physics

Peter A. Wolff

Peter A. Wolff is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter A. Wolff rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Adalbert Wolff (November 15, 1923 – September 5, 2013) was an American physicist and Emeritus professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who worked in semiconductor research. He is known for the Schrieffer–Wolff transformation used to solve the Kondo model.

Key takeaways

Peter A. Wolff belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter A. Wolff to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter A. Wolff from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Peter Adalbert Wolff (November 15, 1923 – September 5, 2013) was an American physicist and Emeritus professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who worked in semiconductor research. He is known for the Schrieffer–Wolff transformation used to solve the Kondo model.

Life He earned his PhD in physics at UC Berkeley with Robert Serber as thesis advisor in 1951 and began his career at the Bell Telephone Laboratories the following year. Wolff and John Robert Schrieffer developed the Schrieffer–Wolff transformation in 1966 to solve the Kondo model. Thereafter Wolff joined the physics department of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1970, becoming head of the condensed matter and atomic physics division. In the following years he hired Marc A. Kastner, John Joannopoulos and Robert J. Birgeneau. Together with P. M. Platzman, he coauthored the textbook Waves and Interactions in Solid State Plasmas in 1973. In 1976 he moved on to the directorship of the Research Laboratory of Electronics and then of the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory in 1981. Wolff left the director's chair in 1987 and retired from his faculty position in 1989 to become a fellow of the newly created NEC Research Institute at Princeton University. In 1994 he returned to MIT as the leader of the physics/industry forum for the physics department and remained a professor emeritus. Wolff died of Alzheimer's disease in 2013.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter A. Wolff

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter A. Wolff claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter A. Wolff before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter A. Wolff ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter A. Wolff

In research: Peter A. Wolff appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter A. Wolff in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter A. Wolff is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1923 births, 2013 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter A. Wolff outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peter A. Wolff in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter A. Wolff means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter A. Wolff out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter A. Wolff in simple terms?

Why does Peter A. Wolff matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter A. Wolff?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter A. Wolff.