Amazing Light : A Volume Dedicated To Charles Hard Townes On His 80th Birthday

This Festschrift is a collection of essays contributed by students, colleagues, and ad­ mirers to honor an eminent scholar on a special anniversary: Charles Hard Townes on the occasion of his 80th birthday, July 28, 1995. In 1964, Townes shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov and Nikolai Gen­ nadyevich Basov "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle. " His contributions have covered a much wider area, however. His fruitful interests spanning several decades have included many scientific subjects, includ­ ing, microwave spectroscopy and astrophysics (other articles in this volume will expand further on this point). He has also contributed to public service, having served as the chairman of the Science and Technology Advisory Committee for NASA's Apollo program, and as a member and vice chairman of the President's Science Advisory Committee. As the enormous breadth of contributions from his students shows, he has educated scholars who are now in a wide range of fields. The contributions from his many admirers, among whom are nine fellow Nobel laureates, attest to his impact on many disciplines ranging from electrical engi­ neering to medicine. His influence extends even to theology, as is indicated by one essay. The broadly international character of this Festschrift reflects his deep belief in the international, universal nature of science. Front Matter....Pages i-xxviii Introduction: Charles Townes as I Have Known Him....Pages 1-6 Methane Optical Frequency Standard....Pages 7-20 Mid-infrared Lines as Astrophysical Diagnostics: Two Decades of Problems and Promise....Pages 21-26 The Laser Stabilitron....Pages 27-39 Self-Regulated Star Formation in Molecular Clouds....Pages 41-54 Long-baseline Interferometric Imaging at 11 Microns with 30 Milliarcsecond Resolution....Pages 55-72 Ammonia in the Giant Planets....Pages 73-78 Collision Broadening and Radio-frequency Spectroscopy....Pages 79-86 Meeting Charles H. Townes....Pages 87-89 Population Inversion and Superluminality....Pages 91-108 The Autler-Townes Effect Revisited....Pages 109-123 Parity Nonconservation in Atoms and Searches for Permanent Electric Dipole Moments....Pages 125-141 Stark Dynamics and Saturation in Resonant Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy....Pages 143-151 A Raman Study of Fluorinated Ethanes Adsorbed on Zeolite NaX....Pages 153-161 Laser Light-scattering Spectroscopy of Supercooled Liquids and the Glass Transition....Pages 163-171 The Electronic Emission Spectra of Triatomic Hydrogen: The 6025Å Bands of H 2 D and HD 2 ....Pages 173-190 Limitations for Frequency-based Absolute Length Measurements....Pages 191-196 Microcavity Quantum Electrodynamics....Pages 197-214 Testimonial for Celebration of Professor Charles Townes’ 80th Birthday....Pages 215-216 Marine Physical Laboratory: A Brief History....Pages 217-227 Searching for the Cause of Alzheimer’s Disease....Pages 229-235 Radio and Infrared Spectroscopy of Interstellar Molecules....Pages 237-244 Lessons Learned....Pages 245-250 Infrared Spectroscopy of Jupiter in 1970 and in the 1990s....Pages 251-256 The Galactic Center: Star Formation and Mass Distribution in the Central Parsec....Pages 257-271 Microwave Spectroscopy, the Maser, and Radio Astronomy: Charles Townes at Columbia....Pages 273-275 The Role of Radioactive 14 C and 26 Al in the Ionization of Circumstellar Envelopes....Pages 277-283 The Clumpy Structure of Molecular Clouds....Pages 285-290 Spontaneous Emission Noise in Quantum Electronics....Pages 291-294 Possibility of Infrared Coronal Line Laser Emission in Seyfert Nuclei....Pages 295-305 Concepts of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Quantum Optics....Pages 307-323 Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Laser-polarized Noble Gases....Pages 325-332 Deterministic Order-Chaos Transition of Two Ions in a Paul Trap....Pages 333-341 Infrared Emission and H 2 0 Masers around Massive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei....Pages 343-350 Knowing Charlie: In the 1950s and Since....Pages 351-354 The SH Radical: Laboratory Detection of its $$J = \frac{3}{2} \leftarrow \frac{1}{2}$$ Rotational Transition....Pages 355-365 Charlie Townes at Brookhaven....Pages 367-371 Classical Theory of Measurement: A Big Step Towards the Quantum Theory of Measurement....Pages 373-389 The Physics of Nerve Excitation....Pages 391-400 The Future of Science Education....Pages 401-407 Noncoherent Feedback in Space Masers and Stellar Lasers....Pages 409-443 Application of Millisecond Pulsar Timing to the Long-term Stability of Clock Ensembles....Pages 445-462 Some Security Implications of Growing Electricity Demand for the Use of Nuclear Power in East Asia....Pages 463-472 Dynamic Control of the Photon Statistics in the Micromaser and Laser....Pages 473-483 Sgr A* — A Starving Black Hole?....Pages 485-496 Infrared Semiconductor Laser by Means of J x H Force Excitation of Electrons and Holes....Pages 497-505 From Laser Beam Filamentation to Optical Solitons: The Influence of C. H. Townes on the Development of Modern Nonlinear Optics....Pages 507-514 Industrial Research in Today’s World....Pages 515-519 Far-infrared Imaging of the HII Region-Molecular Cloud Complex W51A with a Balloon-borne Telescope....Pages 521-541 Charles Townes: The Scientist and the Person....Pages 543-547 Neutron Spin Reorientation Experiments....Pages 549-558 An Appreciative Response to Townes on Science and Religion....Pages 559-564 The Academic Ivory Tower Under Siege....Pages 565-572 The Correlated Spontaneous Emission Maser Gyroscope....Pages 573-583 Astronomical, Atmospheric, and Wavefront Studies with a Submillimeter-wavelength Interferometer....Pages 585-595 Theory of an Optical Subharmonic Generator....Pages 597-601 Hydrogen Masers and Lasers in Space....Pages 603-611 Beyond the South Pole....Pages 613-619 Townes and Nonlinear Optics....Pages 621-625 Spectral Observations of the Molecular Cloud Orion S....Pages 627-635 A Visit to America....Pages 637-642 Review of Some Photothermal Effects....Pages 643-649 Dark Matter and Faint Galactic Halo Light....Pages 651-655 Optical Pump-Probe Experiments and the Higgs Field....Pages 657-666 Back Matter....Pages 667-682 This Festschrift is a collection of essays contributed by students, colleagues and admirers of Charles Townes, who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964 for "fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle." The contributions to this volume reflect Townes's wider interests and influence, ranging from quantum optics to astrophysics, and from electrical engineering to medicine. The broadly international character of the contributions reflects Townes's deep belief in the international character of science, as well as the breadth of the impact his work and teaching have had.
The contributors include nine Nobel laureates. Arthur Shawlow provides the introductory biographical essay. Each of the chapters has been carefully edited to provide a consistency of presentation, while preserving the individuality of the authors.