Riazuddin | |
|---|---|
 Riazuddin (1930–2013) | |
| Born | (1930-11-10)10 November 1930 |
| Died | 9 September 2013(2013-09-09) (aged 82)[1] |
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Citizenship | Pakistan |
| Alma mater | Punjab University Cambridge University |
| Known for | Kawarabayashi-Suzuki-Riazuddin-Fayyazuddin (KSRF) relation Pakistan'snuclear weapons andnuclear deterrence programmes Work onNeutrino Physics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical Physics |
| Institutions | Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Daresbury Laboratory Quaid-e-Azam University Punjab University King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals University of Iowa Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University University of Rochester University of Maryland National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences (PIEAS) |
| Doctoral advisor | Abdus Salam |
| Notable students | Masud Ahmad |
| Notes | |
Brother of thetheoretical physicistFayyazuddin. | |
Riazuddin, also spelled asRiaz-Ud-Din (Urdu: رياض الدين; 10 November 1930 – 9 September 2013),[2][3] was aPakistanitheoretical physicist, specialising inhigh-energy physics andnuclear physics. Starting his scientific research in physics in 1958, Riazuddin was considered one of the early pioneers of Pakistan'snuclear weapons development andatomic deterrence development. He was the director of the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) of thePakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from 1974 until 1984. Riazuddin was a pupil of the winner of the 1979Nobel Prize in Physics,Abdus Salam.[4]
Riazuddin carried out his research at theInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), PAEC, theEuropean Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) andDaresbury Laboratory where he published papers in mathematics and physics. Riazuddin also played an important role in education in Pakistan, contributing to the rise ofscience in Pakistan. Riazuddin authored several scientific books onparticle physics andquantum mechanics. Later in his life, he joined theNational University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) as a visiting professor of theoretical physics.
Riazuddin was born in a native Punjabi family inLudhiana inBritish Punjab of theBritish Indian Empire in 1930. After thePartition of India, his family migrated to Pakistan in 1947 and settled in Lahore,West-Pakistan. He is the twin brother of physicistFayyazuddin. At age 17, Riazuddin attendedPunjab University, and took hisBSc(Hons) inMathematics under the supervision ofAbdus Salam in 1951.[4] Riazuddin also studied under the supervision of Abdus Salam at thePostgraduate level at Cambridge University.[5] As a student of mathematics, he learned the advanced course onquantum mechanics under Abdus Salam, as he had made the course of quantum mechanics outside the regular curriculum.[6] In 1951, Salam funded his scholarship, and helped him gain admission to the graduate school of Punjab University. In 1953, Salam supervised hisMSc inapplied mathematics where his master's dissertation dealt with fundamental concepts of mathematical physics.[4][6] By the time he published his thesis in 1953, he received aGold medal from the Punjab University for post-graduate contributions to physics and mathematics.[7]
With the help of Salam, Riazuddin went to the United Kingdom on a scholarship and attendedUniversity of Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was awarded hisPhD inTheoretical physics in 1959.[5] Riazuddin'sdissertation was written on "Charge Radius of Pion" which also covered many issues relevant to the field ofquantum theory.[8] Riazuddin returned to Pakistan where he joined Punjab University as anassociate professor. In 1968, Riazuddin was awarded theGold Medal in Physical Sciences for scientists under 40 years of age by thePakistan Academy of Sciences.[7]
