Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (; 30 May 1908 – 2 April 1995) was a Swedish

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the ...

, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

for his work on

magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is the study of the magnetic properties and behaviour of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas, liquid metals ...

(MHD). He described the class of MHD waves now known as Alfvén waves. He was originally trained as an electrical power engineer and later moved to research and teaching in the fields of plasma physics and electrical engineering. Alfvén made many contributions to plasma physics, including theories describing the behavior of aurorae, the Van Allen radiation belts, the effect of magnetic storms on the

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magneti ...

, the terrestrial magnetosphere, and the dynamics of plasmas in the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked ey ...

galaxy.

Education

Alfvén received his PhD from the University of Uppsala in 1934. His thesis was titled "Investigations of High-frequency Electromagnetic Waves."

Early years

In 1934, Alfvén taught

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

at both the University of Uppsala and the Nobel Institute for Physics (later renamed the Manne Siegbahn Institute of Physics) in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1940, he became professor of electromagnetic theory and electrical measurements at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. In 1945, he acquired the nonappointive position of Chair of Electronics. His title was changed to Chair of Plasma Physics in 1963. From 1954 to 1955, Alfvén was a Fulbright Scholar at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

. In 1967, after leaving Sweden and spending time in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, he moved to the United States. Alfvén worked in the departments of electrical engineering at both the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

and the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

Later years

In 1991, Alfvén retired as professor of electrical engineering at the

and professor of plasma physics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Alfvén spent his later adult life alternating between

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

and Sweden. He died at the age of 86.

Research

In 1937, Alfvén argued that if plasma pervaded the universe, it could then carry electric currents capable of generating a galactic magnetic field. After winning the Nobel Prize for his works in

, he emphasized that:

In order to understand the phenomena in a certain plasma region, it is necessary to map not only the magnetic but also the electric field and the electric currents. Space is filled with a network of currents which transfer energy and momentum over large or very large distances. The currents often pinch to filamentary or surface currents. The latter are likely to give space, as also interstellar and intergalactic space, a cellular structure.

His theoretical work on field-aligned electric currents in the aurora (based on earlier work by Kristian Birkeland) was confirmed in 1967, these currents now being known as Birkeland currents. Alfvén's work was disputed for many years by the senior scientist in space physics, the British

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and geophysicist

Sydney Chapman Sydney Chapman may refer to: *Sir Sydney Chapman (economist) (1871–1951), British economist and civil servant * Sydney Chapman (mathematician) (1888–1970), FRS, British mathematician *Sir Sydney Chapman (politician) Sir Sydney Brookes Chapma ...

. Alfvén was regarded as a person with unorthodox opinions in the field by many physicists, R. H. Stuewer noting that "... he remained an embittered outsider, winning little respect from other scientists even after he received the Nobel Prize..." and was often forced to publish his papers in obscure journals. Alfvén recalled:

When I describe
lasma phenomena List of alien races in DC Comics is a list of fictional extraterrestrial races that have appeared in comic book titles published by DC Comics, as well as properties from other media that are listed below, with appropriately brief descriptions and ...
according to this formalism most referees do not understand what I say and turn down my papers. With the referee system which rules US science today, this means that my papers are rarely accepted by the leading US journals.

Alfvén played a central role in the development of: * Plasma physics * Charged particle beams * Interplanetary medium *

Magnetospheric physics In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior dynamo. ...

Magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is the study of the magnetic properties and behaviour of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas, liquid metals ...

* Solar phenomena investigation (such as the

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the ...

) * Aurorae science In 1939, Alfvén proposed the theory of magnetic storms and auroras and the theory of plasma dynamics in the

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

's magnetosphere. This was the paper rejected by the U.S. journal ''Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity''. Applications of Alfvén's research in space science include: * Van Allen radiation belt theory * Reduction of the

during magnetic storms * Magnetosphere (protective plasma covering the Earth) * Formation of

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma, and sometimes also a Comet ta ...

tails * Formation of the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

* Dynamics of plasmas in the galaxy *

Physical cosmology Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of f ...

