José Enrique Moyal (Hebrew : יוסף הנרי מויאל ; born 1 October 1910 Jerusalem , Ottoman Empire – died 22 May 1998 Canberra , Australia ) was a mathematical physicist who contributed to aeronautical engineering , electrical engineering and statistics , among other fields.[ 1] [ 2]
He helped establish the phase space formulation of quantum mechanics in 1949 by bringing together the ideas of Hermann Weyl , John von Neumann , Eugene Wigner , and Hip Groenewold .[ 3] This formulation is statistical in nature[ 4] and makes logical connections between quantum mechanics and classical statistical mechanics , enabling a natural comparison between the two formulations. "Phase Space Quantization," is a synonym for "Moyal Quantization" and largely avoids use of operators for quantum mechanical observables prevalent in the canonical formulation.[ 5] Quantum-mechanical evolution in phase space is specified by a Moyal bracket .
Moyal grew up in Tel Aviv , and attended the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium . He studied in Paris in the 1930s, at the École Supérieure d'Electricité, Institut de Statistique, and, finally, at the Institut Henri Poincaré . His work was carried out in wartime England in the 1940s, while employed at the de Havilland Aircraft company. He was a professor of mathematics at Macquarie University , a colleague of John Clive Ward at the former School of Mathematics and Physics, having previously worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois .[ 2]
References [ edit ]
^ * J. Gani, "Obituary: José Enrique Moyal," J. Appl. Probab. 35 (1998), no. 4, 1012–1017.
^ a b Ann Moyal, Maverick Mathematician: The Life and Science of J.E. Moyal , ANU E-press, 2006; ISBN 978-1920942588 , accessible online
^ Curtright, T. L.; Zachos, C. K. (2012). "Quantum Mechanics in Phase Space". Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter 01 : 37. doi :10.1142/S2251158X12000069 .
^ M.S. Bartlett , "José Enrique Moyal," The Statistician 48 (1998), 273–274. (Bartlett acknowledges how much he gained from Moyal's wide knowledge of the European literature on probability.)
^ C. K. Zachos , D. B. Fairlie, and T. L. Curtright , "Quantum Mechanics in Phase Space", World Scientific , Singapore, 2005; ISBN 981-238-384-0
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