Phillip James Edwin Peebles CC OM FRS (born April 25, 1935) is a Canadian-American astrophysicist, astronomer, and theoretical cosmologist who is currently the Albert Einstein Professor in Science, Emeritus, at Princeton University.[1][2] He is widely regarded as one of the world's leading theoretical cosmologists in the period since 1970, with major theoretical contributions to primordial nucleosynthesis, dark matter, the cosmic microwave background, and structure formation.
Peebles was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019 for his theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology.[3] He shared the prize with Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star.[4][5][6] While much of his work relates to the development of the universe from its first few seconds, he is more skeptical about what we can know about the very beginning, and stated, "It's very unfortunate that one thinks of the beginning whereas in fact, we have no good theory of such a thing as the beginning."[7]
Peebles has described himself as a convinced agnostic.[8]
Early life
Peebles was born on April 25, 1935, in St. Vital in present-day Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the son of Ada Marion (Green), a homemaker, and Andrew Charles Peebles, who worked for the Winnipeg Grain Exchange.[9] He completed his bachelor of science at the University of Manitoba. He then went on to pursue graduate studies at Princeton University, where he received his PhD in physics in 1962, completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Observational Tests and Theoretical Problems Relating to the Conjecture That the Strength of the Electromagnetic Interaction May Be Variable" under the supervision of Robert Dicke.[10] He remained at Princeton for his whole career. Peebles was a Member in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study during the academic year 1977–78; he made subsequent visits during 1990–91 and 1998–99.[11]
Academic career
Most of Peebles' work since 1964 has been in the field of physical cosmology to determine the origins of the universe. In 1964, there was very little interest in this field and it was considered a "dead end" but Peebles remained committed to studying it.[12] Peebles has made many important contributions to the Big Bang model. With Dicke and others (nearly two decades after George Gamow, Ralph A. Alpher and Robert C. Herman), Peebles predicted the cosmic microwave background radiation. Along with making major contributions to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, dark matter, and dark energy, he was the leading pioneer in the theory of cosmic structure formation in the 1970s. Long before it was considered a serious, quantitative branch of physics, Peebles was studying physical cosmology and has done much to establish its respectability.[13] Peebles said, "It was not a single step, some critical discovery that suddenly made cosmology relevant but the field gradually emerged through a number of experimental observations. Clearly one of the most important during my career was the detection of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation that immediately attracted attention [...] both experimentalists interested in measuring the properties of this radiation and theorists, who joined in analyzing the implications".[14] His Shaw Prize citation states "He laid the foundations for almost all modern investigations in cosmology, both theoretical and observational, transforming a highly speculative field into a precision science."[15]
Peebles has a long record of innovating the basic ideas, which would be extensively studied later by other scientists. For instance, in 1987, he proposed the primordial isocurvature baryon model for the development of the early universe.[16] Similarly, Peebles contributed to establishing the dark matter problem in the early 1970s.[17][18] Peebles is also known for the Ostriker–Peebles criterion, relating to the stability of galactic formation.[19]
Peebles' body of work was recognized with him being named a 2019 Nobel Laureate in Physics, "for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology"; Peebles shared half the prize with Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz who had been the first to discover an exoplanet around a main sequence star.[20]
Peebles was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977 and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1988.[21][22]
Honors
Awards
Fellow of the American Physical Society (1964)[23]
Eddington Medal (1981)[24]
Heineman Prize (1982)[25]
Fellow of the Royal Society (1982)[26]
Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1993)[24]
Bruce Medal (1995)[27]
Oskar Klein Medal (1997)[28]
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1998)[29]
Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2000), with Allan Sandage[30]
Harvey Prize (2001)[31]
Shaw Prize (2004)[32]
Member of the American Philosophical Society (2004)[33]
Crafoord Prize with James E. Gunn and Martin Rees (2005)[34]
Hitchcock Professorship (2006)[35]
Dirac Medal (2013)[36]
Member of the Order of Manitoba (2017)[37]
Nobel Prize in Physics (2019)[38]
Elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.[39]
Named after him
Asteroid 18242 Peebles[40]
Publications
Peebles, P. J. E. (1980). Large-Scale Structure of the Universe. Princeton University Press.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1992). Quantum Mechanics (1st Printing ed.). Princeton University Press.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1993). Principles of Physical Cosmology (n ed.). Princeton University Press.
