Skip to main content
Log in

Personal Reflections on Kenneth Wilson at Princeton and Edinburgh

  • Published:
Journal of Statistical Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article contains recollections of the authors when they interacted with Ken Wilson at Princeton in 1971, when he gave his lectures on the renormalization group and the \(\varepsilon \)-expansion, and at Edinburgh in the early 1980s, working on Monte Carlo renormalization group calculations of critical behaviour in the three-dimensional Ising model. Edouard Brézin was a collaborator in the former work, and Robert Swendsen in the latter. Ken’s vision for scientific computing impacted formatively on the development of Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre. Reference is also made to an earlier visit to Scotland by Ken, to lecture at the Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics in 1973.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Wilson, K.G., Kogut, J.: The renormalization group and the \(\varepsilon \)-expansion. Phys. Rep. 12, 75–199 (1974)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Brézin, E., Wallace, D.J., Wilson, K.G.: Feynman-graph expansion for the equation of state near the critical point (Ising-like case). Phys. Rev. Lett. 29, 591–4 (1972)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Brézin, E., Wallace, D.J., Wilson, K.G.: Feynman-graph expansion for the equation of state near the critical point. Phys. Rev. B7, 232–9 (1973)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Brézin, E., Wallace, D.J.: Critical behavior of a classical Heisenberg ferromagnet with many degrees of freedom. Phys. Rev. B7, 1967–74 (1973)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Pawley, G.S., Swendsen, R.H., Wallace, D.J., Wilson, K.G.: Monte Carlo renormalization-group calculations of critical behavior in the simple-cubic Ising model. Phys. Rev. B29, 4030–40 (1984)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Pelissetto, A., Vicari, E.: Critical phenomena and renormalization-group theory. Phys. Rep. 368, 549–727 (2002)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wilson, K.G.: Some experiments on multiple production. In: Crawford, R.L., Jennings, R. (eds.) Phenomenology of Particles at High Energies. Proceedings of the Fourteenth Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics, 1973, pp. 704–724. Academic Press, London and New York (1974)

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to John Kogut and Bob Swendsen for comments on a draft of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Wallace.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bowler, K., Kenway, R., Pawley, S. et al. Personal Reflections on Kenneth Wilson at Princeton and Edinburgh. J Stat Phys 157, 639–643 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-014-1057-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-014-1057-0

Keywords

Navigation