Riazuddin had joined Punjab University in 1959 as an associate professor of mathematics.[7] Four years later, he travelled to the United States for a fellowship awarded by Norman March andMichael Duff.[4] He became aresearch associate professor at theUniversity of Rochester where he stayed until 1965.[4] The same year, he joined theUniversity of Pennsylvania where he taught physics until 1966.[4] Later, he went toChicago, Illinois where he joined his brotherFayyazuddin, and theoretical physicists Faheem Hussain and Peter Rottoli. Riazuddin joinedUniversity of Chicago'sEnrico Fermi Institute where they created the "Relativity Group".[9] In 1968, Riazuddin returned to Pakistan on the request of Salam, and joinedQuaid-i-Azam University's Institute of Physics.[10] He was the founding director of the Institute of Physics (IP) where he engaged in research on string theory, the theory of relativity, particle physics and nuclear physics.[9][10] Later, the scientists of the Relativity Group at the Enrico Fermi Institute returned to Pakistan on the request of Salam.[10] In 1970, he returned to the United States where he became Professor of Mathematics at theUniversity of Maryland.[7] Riazuddin left the United States for Italy as he was asked by Salam to join theInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics in 1970.[7] He was joined by other students of Salam where they created a Theoretical Physics Group at the ICTP. In 1971, Riazuddin traveled to the United Kingdom to join theDaresbury Nuclear Physics Laboratory where he was joined by Michael Duff.[7] At Daresbury, he became senior research associate.[7] There, Riazuddin gained expertise and specialised in nuclear physics.[7] At Daresbury, he trained British scientists in the field of nuclear physics.[7]
In 1981, he became visiting professor of physics and mathematics at the University of Iowa and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, nowVirginia Tech.[4] In 1982, Riazuddin came back to Pakistan where he joinedQuaid-e-Azam University as a professor of theoretical physics.[4] In 1982, Riazuddin also went toSaudi Arabia where he joinedKing Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and became Chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and also taught physics at the Department of Physics. In 1983, Riazuddin, along with Asghar Qadir, went toTrieste, Italy, to join theInternational Centre for Theoretical Physics. Both scientists joined Salam where they continued research in their fields. In 1998, Riazuddin left King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and returned to Pakistan to rejoin PAEC.[7]
During his post-graduate research, Riazuddin made contributions to mathematical physics, as he was highly interested in complexmathematical series, and its relation tomodern physics. In 1959, Riazuddin was the first physicist to use thedispersion relation forCompton scattering of virtual photons on pions to analyse their charge radius.[11] For this contribution, he was awarded the doctorate in physics (theoretical) by Cambridge University. He seldom published papers, preferring long correspondences with his brother Fayyazuddin, mentor Abdus Salam, and colleagues includingAsghar Qadir,Michael Duff, andMasud Ahmad. During the 1960s, he associated himself with complex mathematical applications of nuclear physics. In 1960, Riazuddin used Nucleon-nucleon dispersion relation to discriminate proton-proton scattering inpseudoscalar mesons.[12] In 1965, Riazuddin carried out the pioneering work onvector currents, in which he showed the discrepancy betweenμ-decay and the constant gravity, and the strong interaction renormalisation of theBeta (β)-decay.[13]
The same year, theU.S. Atomic Energy Commission, partnering with thePakistan Atomic Energy Commission, sponsored Riazuddin to undertake further research. Along with Munir Ahmad Rashid and Fayyazuddin, Riazuddin realised that the physical baryons are considered broken inspecial unitary groups,symmetric groups and thetensor product.[14] The relevant papers were submitted at the United States Atomic Energy Commission. In 1967, at the Fermi Institute, Riazuddin, with his brother Fayyazuddin, carried out research in the field ofcurrent algebra, where they applied the mathematical framework of current algebra in the applications ofradiative decays of mesons.[15]
In 1982, Riazuddin and Fayyazuddin published a pioneering work on K mesons. Riazuddin postulated that radioactive decay in K mesons have almost vanished whenchiral symmetry is introduced. After the introduction, the symmetries break theStandard Model of particle physics, even when the contribution frompenguin diagrams is included.[16]