Alfvén's views followed those of the founder of magnetospheric physics, Kristian Birkeland. At the end of the nineteenth century, Birkeland proposed (backed by extensive data) that electric currents flowing down along the Earth's magnetic fields into the atmosphere caused the aurora and polar magnetic disturbances. Areas of technology benefiting from Alfvén's contributions include: * Particle accelerators * Controlled thermonuclear fusion *

Hypersonic flight Hypersonic flight is flight through the atmosphere below altitudes of about 90 km at speeds greater than Mach 5, a speed where dissociation of air begins to become significant and high heat loads exist. Speeds of Mach 25+ have been achie ...

Rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entire ...

propulsion * Reentry braking of space vehicles Contributions to astrophysics: * Galactic magnetic field (1937) * Identified nonthermal synchrotron radiation from astronomical sources (1950) Alfvén waves (low

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from '' angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is ...

hydromagnetic plasma oscillations) are named in his honor, and propagate at the Alfvén speed. Many of his theories about the solar system were verified as late as the 1980s through external measurements of cometary and planetary magnetospheres. However, Alfvén himself noted that astrophysical textbooks poorly represented known plasma phenomena:

A study of how a number of the most used textbooks in astrophysics treat important concepts such as double layers, critical velocity, pinch effects, and circuits is made. It is found that students using these textbooks remain essentially ignorant of even the existence of these concepts, despite the fact that some of them have been well known for half a century (e.g, double layers, Langmuir, 1929; pinch effect, Bennet, 1934).

Alfvén reported that of 17 of the most used textbooks on astrophysics, none mention the pinch effect, none mentioned critical ionization velocity, only two mentioned circuits, and three mentioned double layers. Alfvén believed the problem with the

Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from t ...

was that astrophysicists tried to extrapolate the origin of the universe from mathematical theories developed on the blackboard, rather than starting from known observable phenomena. He also considered the Big Bang to be a

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

devised to explain creation. Alfvén and colleagues proposed the Alfvén–Klein model as an alternative cosmological theory to both the

and steady state theory cosmologies.

Personal life

Alfvén was married for 67 years to his wife Kerstin (1910–1992). They raised five children, one boy and four girls. Their son became a physician, while one daughter became a writer and another a lawyer in Sweden. The writer was

Inger Alfvén Inger Maria Alfvén (24 February 1940 – 26 July 2022) was a Swedish author and sociologist from Solna in Stockholm County. Biography Alfvén became a sociologist in 1964 and worked as a counselor. Her books depict existential and moral co ...

and is well known for her work in Sweden. The composer

Hugo Alfvén Hugo Emil Alfvén (; 1 May 18728 May 1960) was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter. Career Violinist Alfvén was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and studied at the Royal College of Music (Kungliga Musikhögskolan) from 1887 t ...

was Hannes Alfvén's uncle. Alfvén studied the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

oriental philosophy Eastern philosophy or Asian philosophy includes the various philosophies that originated in East and South Asia, including Chinese philosophy, Japanese philosophy, Korean philosophy, and Vietnamese philosophy; which are dominant in East Asia, a ...

, and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural ...

. On his religious views, Alfven was

irreligious Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ant ...

and critical of religion. He spoke Swedish, English, German, French, and Russian, and some Spanish and Chinese. He expressed great concern about the difficulties of permanent

high-level radioactive waste management High-level radioactive waste management concerns how radioactive materials created during production of nuclear power and nuclear weapons are dealt with. Radioactive waste contains a mixture of short-lived and long-lived nuclides, as well as no ...

." Alfvén was also interested in problems in cosmology and all aspects of auroral physics, and used Schröder's well known book on aurora, ''Das Phänomen des Polarlichts''. Letters of Alfvén, Treder, and Schröder were published on the occasion of Treder's 70th birthday. The relationships between Hans-Jürgen Treder, Hannes Alfvén and Wilfried Schröder were discussed in detail by Schröder in his publications. Alfvén died on 2 April, 1995 at Djursholm aged 86.

Awards and honours

The Hannes Alfvén Prize, awarded annually by the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

for outstanding contributions in plasma physics, is named after him. The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

1778 Alfvén is named in his honour.

Awards

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded" and it can be awarded for any reason. Past awa ...

(1967) *

(1970) for his work on

Franklin Medal The Franklin Medal was a science award presented from 1915 until 1997 by the Franklin Institute located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. It was founded in 1914 by Samuel Insull Samuel Insull (November 11, 1859 – July 16, 1938) was a Bri ...

of the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memor ...

