physics

Richard Q. Twiss

Richard Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Quintin Twiss (24 August 1920 – 20 May 2005) was a British astronomer. He is known for his work on the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect with Robert Hanbury Brown.

Key takeaways

Richard Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Q. Twiss from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Quintin Twiss (24 August 1920 – 20 May 2005) was a British astronomer. He is known for his work on the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect with Robert Hanbury Brown. It led to the development of the Hanbury Brown-Twiss intensity interferometer in the UK in 1954. Their work appeared to contradict the established beliefs about quantum interference, and he and Brown received the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for it in 1968.

Life Richard Twiss was born in Simla in India but was educated in England. He read mathematics at Cambridge, completing the Mathematical Tripos with distinction, but his early contributions were to the theory of radar and basic electronics. His work in this area was included in the famous "five foot shelf"—a series of reference books in electronic engineering compiled at MIT that was the circuit designer's bible in the 1950s. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by MIT in 1949. Twiss went on to help construct the Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer. Observations with the interferometer began in 1965. Measurements made between 1965 and 1974 were used to establish the temperature scale for stars hotter than the Sun and this scale is still in use. The intensity interferometer has a very poor signal-to-noise ratio compared to the classical "Michelson" stellar interferometer. Twiss decided to pursue the Michelson alternative at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington in the UK. John Davis worked with him for a short while on this project. When the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh established its outstation at Monte Porzio Catone just south of Rome, Twiss decided to move his Michelson interferometer there. Not only was the weather more conducive to astronomy, the food and wine were much superior to what was available in Teddington! Speckle interferometry was discovered during that period by Antoine Labeyrie. This stimulated a renewed interest around the world in interferometry. In particular, John Davis and Hanbury Brown became convinced that a Michelson interferometer would be cheaper to build and have superior performance to a new intensity interferometer. In the mid-1970s Twiss's non-scientific interests gradually took over and he effectively retired from active involvement in science. In the 1970s he made it clear that he regarded Australia as a colonial backwater. His reaction when told that William J. Tango was going to join Davis and Brown in Sydney was typical. "But William," he said, "they eat peas out of tins!" In spite of that, a few years before his death Twiss visited Australia and fell in love with it. In 2004 he applied for permanent residence. He died on 20 May 2005. He is mentioned in the book "Boffin : A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics" ISBN 0-7503-0130-9, by Hanbury Brown He was awarded the Albert A. Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1982, jointly with Robert Hanbury Brown.

Twiss Parameters In accelerator physics, a method of describing the properties of a beam has become known as Twiss Parameters. While this is a reference to Richard Twiss, it is unclear (including to Twiss himself) how his name became associated with the formulation, as the parameters were developed by Ernest Courant and Hartland Snyder, and are more accurately referred to as the Courant–Snyder parameters.

Notes

References Mark P. Silverman (1995). More Than One Mystery: Explorations in Quantum Interference. Springer. ISBN 0-387-94376-5. R. Hanbury Brown (1991). BOFFIN : A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics. Adam Hilger. ISBN 0-7503-0130-9. W. Tango (2006). "Richard Quentin Twiss 1920-2005". Astronomy and Geophysics. 47: 333.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Q. Twiss

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss

In research: Richard Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1920 births, 2005 deaths, 20th-century British astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Q. Twiss in simple terms?

Richard Quintin Twiss (24 August 1920 – 20 May 2005) was a British astronomer. He is known for his work on the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect with Robert Hanbury Brown.

Why does Richard Q. Twiss 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 Q. Twiss?

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 Q. Twiss.