From 1972, Riazuddin made pioneering research onneutrinos— an elusive particle postulated byWolfgang Pauli in 1930. In 1972, Riazuddin and Fayyazuddin were the first to post mathematical frameworks of Current-algebra in neutrino scattering to determine theScale invariance of Chiral symmetry breaking theHamiltonian Quantum Mechanics.[17]In 1987, Riazuddin and Fayyazuddin theorised that it is possible get light-neutrino masses in the range of a few electron volts by equalising the masses of superheavy neutrinos inbackground independence (universality).[18]
In 2000, Riazuddin began his research in the seriesunsolved problems in physics. In 2005, at theNational Center for Physics (NCP), Riazuddin presented his papers on neutrinos where he provided the mathematical framework of the neutrinos. Neutrinos have heavier masses but theneutrino oscillations do not completely identify the overall scale of their exact masses because they are exceedingly tiny. To determine the exact masses, Riazuddin introduced the laws of limits, as he realised there was a limit, to the electron energyspectra intritiumβ-decay. In 2007, Riazuddin introduced SU(3) symmetry in the theory ofdouble beta decay. He postulated the light neutrinos formed atriplet state in a SU(3) symmetry during the process. In 2008, Riazuddin pointed out that the neutrino mass has μ and τ symmetry and theLepton number remains constant, a new type ofSeesaw mechanism is formed, the so-called Riazuddin's Seesaw Model, theDirac massmatrix provided theYukawa coupling to follow theMajorana fermion to satisfy theLeptogenesis asymmetry. Riazuddin proposed that this interaction can be avoided when two of the heavy right-hand neutrinos are (nearly) degenerate.[citation needed]
In 2009, Riazuddin published a mathematical theory of thenon-standard model, and its brief extensions toτ (tau) particles – particles that are similar to electrons with negative electric charge.[19] In an experiment performed at the Synchrotron light source installed at theNational Center for Physics (NCP), now the Abdus Salam Centre for Physics, Riazuddin observed the decay of the Tau particle, in which he theorised that hadronisationvector currents andaxial vectors can be used to study the implicit properties and functions of hadronic resonances, together with Chiral symmetry.[19] These natural elements can be assigned to the parts'weak current that the strong nuclear interaction conserves.[19] With the introduction of such elementary particles, it became critical to study the particle elements that hold the weak interaction.[19]
During his stay atPAEC, Riazuddin and Fayyazuddin were central figures of Pakistan's atomic program during the early and critical years. In December 1972, Riazuddin returned to Pakistan on the request of Salam.[20] Salam asked Riazuddin to report toMunir Ahmad Khan – chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission at that time.[21] At PAEC, Salam assigned Riazuddin to his Theoretical Physics Group (TPG).[22] The Theoretical Physics Group took research infast neutron calculations – how neutrons moved in a nuclear chain reaction – the theorysimultaneity — how would fission weapon would detonated from several points at the same point during the detonation process – and hydrodynamics – how the explosion produced by a chain reaction might behave – and what kind of and how much fissile material and reflectors would be used.[23] Salam had attracted theoretical physicists who worked under Riazuddin despite his younger age. Riazuddin was among the scientists who attended the Multan meeting that was managed by Salam and convened byPakistan PresidentZulfikar Ali Bhutto. After the meeting, Salam took Riazuddin, with Munir Ahmad Khan, to Bhutto's residence in Islamabad where the scientists briefed Bhutto about the development of the nuclear weapons programme.[24]
Although Salam had traveled to the United States to evade theIndo-Pakistani war of 1971, he returned to Pakistan with stacks of historical books on theManhattan Project in December 1971.[25] In December 1973, theUniversity of Maryland offered him a fellowship, and on the advice of Salam, Riazuddin went to United States.[26] There, he became a seniorresearch scientist at the University of Maryland, and obtained the open-source information on the "Manhattan Project" from theLibrary of Congress.[27] Riazuddin carefully studied Americantheoretical physicistJ. Robert Oppenheimer's approach to develop the first implosion device, and made further advances onTolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit,Oppenheimer–Phillips process,Born–Oppenheimer approximation.
