CHAPTER IX

PHYSICS

ndia has more than a century old tradition of creating and contributing to physics at the highest level, with a very wide base today of institutions, skills, knowledge and research activity. In this brief overview, we try to convey a sense of this experience. We then set the stage by recalling the unique pre-Independence (1947) contributions to physics. Some of the highlights of physics research in India in the following half century are then mentioned, in two parts; the period till roughly about a decade ago, and the last ten years. The emphasis of India's comprehensive intellectual culture was broadly linguistic, philosophical and literary. However, thinking about the physical world, inventing mathematical ideas and languages, and experimentation and technology, all have ancient roots. One example of each of the above may be mentioned because, consciously or not, this is one of the formative influences of contemporary Indian activity in physics. The atomic theory was hypothesized by Kanada (6th century BC) who, along with Prasastapada, was the founder of the philosophical school called Nyaya Vaiseshika or Logical Atomism. Their argument for the particulate nature of matter was the manifest inequality of different bits of it; if matter were infinitely divisible, how could a mustard seed be unequal to the Meru Mountain ? The philosophers of this school went on to describe diatomic and triatomic molecules formed of elementary atoms, thermal dissociation of molecules, and shape and size of atoms. The Kerala School of mathematicians, starting with Madhava in the 14th century,
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discovered and used differential and integral calculus in the course of expressing trignometric functions as an infinite power series, obtaining the famous series of Gregory, Newton and Leibniz and thence a value of accurate to 11 decimals, all this two to three centuries before calculus was invented in the West, in a different context, by Newton and Leibniz. The fertile coming together of these three kinds of activity, a hallmark of contemporary science, did not happen and it was with the British conquest of India that science as we know it today entered the country. Western higher education began to be officially sponsored and supported from the early 19th century. Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, three factors, namely the results of this policy, resurgent national as well as cultural consciousness, and the revolution in physics came together to create the most remarkable period in modern Indian science. The best known figures of this period are icons in the contemporary national imagination; together they gave India a special position in the physics world. Their work and influence are briefly mentioned here, both for their own interest and because this is the immediate background for physics in India. The first, and in many ways the most unusual was Jagadis Chandra Bose (1858-1937), a pioneer in experimental studies of ultra-short (millimetre wavelength) electromagnetic waves, and in the physical response of plants to stimuli. He went to study medicine in London in 1880, shifted to science at Cambridge and returned to teach at Presidency College, Kolkata. Here, in the 1890's he started

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A typical flower texture exhibited by a columnar liquid crystal. This mesophase was discovered in compounds made of disc-shaped molecules in the Raman Research Institute in 1977.

experiments on microwaves, generating and detecting them over distances of the order of a mile, a year or more before Marconi's experiments on longer wavelength radio waves. He established their identity as transverse electromagnetic waves with ingenious but materially simple table top experiments, taking advantage of their millimetre wavelength. The horn antennae, waveguides, and the semiconductor rectifiers he developed for detection prefigured the detailed exploration of microwaves and the knowing use of pn junction

