Yang Chen-Ning

Yang was born in Hefei, Anhui, China; his father, Ko Chuan Yang (楊克純; 1896–1973), was a mathematician, and his mother, Meng Hwa Loh Yang (羅孟華), was a housewife. Yang attended elementary school and high school in Beijing, and in the autumn of 1937 his family moved to Hefei after the Japanese invaded China. In 1938 they moved to Kunming, Yunnan, where National Southwestern Associated University (Lianda), was located. In the same year, as a second year student, Yang passed the entrance examination and studied at Lianda. He received his bachelor's degree in 1942,[4] with his thesis on the application of group theory to molecular spectra, under the supervision of Ta-You Wu. He continued to study graduate courses there for two years under the supervision of Wang Zhuxi, working on statistical mechanics. In 1944 he received his master's degree from Tsinghua University, which had moved to Kunming during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).[4] Yang was then awarded a scholarship from the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program, set up by the United States government using part of the money China had been forced to pay following the Boxer Rebellion. His departure for the United States was delayed for one year, during which time he taught in a middle school as a teacher and studied field theory.

From 1946, Yang studied with Edward Teller (1908–2003) at the University of Chicago, where he received his doctorate in 1948. He remained at the University of Chicago for a year as an assistant to Enrico Fermi. In 1949 he was invited to do his research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he began a period of fruitful collaboration with Tsung-Dao Lee. He was made a permanent member of the Institute in 1952, and full professor in 1955. In 1963, Princeton University Press published his textbook, Elementary Particles. In 1965 he moved to Stony Brook University, where he was named the Albert Einstein Professor of Physics and the first director of the newly founded Institute for Theoretical Physics. Today this institute is known as the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics.

He retired from Stony Brook University in 1999, assuming the title Emeritus Professor. In 2010, Stony Brook University honored Yang's contributions to the university by naming its newest dormitory building C. N. Yang Hall.[5]

He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Academia Sinica, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Princeton University (1958), Moscow State University (1992), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1997).

Yang visited the Chinese mainland in 1971 for the first time after the thaw in China–US relations, and has subsequently made great efforts to help the Chinese physics community rebuild the research atmosphere which was destroyed by the radical political movements during the Cultural Revolution. After retiring from Stony Brook he returned as an honorary director of Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he is the Huang Jibei-Lu Kaiqun Professor at the Center for Advanced Study (CASTU). He also is one of the two Shaw Prize Founding Members and is a Distinguished Professor-at-Large at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Yang married Chih-li Tu (pinyin: Dù Zhìlǐ), a teacher, in 1950 and has two sons and a daughter with her: Franklin Jr., Gilbert and Eulee. His father-in-law was a Kuomintang General Du Yuming. Some scholars suspect that Du was promoted to a high-ranking position in Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in order to convince Yang to return to China after seeking refuge in the US. Tu died in October 2003, but in December 2004 the then 82-year-old Yang made controversy by marrying the then 28-year-old Weng Fan (pinyin: Wēng Fān).[6]

Yang became a U.S. citizen in 1964. He now resides in China, and he was granted permanent residency in mainland China in 2004. He renounced his U.S. citizenship as of 30 September 2015, and became a citizen of the People's Republic of China.

On Yang's religious views, he is an agnostic.

Quantum field theory
Feynman diagram
History
Background Casimir effect Field theory Electromagnetism Weak force Strong force Quartic interaction Quantum mechanics Special relativity General relativity Gauge theory
Symmetries Symmetry in quantum mechanics C-symmetry P-symmetry T-symmetry Space translation symmetry Time translation symmetry Rotation symmetry Lorentz symmetry Poincaré symmetry Gauge symmetry Explicit symmetry breaking Spontaneous symmetry breaking Yang–Mills theory Noether charge Topological charge
Tools Anomaly Crossing Effective field theory Expectation value Ghost fields Faddeev–Popov ghosts Feynman diagram Lattice gauge theory LSZ reduction formula Partition function Propagator Quantization Regularization Renormalization Vacuum state Wick's theorem Wightman axioms Feynman parametrization
Equations Dirac equation Klein–Gordon equation Proca equations Wheeler–DeWitt equation Bargmann–Wigner equations Joos–Weinberg equation Weyl equation
Standard Model Quantum vacuum state Quantum dynamics Quantum thermodynamics Quantum electrodynamics Electroweak interaction Quantum chromodynamics Higgs mechanism Virtual particle
Incomplete theories Causal dynamical triangulation Causal fermion systems Causal sets Conformal field theory Chern–Simons theory Dirac sea False vacuum Gauge theory Gauge gravitation theory Gauge theory gravity Perturbation theory 6D (2,0) superconformal field theory Two-dimensional conformal field theory Quantum field theory in curved spacetime Thermal quantum field theory Topological quantum field theory Local quantum field theory Liouville field theory Noncommutative quantum field theory Quantum geometry Scattering theory Semiclassical gravity Spin foam String theory Superstring theory M-Theory Supersymmetry Supergravity Technicolor Theory of everything Canonical quantum gravity Quantum cosmology Quantum foam Quantum fluctuation Quantum gravity Local quantum field theory Loop quantum gravity Loop quantum cosmology Relativistic quantum field theory Hidden-variable theory Objective-collapse theory Yang–Mills theory
Scientists Adler Anderson Bethe Bogoliubov Coleman Callan DeWitt Dirac Dyson Fermi Feynman Fierz Fock Fröhlich Gell-Mann Goldstone Gross Heisenberg 't Hooft Jackiw Jordan Landau Lee Lehmann Mandelstam Majorana Nambu Parisi Polyakov Salam Schwinger Skyrme Stueckelberg Symanzik Tomonaga Veltman Weinberg Weisskopf Weyl Wilczek Wilson Witten Yang Yukawa Zimmermann Zinn-Justin