After his return from the United States, Riazuddin was inducted into the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) asmember (technical).[28] In 1974, he began to take research with the TPG, and began one of the pioneering member of the TPG.[29] In 1973,Raziddin Siddiqui formed the Mathematical Physics Group (MPG) which closely collaborated with Theoretical Physics Group.[30] Riazuddin called his mathematician friendAsghar Qadir, who specialised inspecial relativity under Riazuddin and Salam, to join the Mathematical Physics Group. Later in his career, Qadir published a college text book on theory of special relativity. Shortly after the India surprisenuclear test —Pokhran-I, Munir Ahmad Khan called for a meeting to initiate the work on atomic bomb.[31] Riazuddin and Salam represented the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG), and it was decided to develop theimplosion method for the first device.[32] During the meeting, the word "bomb" was never used; instead academic scientists preferred to use the scientific research rationale.[33] The Theoretical Physics Group began its research and directly reported to Abdus Salam.[34]
In 1977, both MPG and TPG scientists completed the design and calculation of an atomic bomb.[35] Along with Qadir, Riazuddin continued to develop the theoretical designs of the atomic weapon during 1978.[36] In 1982 the PAEC finally developed the device under the leadership ofMunir Ahmad Khan.[37] The PAEC carried out the first cold-test of the TPG's theoretical design by May 1983 atKirana Hills. The test teams were headed byIshfaq Ahmad, a nuclear physicist, and Munir Ahmad Khan supervised the testings.[38]
Riazuddin later disclosed that he worked as part of the team, under Abdus Salam, that worked on designs for Pakistan's nuclear explosive device. As he explained:
"We were the designers of thebomb, like the tailor who tells you how much of the material is required to stitch a suit. We had to identify thefissile material, whether to useplutonium or...enriched uranium, which method of detonation, which explosive, which type of tampers and lenses to use, how material will be compressed, how shock waves will be created, what would be the yield." Riazuddin also disclosed that sincePakistan found it difficult to manufactureberyllium reflectors, the first nuclear explosive device designed by the "Theoretical Physics Group" usedUranium-238 as a reflector.[39][27]
Riazuddin also worked in aneutronparticle accelerator at PAEC. In 2000, Riazuddin retired from PAEC as achief scientist. In the same year, he was elected as Fellow of theThird World Academy of Sciences and Fellow of theIslamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS). Riazuddin was also a visiting scientist atCERN.
Riazuddin was an internationally known theoretical physicist. He had made contributions withCERN'sLarge Hadron Collider (LHC). At CERN, he was a widely respectedtheoretician.
Riazuddin is the recipient ofPakistan's highest civil awards:
He is one of thePakistani scientists who were very close toPakistani Prime MinisterZulfiqar Ali Bhutto andAbdus Salam. At PAEC, Riazuddin had closely worked with another noted Pakistanitheoretical physicistMasud Ahmad (late). Later in life, he worked as a professor oftheoretical physics andneutrino physics at theNational University of Sciences and Technology, inIslamabad.
He had also been the director of theRiazuddin National Center for Physics,[40] also at Quaid-e-Azam University. He was most famous for his TPG Group work Riazuddin and his team of theoretical physicists are widely credited to have developed and designed Pakistan's nuclear weapon devices.
On 26 April 2009, a day-long conference was held inIslamabad to pay tribute to an eminentresearch scientist andtheoretical physicist, Riazuddin. The conference was organised byNational University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) and Riazuddin National Centre for Physics (RNCP). In the conference,Masud Ahmad, who is also the student of his, said:
"Prof. Riaz always put in his best efforts to obtain original results while working on various issues related to science and technology".
NUST Rector, Engr. Muhammad Asghar also paid tributes to him and said:
"Prof. Riazuddin has a very strong and professional background in the field ofPhysics. He achieved many distinctions and awards from national as well as international institutes, which includesTamgha-e-Imtiaz,Sitara-i-Imtiaz andHilal-e-Imtiaz and awards fromUNESCO,Economic Cooperation Organization andCOMSTECH Prize in Physics".[4]
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