(1971) *

Lomonosov Gold Medal The Lomonosov Gold Medal (russian: Большая золотая медаль имени М. В. Ломоносова ''Bol'shaya zolotaya medal' imeni M. V. Lomonosova''), named after Russian scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov, is awarded ...

of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

(1971) * Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1980 *

William Bowie Medal The William Bowie Medal is awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union for "outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research". The award is the highest honor given by the AGU and is named in hono ...

of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's ...

(1988) for his work on

s and plasmas in the

* Member of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences * Member of

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or ''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'' (IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which pro ...

* Life fellows of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...

* Member of

* Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

(1962) * Member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences * Contributor to the

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was ...

* Member of the International Academy of Science * Member of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is t ...

Elected member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...

(1971) Alfvén was one of the few scientists who was a foreign member of both the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

Academies of Sciences.

Selected bibliography

For full list of publications see.Full list of publications
/ref> ;Books
Cosmical Electrodynamics
International Series of Monographs on Physics, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950. (See also 2nd Ed. 1963, co-authored with Carl-Gunne Fälthammar.) *Worlds-Antiworlds: Antimatter in Cosmology (1966). *The Great Computer: A Vision (1968) (a political-scientific satire under the pen name Olof Johannesson; publ. Gollancz, ). *Atom, Man, and the Universe: A Long Chain of Complications, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1969. *Living on the Third Planet, authored with Kerstin Alfvén, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1972. .
Cosmic Plasma
Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Vol. 82 (1981) Springer Verlag. *Schröder, Wilfried, and Hans Jürgen Treder. 2007. ''Theoretical physics and geophysics: Recollections of Hans-Jürgen Treder (1928–2006)''. Potsdam: Science Editions. ;Articles
On the cosmogony of the solar system I
(1942)
Part II

Part III

Interplanetary Magnetic Field
(1958)
On the Origin of Cosmic Magnetic Fields
(1961)
On the Filamentary Structure of the Solar Corona
(1963)
Currents in the Solar Atmosphere and a Theory of Solar Flares
(1967)
On the Importance of Electric Fields in the Magnetosphere and Interplanetary Space
(1967)
Jet Streams in Space
(1970)

(1976) with Gustaf Arrhenius (NASA book)
Double radio sources and the new approach to cosmical plasma physics
(1978) (PDF)
Interstellar clouds and the formation of stars
with Per Carlqvist (1978) (PDF)
Energy source of the solar wind
with Per Carlqvist (1980) (PDF) A direct transfer of energy from photospheric activity to the solar wind by means of electric currents is discussed.
Electromagnetic Effects and the Structure of the Saturnian Rings
(1981) (PDF)
A three-ring circuit model of the magnetosphere
with Whipple, E. C. and Jr.; McIlwain (1981) (PDF)
The Voyager 1/Saturn encounter and the cosmogonic shadow effect
(1981) (PDF)
Origin, evolution and present structure of the asteroid region
(1983) (PDF)
On hierarchical cosmology
(1983) (PDF) Progress in lab studies of plasmas and on their methods of transferring the results to cosmic conditions.
Solar system history as recorded in the Saturnian ring structure
(1983) (PDF)
Cosmology – Myth or science?
(1984) (PDF)
Cosmogony as an extrapolation of magnetospheric research
(1984) (PDF)

References

External links

Hannes Alfvén biography
* including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1970 ''Plasma Physics, Space Research and the Origin of the Solar System''

( Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden)
Hannes Alfvén Biographical Memoirs
(Proceedings of the

)
Papers of Hannes Olof Gosta Alfvén

– awarded for outstanding scientific contributions towards the understanding of plasma processes in the solar system and other cosmical plasma environments * Timeline of Nobel Prize Winners

(1945–1991) in the Mandeville Special Collections Library. *

(2008) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfven, Hannes 1908 births 1995 deaths Critics of religions People from Norrköping Fellow Members of the IEEE Foreign Members of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Physics Religious skeptics 20th-century Swedish astronomers Fluid dynamicists Swedish pacifists 20th-century Swedish physicists Swedish science fiction writers Swedish electrical engineers Uppsala University alumni KTH Royal Institute of Technology faculty Swedish Nobel laureates Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy University of California, San Diego faculty University of Maryland, College Park faculty Swedish plasma physicists Members of the American Philosophical Society Fulbright alumni