Standard Model of particle physics
Elementary particles of the Standard Model
Background Particle physics Standard Model Quantum field theory Gauge theory Spontaneous symmetry breaking Higgs mechanism
Constituents Electroweak interaction Quantum chromodynamics CKM matrix Standard Model mathematics
Limitations Strong CP problem Hierarchy problem Neutrino oscillations Physics beyond the Standard Model
Scientists Rutherford · Thomson · Chadwick · Bose · Sudarshan · Koshiba · Davis Jr. · Anderson · Fermi · Dirac · Feynman · Rubbia · Gell-Mann · Kendall · Taylor · Friedman · Powell · P. W. Anderson · Glashow · Iliopoulos · Maiani · Meer · Cowan · Nambu · Chamberlain · Cabibbo · Schwartz · Perl · Majorana · Weinberg · Lee · Ward · Salam · Kobayashi · Maskawa · Yang · Yukawa · 't Hooft · Veltman · Gross · Politzer · Wilczek · Cronin · Fitch · Vleck · Higgs · Englert · Brout · Hagen · Guralnik  · Kibble  · Ting · Richter

Condensed matter physics
Phases · Phase transition · QCP
States of matter Solid · Liquid · Gas · Plasma · Bose–Einstein condensate · Bose gas · Fermionic condensate · Fermi gas · Fermi liquid · Supersolid · Superfluidity · Luttinger liquid  · Time crystal
Phase phenomena Order parameter · Phase transition · QCP
Electronic phases Electronic band structure · Plasma · Insulator · Mott insulator · Semiconductor · Semimetal · Conductor · Superconductor · Thermoelectric · Piezoelectric · Ferroelectric · Topological insulator · Spin gapless semiconductor
Electronic phenomena Quantum Hall effect · Spin Hall effect · Kondo effect
Magnetic phases Diamagnet · Superdiamagnet Paramagnet · Superparamagnet Ferromagnet · Antiferromagnet Metamagnet · Spin glass
Quasiparticles Phonon · Exciton · Plasmon Polariton · Polaron · Magnon
Soft matter Amorphous solid · Colloid · Granular material · Liquid crystal · Polymer
Scientists Van der Waals · Onnes · von Laue · Bragg · Debye · Bloch · Onsager · Mott · Peierls · Landau · Luttinger · Anderson · Van Vleck · Hubbard · Shockley · Bardeen · Cooper · Schrieffer · Josephson · Louis Néel · Esaki · Giaever · Kohn · Kadanoff · Fisher · Wilson · von Klitzing · Binnig · Rohrer · Bednorz · Müller · Laughlin · Störmer · Yang · Tsui · Abrikosov · Ginzburg · Leggett

Statistical mechanics
Thermodynamics Kinetic theory
Particle statistics Spin–statistics theorem Identical particles Maxwell–Boltzmann Bose–Einstein Fermi–Dirac Parastatistics Anyonic statistics Braid statistics
Thermodynamic ensembles NVE Microcanonical NVT Canonical µVT Grand canonical NPH Isoenthalpic–isobaric NPT Isothermal–isobaric
Models Debye Einstein Ising Potts
Potentials Internal energy Enthalpy Helmholtz free energy Gibbs free energy Grand potential / Landau free energy
Scientists Maxwell Boltzmann Gibbs Einstein Ehrenfest von Neumann Tolman Debye Fermi Bose

Yang has worked on statistical mechanics, condensed matter theory, particle physics and gauge theory/quantum field theory.

At The University of Chicago, Yang first spent twenty months working in an accelerator lab, but he later found he was not as good as an experimentalist and switched back to theory. His doctoral thesis was about angular distribution in nucleon reactions. Later he worked on particle phenomenology; a well-known work was the Fermi–Yang model treating pion meson as a bound nucleon–antinucleon pair. In 1956, he and Tsung Dao (T.D.) Lee proposed that in the weak interaction the parity symmetry was not conserved, Chien-shiung Wu's team at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington experimentally verified the theory. Yang and Lee received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their parity violation theory. Yang has also worked on neutrino theory with Tsung Dao (T.D.) Lee, 1957, 1959, CT nonconservation (with Tsung Dao (T.D.) Lee and R. Oheme, 1957), electromagnetic interaction of vector mesons (with Tsung Dao (T.D.) Lee, 1962), CP nonconservation (with Wu Tai-tsun, 1964).

