Hartland Snyder

Hartland Sweet Snyder
Born1913
Salt Lake City, U.S.
Died(1962-05-22)May 22, 1962
Berkeley, California, U.S.
Education
Known forCourant–Snyder parameters
Oppenheimer–Snyder model
Strong focusing
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical physics
Institutions
Doctoral advisorJ. Robert Oppenheimer

Hartland Sweet Snyder (1913 – May 22, 1962) was an American physicist[1] who, together with J. Robert Oppenheimer, showed how large stars would collapse to form black holes.[2] This work modeled the gravitational collapse of a pressure-free homogeneous fluid sphere and found that it would be unable to communicate with the rest of the universe.[3] This discovery was depicted in the movie Oppenheimer, where Snyder was portrayed by actor Rory Keane.[4] Historian of physics David C. Cassidy assessed that this prediction of black holes might have won a Nobel Prize in Physics had the authors been alive in the 1990s when evidence was available.[5]

Some publications Snyder authored together with Ernest Courant laid the foundations for the field of accelerator physics.[6] In particular, Snyder with Courant and Milton Stanley Livingston developed the principle of strong focusing that made modern particle accelerators possible. The Courant–Snyder parameters, a method of characterizing the distribution of particles in a beam, were an important part of that contribution.[7]

  1. ^ "Hartland S. Snyder". Physics Today. 15 (7): 78. July 1962. doi:10.1063/1.3058300.
  2. ^ Bartels, Meghan (21 July 2023). "Oppenheimer Almost Discovered Black Holes Before He Became 'Destroyer of Worlds'". Scientific American. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  3. ^ Oppenheimer, J. R.; Snyder, H. (1 September 1939). "On Continued Gravitational Contraction". Physical Review. 56 (5). American Physical Society (APS): 455–459. doi:10.1103/physrev.56.455. ISSN 0031-899X.
  4. ^ Thompson, David (29 July 2023). "Oppenheimer Cast: Every Celebrity & Actor In the Movie". The Direct. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  5. ^ Hollywood movie aside, just how good a physicist was Oppenheimer? A-bomb architect "was no Einstein", historian says, but he did Nobel-level work on black holes, Adrian Cho interviewing David C. Cassidy, Science (journal), 2023-07-17
  6. ^ Courant, E. D.; Livingston, M. S.; Snyder, H. S. (1952). "The Strong-Focusing Synchrotron—A New High Energy Accelerator". Physical Review. 88 (5): 1190–1196. Bibcode:1952PhRv...88.1190C. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.88.1190. hdl:2027/mdp.39015086454124.
  7. ^ Courant, E. D.; Snyder, H. S. (Jan 1958). "Theory of the alternating-gradient synchrotron" (PDF). Annals of Physics. 3 (1): 360–408. Bibcode:2000AnPhy.281..360C. doi:10.1006/aphy.2000.6012.