Hermann Bondi wrote a series of articles (1959 to 1989) that established the existence of plane wave solutions for gravitational waves based on general relativity.[2][5][6][7][8][9]

During the last half of the 20th century Pirani was politically active, studied disarmament and advocated the responsible use of science.[2][10][11]

His most famous scientific results include works on the physical meaning of the curvature tensor, gravitational waves, and the algebraic classification of the Weyl tensor, which he discovered in 1957 independently of A.Z. Petrov and is sometimes called the Petrov-Pirani classification.

  1. ^ a b "Felix Pirani obituary". The Guardian. 4 February 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Obituary of Felix Pirani". The Daily Telegraph. 10 February 2016.
  3. ^ Memorial to Felix Pirani – The Muchloved Community
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rickles was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Pirani, Felix (1956), "On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor", Acta Physica Polonica, 15: 389–405, Bibcode:1956AcPP...15..389P
  6. ^ Pirani, Felix A. E (9 April 2009), "Republication of: On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor", General Relativity and Gravitation, 41 (5): 1215–1232, Bibcode:2009GReGr..41.1215P, doi:10.1007/s10714-009-0787-9, S2CID 121457672
  7. ^ Pirani, F. A (1 February 1957), "Invariant formulation of gravitational radiation Theory", Phys. Rev., 105 (3): 1089–1099, Bibcode:1957PhRv..105.1089P, doi:10.1103/PhysRev.105.1089
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference waves59 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Hermann Bondi; F. A. E. Pirani (8 February 1989). "Gravitational Waves in General Relativity. XIII. Caustic Property of Plane Waves". Proc. R. Soc. A. 251 (1227): 395. Bibcode:1989RSPSA.421..395B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1989.0016. S2CID 121994014.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wick was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference NewScience was invoked but never defined (see the help page).