Born Elgin, Illinois, USA, 3 March 1914
Died Altadena, California, USA, 15 June 2003
American astrophysicist Leverett Davis, Jr., is probably best known for the proposal with Jesse Greenstein that starlight on its way to us is polarized by scattering by nonspherical dust grains aligned in the galactic magnetic field. He also coined the name “heliosphere” for the region of space around the solar system dominated by a wind of particles and magnetic fields coming from the Sun.
Davis was the eldest of four children of Louis Leverett Davis and Susan Gulick Davis. He married Victoria Stocker in June 1943. Davis earned his Bachelor of Science degree at Oregon State College in 1936. He started graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology, where his thesis advisor was William V. Houston. Davis received his PhD in 1941 for a thesis on electrical properties in nerves, and he briefly considered continuing research in biophysics. World War II intervened, and he became a member of the...
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Selected References
Bierman, L, and L. Davis Jr. 1958. On the Origin of Cosmic Rays During the Early Part of the Evolution of our Galaxy, Zeitscrift fuer Naturforschung, 13a, 909–915.
Davis Jr., Leverett 1955. Interplanetary Magnetic Fields and Cosmic Rays, Phys. Rev.100, 144.
— 1956. Modified Fermi Mechanism for the Acceleration of Cosmic Rays, Phys. Rev.101, 351–358.
Davis Jr, Leverett and Jesse L. Greenstein 1949. The Polarization of Starlight by Interstellar Dust Particles in a Galactic Magnetic Field, Phys. Rev. 75, 1605.
— 1951. Polarization of Starlight by Aligned Dust Grains, Ap. J.114, 206–40.
Davis Jr. Leverett, R. Lust, and A. Schluter 1958. The Structure of Hydromagnetic Shock Waves. I. Non-linear Hydromagnetic Waves in a Cold Plasma, Zeitscrift Fuer Naturforschung, 13a, 916–936.
(obituary). J. R. Kokipii 2004, BAAS, 36, 1967–1968.
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Malville, J.M. (2014). Davis, Leverett Jr.. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9259
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