Ezra Theodore Newman (October 17, 1929 – March 24, 2021) was an American physicist, known for his many contributions to

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

theory. He was Professor Emeritus at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

. Newman was awarded the 2011 Einstein Prize from the American Physical Society.

Education

Newman was born in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York City to David and Fannie (Slutsky) Newman.

Allen G. Debus Allen George Debus (August 16, 1926 – March 6, 2009) was an American historian of science, known primarily for his work on the history of chemistry and alchemy. In 1991 he was honored at the University of Chicago with an academic conference he ...

(1968) ''Who's Who in Science'', page 1250, A. N. Marquis He showed an early interest in science, pondering magnets, match flames, and science books. He was admitted to the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Sp ...

, where he excelled at physics. Ted's father hoped that he would follow him into dentistry, but instead Ted enrolled at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

to further his study of physics, graduating with a B.A. in 1951. For graduate education he went to Syracuse University, obtaining an M.A. in 1955 and a Ph.D. the following year.

Career in physics

Newman joined the

faculty in 1956, becoming

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of physics in 1966. He was a visiting professor at Syracuse University in 1960/61 and at Kings College, University of London, in 1964/65. In 1957 he served as consultant at

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene and Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wr ...

. In 1962, together with Roger Penrose, he introduced the powerful

Newman–Penrose formalism The Newman–Penrose (NP) formalism The original paper by Newman and Penrose, which introduces the formalism, and uses it to derive example results.Ezra T Newman, Roger Penrose. ''Errata: An Approach to Gravitational Radiation by a Method of Sp ...

for working with

spinor In geometry and physics, spinors are elements of a complex vector space that can be associated with Euclidean space. Like geometric vectors and more general tensors, spinors transform linearly when the Euclidean space is subjected to a sligh ...

ial quantities in general relativity. The following year he and coworkers extended Abraham H. Taub's solution to the

Einstein field equation In the general theory of relativity, the Einstein field equations (EFE; also known as Einstein's equations) relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it. The equations were published by Einstein in 1915 in the form ...

obtaining the Taub–NUT space. He also generalized the

Kerr metric The Kerr metric or Kerr geometry describes the geometry of empty spacetime around a rotating uncharged axially symmetric black hole with a quasispherical event horizon. The Kerr metric is an exact solution of the Einstein field equations of gen ...

developed by

Roy Kerr Roy Patrick Kerr (; born 16 May 1934) is a New Zealand mathematician who discovered the Kerr geometry, an exact solution to the Einstein field equation of general relativity. His solution models the gravitational field outside an uncharged ...

to include a charged body, resulting in the

Kerr–Newman metric The Kerr–Newman metric is the most general asymptotically flat, stationary solution of the Einstein–Maxwell equations in general relativity that describes the spacetime geometry in the region surrounding an electrically charged, rotating ma ...

. In 1973 he advocated the use of

complex number In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the fo ...

s in relativity, and consideration of

complex spacetime In mathematics and mathematical physics, complex spacetime extends the traditional notion of spacetime described by real-valued space and time coordinates to complex-valued space and time coordinates. The notion is entirely mathematical with no p ...

. Some of his most interesting recent work has involved the problem of reconstructing the gravitational field within some region from observations of how optical images are lensed as light rays pass through the region. In 2002 an email he forwarded to John C. Baez helped to touch off the Bogdanov Affair. Newman was selected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1972. In 2011, he was awarded the Einstein Prize (APS) "for outstanding contributions to theoretical relativity, including the

, Kerr–Newman solution, Heaven, and null foliation theory, for his intellectual passion, generosity and honesty, which have inspired and represented a model for generations of relativists".

Family

Newman married Sally Faskow on April 20, 1958, with whom he had 2 children, David E. Newman, a Professor of Physics at the

University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for c ...

, and Dara Newman.

Selected publications

* * *

References

External links

Ezra (Ted) Newman
from

*
TEDxPittsburgh - Ted Newman - Thoughts
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Ezra T. 1929 births 2021 deaths 21st-century American physicists American relativity theorists Fellows of the American Physical Society Scientists from the Bronx The Bronx High School of Science alumni New York University alumni Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty