0 1 We first met in the 1940s. After the victory of World War II, Chiang Kai-shek selected talents to study in the United States. As one of them, Li Zhengdao went to the University of Chicago to study theoretical physics. At that time, Yang Zhenning was working as a teaching assistant at the University of Chicago because they were alumni of National Southwest Associated University. After receiving the notice from Wu Dayou, Yang Zhenning booked a room for Li Zhengdao and others in the University International Apartment, and they formally met. Although Yang Zhenning was two years older than Li Zhengdao, their contacts became closer and closer, and they began to publish papers together and became very close friends in life.
02 formal cooperation 1950, Li Zhengdao went to work at the University of California, Berkeley, as a teaching assistant in the Department of Physics, while Yang Zhenning was a visiting member at Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies. He found the dean, Oppenheimer, and hoped that he could invite Li Zhengdao to do research together. Li Zhengdao, who received the invitation letter, went to Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies with his wife in September. Li Yang and his family live very close, and Yang Zhenning is studying the calculation of magnetization of two-dimensional Ising model at this time. He invited Li Zhengdao to join them, which was the real beginning of their cooperation.
The cooperation between the two people is both pleasant and divergent. The first unpleasantness is due to the sorting of the signatures of the two papers. The general title of these two papers is "Statistical Theory of State Equation and Phase Transition". According to international practice, signatures should be arranged in the order of initials of surnames, that is? Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning? But Kiwifruit suggested that he wanted to rank first, because he was four years older than Li Zhengdao, and Li Zhengdao could only reluctantly agree to this, so the first signature became? Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao? Li Zhengdao persuaded Yang Zhenning to make a revision according to international practice. At this point, there is a gap between them. Li Zhengdao decided not to cooperate with Yang Zhenning. After a while, Li Zhengdao left Princeton University and became an assistant professor at Columbia University. Later, he became the youngest professor in the history of Rumbia University.
04 Re-cooperation 1953, Yang Zhenning worked in Brookhaven National Laboratory for one year and published a paper "Isospin Conservation and Isospin gauge invariance" in cooperation with Mills, but Li Zhengdao was skeptical about the starting point of this paper. On one occasion, Yang Zhenning came to Li See Zhengdao, Columbia University, and Li Zhengdao told Yang Zhenning his views. After active discussion, they finally * * *.
This relationship broke up in 2005. During this period, they cooperated very closely and made great achievements in their research. It was also at this time that they published a paper and won the Nobel Prize. 1957165438+1October, they arrived in Stockholm to receive the prize, but at this time Yang Zhenning proposed to receive the prize before Li Zhengdao, because Mrs. Yang Zhenning Du Zhili wanted to be accompanied by the king at the dinner, and Li Zhengdao finally reluctantly agreed. This episode made them unhappy, but it ended in May 0962 at 65438+65438. This paper tells the story of Li Yang's cooperation in discovering parity non-conservation. Yang Zhenning hopes that his name can be written before Li Zhengdao, and his wife Du Zhili's name should also be put before Li Zhengdao's wife Qin. Because his wife is older, Li Zhengdao is very disappointed with this and unilaterally proposes to sever cooperation with Kiwifruit. After that, the two went back to China to visit, but their opinions were completely different. It seemed that they had personal feelings, but unfortunately they were not cooperative.
As Ji Cheng said? The difference between them has been a problem in the history of science. Its merits should be judged by history and studied by historians of science. As for the conclusion, I'm afraid no one and no organization can come to it. ?