Peebles, J. P. E. (2009). Finding the Big Bang (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Peebles, P. J. E. (2020). Cosmology’s Century. Princeton University Press.
Peebles, P. J. E. (2022). The Whole Truth. Princeton University Press.[41]
References
Davis, M.; Peebles, P. J. E. (1983). "A survey of galaxy redshifts. V – The two-point position and velocity correlations". Astrophys. J. 267: 465. Bibcode:1983ApJ...267..465D. doi:10.1086/160884.
Dicke, R. H.; Peebles, P. J. E.; Roll, P. G.; Wilkinson, D. T. (1965). "Cosmic Black-Body Radiation". Astrophys. J. 142: 414. Bibcode:1965ApJ...142..414D. doi:10.1086/148306.
Fukugita, M.; Hogan, C. J.; Peebles, P. J. E. (1998). "The cosmic baryon budget". Astrophys. J. 503 (2): 518. arXiv:astro-ph/9712020. Bibcode:1998ApJ...503..518F. doi:10.1086/306025. S2CID 15836730.
Groth, E. J.; Peebles, P. J. E. (1977). "Statistical Analysis Of Catalogs Of Extragalactic Objects. 7. Two And Three Point Correlation Functions For The High-Resolution Shane-Wirtanen Catalog Of Galaxies". Astrophys. J. 217: 385. Bibcode:1977ApJ...217..385G. doi:10.1086/155588.
Ostriker, J. P.; Peebles, P. J. E. (1973). "A Numerical Study of the Stability of Flattened Galaxies: or, can Cold Galaxies Survive?". Astrophys. J. 186: 467. Bibcode:1973ApJ...186..467O. doi:10.1086/152513.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1966). "Primordial Helium Abundance and the Primordial Fireball. I". Phys. Rev. Lett. 16 (10): 410. Bibcode:1966PhRvL..16..410P. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.16.410.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1966). "Primordial Helium Abundance and the Primordial Fireball. II". Astrophys. J. 146: 542. Bibcode:1966ApJ...146..542P. doi:10.1086/148918.
Peebles, P. J. E.; Dicke, R. H. (1968). "Origin of the Globular Star Clusters". Astrophys. J. 154: 891. Bibcode:1968ApJ...154..891P. doi:10.1086/149811.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1969). "Origin of the Angular Momentum of Galaxies". Astrophys. J. 155: 393. Bibcode:1969ApJ...155..393P. doi:10.1086/149876.
Peebles, P. J. E.; Yu, J. T. (1970). "Primeval adiabatic perturbation in an expanding universe". Astrophys. J. 162: 815. Bibcode:1970ApJ...162..815P. doi:10.1086/150713.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1971). Physical Cosmology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1980). The large-scale structure of the universe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1982). "Large-scale background temperature and mass fluctuations due to scale-invariant primeval perturbations". Astrophys. J. 263: L1. Bibcode:1982ApJ...263L...1P. doi:10.1086/183911.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1992). Quantum Mechanics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691087559.
Peebles, P. J. E. (1993). Principles of Physical Cosmology. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691019338.
Ratra, B.; Peebles, P. J. E. (1988). "Cosmology with a time-variable cosmological 'constant'". Astrophys. J. 325: L17. Bibcode:1988ApJ...325L..17P. doi:10.1086/185100.
Ratra, B.; Peebles, P. J. E. (1988). "Cosmological consequences of a rolling homogeneous scalar field". Phys. Rev. D. 37 (12): 3406–3427. Bibcode:1988PhRvD..37.3406R. doi:10.1103/physrevd.37.3406. PMID 9958635.
Ratra, B.; Peebles, P. J. E. (2003). "The cosmological constant and dark energy". Rev. Mod. Phys. 75 (2): 559–606. arXiv:astro-ph/0207347. Bibcode:2003RvMP...75..559P. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.75.559. S2CID 118961123.
Footnotes
"Princeton University Physics Department". Archived from the original on May 11, 2011.
"Princeton University News". Archived from the original on April 13, 2016.