Yang is also well known for his collaboration with Robert Mills in developing non-Abelian gauge theory, widely known as the Yang–Mills theory. Subsequently, in the last three decades, many other prominent scientists have developed key breakthroughs to what is now known as gauge theory. In the 1970s Yang worked on the topological properties of gauge theory, collaborating with Wu Tai-Tsun to elucidate the Wu–Yang monopole. Unlike the Dirac monopole, it has no singular Dirac string.

Yang has had a great interest in statistical mechanics since his undergraduate time. In the 1950s and 1960s, he collaborated with Tsung Dao (T.D.) Lee and Kerson Huang, etc. and studied statistical mechanics and condensed matter theory. He studied the theory of phase transition and elucidated the Lee–Yang circle theorem, properties of quantum boson liquid, two dimensional Ising model, flux quantization in superconductors (with N. Byers, 1961), and proposed the concept of Off-Diagonal Long-Range Order (ODLRO, 1962). In 1967, he found a consistent condition for a one dimensional factorized scattering many body system, the equation was later named the Yang–Baxter equation, it plays an important role in integrable models and has influenced several branches of physics and mathematics.

Yang (seated, left) with fellow Nobel Prize winners (left to right; standing) Val Fitch, James Cronin and Samuel C. C. Ting, and (seated) Isidor Isaac Rabi

• Nobel Prize in Physics (1957)
• Ten Outstanding Young Americans (1957)
• Rumford Prize (1980)
• National Medal of Science (1986)
• Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture and Medal (1988)
• Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences of the American Philosophical Society (1993)[7]
• Bower Award (1994)
• Albert Einstein Medal (1995)
• Lars Onsager Prize (1999)
• King Faisal International Prize (2001)

Collected works

• Yang, C. N. (1983). Selected Papers, 1945–1980, with Commentary. San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman & Co. ISBN 978-0-7167-1406-4.
  • Yang, Chen-Ning (2005) [1983]. Selected Papers, 1945–1980, with Commentary. World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics. 36 (2005 ed.). Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 981-256-367-9.
• Yang, Chen-Ning (2013). Selected Papers of Chen Ning Yang II: With Commentaries. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-4449-00-7.

Yang–Mills theory

• Yang, C. N.; Mills, R. L. (1954). "Conservation of Isotopic Spin and Isotopic Gauge Invariance". Physical Review. 96 (1): 191–195. Bibcode:1954PhRv...96..191Y. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.96.191.
• Mills, R. L.; Yang, C. N. (1966). "Treatment of Overlapping Divergences in the Photon Self-Energy Function". Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement. 37: 507. Bibcode:1966PThPS..37..507M. doi:10.1143/PTPS.37.507.
• Yang, C. N. (2005). "Remembering Robert Mills". In 't Hooft, Gerardus (ed.). 50 years of Yang-Mills theory. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-238-934-3.

Parity violation

• Lee, T. D.; Yang, C. N. (1956). "Question of Parity Conservation in Weak Interactions". Physical Review. 104 (1): 254–258. Bibcode:1956PhRv..104..254L. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.104.254. S2CID 2044624.

Lee–Yang theorem

• Lee, T. D.; Yang, C. N. (1952). "Statistical Theory of Equations of State and Phase Transitions. II. Lattice Gas and Ising Model". Physical Review. 87 (3): 410–419. Bibcode:1952PhRv...87..410L. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.87.410. ISSN 0031-9007.

Byers-Yang theorem

• Byers, N.; Yang, C. N. (1961). "Theoretical Considerations Concerning Quantized Magnetic Flux in Superconducting Cylinders". Physical Review Letters. 7 (2): 46–49. Bibcode:1961PhRvL...7...46B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.7.46.

• Yang–Mills theory
  • Wu–Yang monopole
• Yang–Baxter equation
  • Yangian
• Parity violation
  • Wu experiment
• Lee–Yang theorem
• Byers–Yang theorem
• C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics
• Center for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University
• List of Chinese Nobel laureates
• List of theoretical physicists

• Interpretation of Organic Spectra, Wiley, 2011[8]

• Media related to Chen Ning Yang at Wikimedia Commons
• Professor Chen Ning Yang (homepage – Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University)
• Chen Ning Yang (homepage – Stony Brook University)
• C.N. Yang's Home Page (homepage – The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
• Yang Chen-Ning on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1957 The Law of Parity Conservation and Other Symmetry Laws of Physics
• The Shaw Prize, Structure (homepage – Shaw Prize)
• Symmetries and Reflections (C.N. Yang retirement symposium at Stony Brook University)
• The CN Yang Scholars Programme at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• "Chen-ning Yang interview". Simons Foundation. 20 December 2011.