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Paul C. Martin
- John Hasbrouck Van Vleck Research Professor of Pure and Applied Physics
Contact Information
| Office: | Lyman 424 |
| Email: | martin [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu |
| Office Phone: | (617) 495-7933 |
| Office Fax: | (617) 496-2545 |
| Assistant: | Danielle Reuter |
| Email: | reuter [ AT ] physics [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu |
Recruitment Status
Education
- A.B., 1951, Physics, Harvard University
- Ph.D., 1954, Physics, Harvard University
Research Interests
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- Applied Mathematics & Computational Science
- Modeling Physical/Biological Phenonema and Systems
Primary Teaching Area
Profile
Paul Martin has worked on a wide range of topics in theoretical physics, concentrating on the development and utilization of mathematical models and techniques that can be widely applied. Most of this work has been in the area of statistical and condensed matter physics where the general methods he and his students developed are widely used to study the static and dynamic properties of systems described by reversible equations of motion or by phenomenological dissipative equations. After heavy involvement in academic administration, Martin is again exploring such problems.
One area of interest is Bose-condensation, where new experiments on condensed atoms in traps display a wide range of phenomena that depend on the spatially varying external field. These properties, which were not exhibited by superfluid helium or superconductors. In what way can the time dependent coherent states of such systems at finite temperatures be formally characterized? What properties depend on how they were set up? What about interacting condensates, some of which may be coherent electromagnetic fields? Other questions involve vortex creation and evolution, collective modes, and critical phenomena in such systems.
A second area of interest is the behavior of turbulent fluids. Many years ago techniques were introduced to calculate the behavior of non-linear interacting systems subject to random forcing. Some of the most widely used were developed by Martin and his students. Although these techniques have proven useful in many other contexts, and although continued attempts have been made to apply them to the statistical dynamics of highly turbulent fluids -- the problem they were intended to elucidate -- they are probably irrelevant here. If there is an inertial regime -- a range of distances over which the statistics of turbulent fluctuations are universal and perhaps isotropic -- those statistics must reflect properties of interacting vorticity that is not produced isotropically at large distances. In addition to turbulence in ordinary fluids, Martin is interested in turbulence in superfluids, mixtures, and complex fluids.
Positions & Employment
Harvard Department of Physics/Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
- 1982-Present: John Hasbrouck Van Vleck Research Professor of Pure and Applied Physics
- 1977-1997: Dean
- 1964-1982: Professor of Physics
- 1957-1964: Assistant Professor of Physics
Selected Publications
- P. Martin, B. Shraiman, and C.E. Wayne, "Scaling theory for noisy period-doubling transitions to chaos." Phys. Rev. Lett. 46: 935 (1981).
- P. Martin, E.D. Siggia, and H.A. Rose, "Statistical dynamics of classical systems." Phys. Rev. A 8: 423 (1973).
- P. Martin and P.C. Hohenberg, "Microscopic theory of helium." Ann. of Phys. 34: 291 (1965).
- P. Martin and C. DeDominicis, "Stationary entropy principle and renormalization in quantum systems," I, II J. Math. Phys. 5: 14 (1964).
- P. Martin and L. P. Kadanoff, "Hydrodynamic equations and correlation functions." Ann. Phys. 24: 419 (1963).
- P. Martin and J. Schwinger, "Theory of many-particle systems." Phys. Rev. 115: 1342 (1959).