Hooper, Dan (October 12, 2019). "A Well-Deserved Physics Nobel - Jim Peebles' award honors modern cosmological theory at last". Scientific American. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
"The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019". Nobel Media AB. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
Chang, Kenneth; Specia, Megan (October 8, 2019). "Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Cosmic Discoveries - The cosmologist James Peebles split the prize with the astrophysicists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, for work the Nobel judges said "transformed our ideas about the cosmos."". The New York Times. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
Kaplan, Sarah (October 8, 2019). "Nobel Prize in physics awarded for research on exoplanets and the structure of the universe". Washington Post. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
Couronne, Ivan (November 14, 2019). "Top cosmologist's lonely battle against 'Big Bang' theory". Phys.org. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
"Jim Peebles - Session II". www.aip.org. April 1, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
Narins, Brigham, ed. (2001). Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present. Vol. 4 (N–S) (2 ed.). Gale Group. ISBN 9780787617554 – via Google Books.
Peebles, Phillip James Edwin (1962). Observational tests and theoretical problems relating to the conjecture that the strength of the electromagnetic interaction may be variable (PhD thesis). Princeton University. OCLC 83718695 – via ProQuest.
"Phillip James E. Peebles". Institute for Advanced Study. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
Garlinghouse, Tom (October 8, 2019). "A 'joy ride' of a career: Peebles wins Nobel Prize in Physics for tackling big questions about the universe". Princeton University. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
"General Relativity's Influence and Mysteries". Institute for Advanced Study. December 10, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"Interview with James Peebles". CERN EP newsletter. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
"Announcement-The Shaw Laureate in Astronomy 2004". Shaw Foundation. Archived from the original on February 3, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
Hu (June 28, 1994)
de Swart, J. G.; Bertone, G.; van Dongen, J. (2017). "How dark matter came to matter". Nature Astronomy. 1 (3): 0059. arXiv:1703.00013. Bibcode:2017NatAs...1E..59D. doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0059. S2CID 119092226. 0059.
de Swart, Jaco (2020). "Closing in on the Cosmos: Cosmology's Rebirth and the Rise of the Dark Matter Problem". In Blum, Alexander; Lalli, Roberto; Renn, Jürgen (eds.). The Renaissance of General Relativity in Context. Einstein Studies. Vol. 16. Birkhäuser, Cham. pp. 257–284. arXiv:1903.05281. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-50754-1_8. ISBN 978-3-030-50754-1. S2CID 84832146.
Binney, James; Tremaine, Scott (1987). Galactic Dynamics. Princeton University Press. p. 374. ISBN 9780691084459.
Chang, Kenneth; Specia, Megan (October 8, 2019). "Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Studies of Earth's Place in the Universe". The New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
"P. James E. Peebles". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
"P. James E. Peebles". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
"APS Fellow Archive".
Weintraub, David A. (2011). How Old Is the Universe?. Princeton University Press. p. 317. ISBN 9780691147314. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics | American Astronomical Society". aas.org. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"Phillip Peebles biography". Royal Society. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
"The Bruce Medalists". www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"Earlier Lectures - Oskar Klein Centre". www.okc.albanova.se. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
Williams, D. A. (June 1, 1999). "Prof. P J E Peebles: 1998 Gold Medal". Astronomy & Geophysics. pp. 3.6–a–3.6. doi:10.1093/astrog/40.3.3.6-a. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"2000 Gruber Cosmology Prize | Gruber Foundation". gruber.yale.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"Princeton Announcements, June 2001 - Archived". www.princeton.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"The Shaw Prize - Top prizes for astronomy, life science and mathematics". www.shawprize.org. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"American Philosophical Society Member History". www.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
"The Crafoord Prize 2005". www.crafoordprize.se. January 26, 2005. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures | Series | Berkeley Graduate Lectures". gradlectures.berkeley.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"FACULTY AWARD: Peebles awarded 2013 Dirac Medal for work in theoretical physics". Princeton University. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"12 Manitobans to receive province's highest honour this summer". CBC.ca. May 12, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019". Nobel Media AB. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
"AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
"Asteroid (18242) Peebles". Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. April 30, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
PUP. "Phillip James Edwin Peebles Books | List of books by author Phillip James Edwin Peebles". PrincetonUniversityPress. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
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