Madan Lal Mehta (1932–2006) was a

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...

of Indian origin, particularly known for his work in

random matrix theory In probability theory and mathematical physics, a random matrix is a matrix-valued random variable—that is, a matrix in which some or all elements are random variables. Many important properties of physical systems can be represented mathemat ...

Biography

Madan Lal Mehta was born on 24 December 1932 in Relmagra,

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

, a small village near

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...

in northwest India. He obtained his Master of Science in Mathematics from the

University of Rajasthan University of Rajasthan is a public and state university in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India and is one of the oldest universities in the state. It was set up on 8 January 1947 as the University of Rajputana and was given its current name in 1956. ...

(

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

) in 1956. After two years at the

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a public deemed research university located in Mumbai, India that is dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the D ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, he went to France in November 1958 to join the Department of Mathematical Physics (now the Department of Theoretical Physics) at Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Saclay. In 1961, he received his PhD under

Claude Bloch Claude Bloch (18 March 1923 – 29 December 1971) was a French theoretical nuclear physicist. He authored over 60 published articles and made significant impact on the fields of quantum field theory, nuclear physics, and the many-body problem. Bl ...

working on materials at low density. From 1962 to 1963, he worked at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

(USA). He then returned to India, working at

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

, before returning to the United States from 1966–1967 to work at Princeton University and

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a science and engineering research United States Department of Energy National Labs, national laboratory operated by University of Chicago, UChicago Argonne LLC for the United States Department of Energy. The facil ...

. Later, Mehta moved to the Department of Theoretical Physics at CEA Saclay in September 1967, where he remained until the end of his academic career. As

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

hired him in 1970, Mehta acquired French citizenship in 1971. After his career at CEA Saclay, he returned to India in January 2005 and died on 10 December 2006, in Udaipur. Mehta spoke several languages, including English, French, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin and Hindi.

Work in physics

Madan Lal Mehta is known for his work on

random matrices In probability theory and mathematical physics, a random matrix is a matrix-valued random variable—that is, a matrix in which some or all elements are random variables. Many important properties of physical systems can be represented mathemat ...

. His book "Random Matrices" is considered classic in the field.

Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his con ...

cited Mehta during his SIAM review on Random Matrices. Together with Michel Gaudin, Mehta developed the orthogonal polynomial method, a basic tool to study the eigenvalue distribution of invariant matrix ensembles. Together with

Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum m ...

, Mehta worked on Dyson's circular ensembles. Other well-known collaborators include P.K. Srivastava, N. Rozenzweig, J. of Cloizeaux, G. Mahoux, A. Pandey, Pragya Shukla, J.M. Normand, I. Kostov and B. Eynard.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, Madan Lal Indian theoretical physicists 1932 births 2006 deaths People from Udaipur district 20th-century Indian physicists Scientists from Rajasthan