physics

Richard Liboff

Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Lawrence Liboff (December 30, 1931 – March 9, 2014) was an American physicist who authored five books and over 100 other publications in variety of fields, including plasma physics, planetary physics, cosmology, quantum chaos, and quantum billiards. Career He earned his Ph.D. in 1961 from New York University.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Lawrence Liboff (December 30, 1931 – March 9, 2014) was an American physicist who authored five books and over 100 other publications in variety of fields, including plasma physics, planetary physics, cosmology, quantum chaos, and quantum billiards.

Career He earned his Ph.D. in 1961 from New York University. His advisors were Harold Grad in mathematics (13 moment method) and B. Zumino in physics (TCP theory). During his graduate years, he was a research assistant at the Courant Institute. After graduation, he stayed on as assistant professor of physics. In 1965, he was appointed associate professor in the College of Engineering at Cornell. Later appointments at Cornell included membership in the Center for Applied Mathematics and the Department of Applied & Engineering Physics. Fulbright Program and Solvay Fellowships supported three sabbatical leaves abroad. He was appointed full professor in 1970. His research was supported by AFSOR and ARO. In 1969, he chaired the first International Meeting in Kinetic Theory, sponsored by the NSF and co-chaired by N. Rostoker. He was a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Central Florida. He died 9 March 2014 in New York, NY, US.

Bibliography

Notable publications Among his publications, two works are of particular note:

With a student (G. K. Schenter) he analytically solved a second order non-linear differential equation. One of the three solutions they gave had physical relevance, as it is a generalized Fermi–Dirac distribution relevant to high-field transport in a semiconductor. An ideal dynamical system was shown to be irreversible.

Books Richard Liboff is the author of five books, three of which are still available:

Richard L. Liboff (2003). Primer for Point and Space Groups. Springer. ISBN 0-387-40248-9. Richard L. Liboff (2003). Kinetic Theory: Classical, Quantum and Relativistic Descriptions (3rd ed.). Springer. ISBN 0-387-95551-8. Richard L. Liboff (2002). Introductory Quantum Mechanics (4th ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-8053-8714-5. An earlier edition of the Kinetic Theory text was translated into Russian and an earlier edition of the Quantum Mechanics text was translated into Korean. The second ed. of the q.m. text has been translated into Persian.

Selected articles 1. "Solution to a New Non-Linear Equation for the Distribution of Charge Carriers in a Semi-conductor", Phys. Rev. B35, 7063 (1986). Co-author with G.K. Schenter. 2. "Irreversible Wall Collisions and Thermalization of a Gas of Inert Atoms", Phys. Lett. A 202, 177 (1995). 3. "Quantum Chaos for the Radially Vibrating Spherical Billiard", Chaos 10, 366 (2000). Co-author with Mason Porter. 4. "Quantum Billiard Chaos", Phys. Letters A265,230 (2000). 5. "Excess Radiation from the Large Planets." Astronomical J, 134, (2007)

In popular culture

Film In Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker (played by Tobey Maguire) is seen dropping some of his books at Columbia University. Among the books is the Fourth Edition of Liboff's Introductory Quantum Mechanics.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Liboff

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff

In research: Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff 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: Richard Liboff is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 2014 deaths, American physicist stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Liboff in simple terms?

Why does Richard Liboff 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 Richard Liboff?

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 Richard Liboff.