Timeline of computational physics
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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Timeline of computational physics
1930s
- John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry create the first electronic non-programmable, digital computing device, the Atanasoff–Berry Computer, from 1937 to 1942.
1940s
- Nuclear bomb and ballistics simulations at Los Alamos and BRL, respectively.[1]
- Monte Carlo simulation (voted one of the top 10 algorithms of the 20th century) invented at Los Alamos by von Neumann, Ulam and Metropolis.[2][3][4]
- First hydro simulations at Los Alamos occurred.[5][6]
- Ulam and von Neumann introduce the notion of cellular automata.[7]
1950s
- Equations of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines introduces the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm.[8] Also, important earlier independent work by Alder and S. Frankel.[9][10]
- Fermi, Ulam and Pasta with help from Mary Tsingou, discover the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem.[11]
- Molecular dynamics invented by Alder and Wainwright[12]
1960s
- Molecular dynamics was invented independently by Aneesur Rahman.[13]
- Kruskal and Zabusky follow up the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem with further numerical experiments, and coin the term "soliton".[14][15]
- Edward Lorenz discovers the butterfly effect on a computer, attracting interest in chaos theory.[16]
- W Kohn instigates the development of density functional theory (with LJ Sham and P Hohenberg),[17][18] for which he shares the Nobel Chemistry Prize (1998).[19] This contribution is arguably the first Nobel given for a computer programme or computational technique.
- Frenchman Verlet (re)discovers a numerical integration algorithm,[20] (first used in 1791 by Delambre, by Cowell and Crommelin in 1909, and by Carl Fredrik Störmer in 1907,[21] hence the alternative names Störmer's method or the Verlet-Störmer method) for dynamics, and the Verlet list.[20]
1970s
- Veltman's calculations at CERN lead him and t'Hooft to valuable insights into renormalizability of electroweak theory.[22] The computation has been cited as a key reason to the award of the Nobel prize to both.[23]
- Hardy, Pomeau and de Pazzis introduced the first lattice gas model, abbreviated as the HPP model after its authors.[24][25] These later evolve into lattice Boltzmann models.
- Wilson shows that continuum QCD is recovered for an infinitely large lattice with its sites infinitesimally close to one another, thereby beginning lattice QCD.[26]
1980s
- Italian physicists Car and Parrinello invent the Car–Parrinello method.[27]
- Fast multipole method invented by Rokhlin and Greengard (voted one of the top 10 algorithms of the 20th century).[28][29][30]
See also
- Timeline of scientific computing
- Computational physics
- Important publications in computational physics
References
- ↑ Ballistic Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. Accessed 5 may 2012.
- ↑ S. Ulam, R. D. Richtmyer, and J. von Neumann(1947). Statistical methods in neutron diffusion. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory report LAMS–551.
- ↑ N. Metropolis and S. Ulam (1949). The Monte Carlo method. Journal of the American Statistical Association 44:335–341.
- ↑ Richtmyer, R. D. (1948). Proposed Numerical Method for Calculation of Shocks. Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory LA-671.
- ↑ A Method for the Numerical Calculation of Hydrodynamic Shocks. Von Neumann, J.; Richtmyer, R. D. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 21, pp. 232–237
- ↑ Von Neumann, J., Theory of Self-Reproduiing Automata, Univ. of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1966.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Unfortunately, Alder's thesis advisor was unimpressed, so Alder and Frankel delayed publication of their results until much later. Alder, B. J. , Frankel, S. P. , and Lewinson, B. A. , J. Chem. Phys., 23, 3 (1955).
- ↑ http://www.hp9825.com/html/stan_frankel.html
- ↑ Fermi, E. (posthumously); Pasta, J.; Ulam, S. (1955) : Studies of Nonlinear Problems (accessed 25 Sep 2012). Los Alamos Laboratory Document LA-1940. Also appeared in 'Collected Works of Enrico Fermi', E. Segre ed. , University of Chicago Press, Vol.II,978–988,1965. Recovered 21 Dec 2012
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Zabusky, N. J.; Kruskal, M. D. (1965). "Interaction of 'solitons' in a collisionless plasma and the recurrence of initial states". Phys. Rev. Lett. 15 (6): 240–243. Bibcode 1965PhRvL..15..240Z. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.15.240.
- ↑ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soliton ; retrieved 3 nov 2012.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Frank Close. The Infinity Puzzle, pg 207. OUP, 2011.
- ↑ Stefan Weinzierl:- "Computer Algebra in Particle Physics." pgs 5–7. arXiv:hep-ph/0209234. All links accessed 1 January 2012. "Seminario Nazionale di Fisica Teorica", Parma, September 2002.
- ↑ J. Hardy, Y. Pomeau, and O. de Pazzis (1973). "Time evolution of two-dimensional model system I: invariant states and time correlation functions". Journal of Mathematical Physics, 14:1746–1759.
- ↑ J. Hardy, O. de Pazzis, and Y. Pomeau (1976). "Molecular dynamics of a classical lattice gas: Transport properties and time correlation functions". Physics Review A, 13:1949–1961.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ L. Greengard, The Rapid Evaluation of Potential Fields in Particle Systems, MIT, Cambridge, (1987).
- ↑ Rokhlin, Vladimir (1985). "Rapid Solution of Integral Equations of Classic Potential Theory." J. Computational Physics Vol. 60, pp. 187–207.
- ↑ L. Greengard and V. Rokhlin, "A fast algorithm for particle simulations," J. Comput. Phys., 73 (1987), no. 2, pp. 325–348.