(silicon) rectifiers by half a century. In the early years of the 20th century, J.C. Bose began studying electrical and mechanical response of plants to stress, by devising techniques for amplifying extremely minute movements and changes. Clearly it was far too early to make scientific sense of the striking results, and their often anthropomorphic description in a literal minded scientific age did not help. This scientific explorer was also a great teacher, emphasizing demonstration and experiment. Somewhat later came C. V. Raman (1888-1970), the greatest of Indian scientists. Precocious (his first scientific paper was published when he was about seventeen), indigenous and entirely self taught, he was the natural scientist of the world of light and sound waves. The first half of his career (19071933) was spent in Kolkata and the remainder in Bangalore. He is best known for his discovery (Raman effect, 1928) that photons interacting with matter can change their frequency, the shift being characteristic of its internal excitations. Prior to this, photons were known to be fully absorbed (e.g. photoelectric effect) or scattered elastically (ordinary or Raleigh scattering of light, or Compton effect); these are first order processes. The Raman effect, second order in the photon field, is a new phenomenon probing the internal states of molecules and of condensed matter. Some of the other major discoveries of Raman are the origin of the musical nature of the drums tabla and mridangam, diffraction of light from stationary wavefronts created by ultrasound in liquids, light scattering from polymers and from short-lived shear fluctuations in fluids, and the soft mode associated with structural phase transitions in solids. Raman's style was imaginative and incisive, doing relatively simple but often ingenious experiments to probe
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phenomena. He was primarily a research scientist with a large number of research students over a long (~ 40 years long) and productive scientific career; these students helped shape physics in India for a generation or more. Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974) was the first to realize the statistical mechanical consequences of identity in quantum particles (Bose-Einstein statistics) and applied it to light or photons, thus inventing quantum statistical mechanics. Meghnad Saha (1893-1956) showed that the origin of unusual stellar line spectra is the presence of different ionic species in stellar matter due to thermal removal of different numbers of electrons from radiating atoms, thus clarifying a great mystery in astrophysics and providing a way of estimating temperatures of stars. Saha was also active in public life, e.g., science and economic planning, calendar reform, a stint as nominated Member of Parliament, and founding and nurturing an Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata. K.S.Krishnan (1898-1961) collaborated in the discovery of the Raman effect, did very precise measurements of magnetic anisotropy in crystals and understood the results in terms of crystal fields, and also proposed a theory for the resistivity of liquid metals based on the scattering of free electrons by a dense highly correlated collection of atoms. The theoretical astrophysicist S. Chandrasekhar (1910-1995; Nobel Prize, 1963) started his epic career from India where he had begun to think at the age of twenty or so about the maximum mass a stable star can have, the Chandrasekhar limit; he went on to develop this and other areas of astrophysics and cosmology on a monumental basis in England and then USA where he settled. These physicists worked mostly at universities, those being the only places for higher education and research in the pre-Independence period except for two primarily research institutions, namely the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In the 1950s, the picture changed in several
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ways. The charismatic Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, believed strongly in nation building through centralized planning and government institutions, and in the essentiality of science both basic and applied for this. As a result, a large number of state supported research and development laboratories were set up, for example the cluster associated with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. This was also the period when big science physics began to become prominent all over the world following the release of nuclear energy, and the atom bomb. The field found a visionary leader in Homi Bhabha, (1909-1966) an outstanding theoretical physicist who was also very close to Nehru, well known for his work on 'showers' of electrons and positrons accompanying high energy cosmic rays as they pass through the atmosphere. Bhabha conceived and helped set up a collection of institutions such as the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR, 1945) and the DAE (incorporated as Atomic Energy Commission in 1948) which itself had a wide spectrum of activities ranging from power reactors to metallurgy of nuclear fuel materials. He inculcated the spirit of self-sufficiency in instrumentation and technology development. He also built up people and groups, by choosing well, giving them the freedom and support needed, and generating and sustaining a spirit of great things to be done. In physics, a number of groups quickly attained international prominence (in the 1950s and early 1960s) in relatively new fields, e.g., cosmic ray research, neutron scattering and radio astronomy. In the field of cosmic rays, D.M. Bose and others from Kolkata had observed very early (in 1941) cosmic ray particle tracks in photographic plates exposed in the Himalaya, and had identified new particles with a mean mass 200 times that of the electron. This was six years before Powells systematic development of the photographic emulsion method, and discovery of pi mesons in cosmic rays. In TIFR, the cosmic ray

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Balloon flights for study of cosmic rays. (Inset): Bhabha releasing a balloon.

group used balloon flights carrying nuclear emulsion stacks to obtain important results on masses and decay modes of heavy unstable particles (produced by cosmic rays). This group established itself over the years as a major group in the study of primary cosmic radiation, particularly the heavy primary and high energy electron components. The extensive air shower array at Ooty was one of the leading facilities for the exploration of extremely high energy cosmic rays. The various depths available in the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), up to almost 2 miles below the surface offered one of the few world class places for the study of extremely energetic cosmic ray mu mesons and neutrinos. Experiments at KGF were carried out on an international basis with groups from England and Japan; the collaborative effort with the Japanese group lasting over three decades must surely be one of the longest collaborative scientific efforts in the world. The KGF work resulted in the most comprehensive depth-intensity data for muons up to the greatest depth of 9,600 ft. below the ground. The first natural (atmospheric) neutrino interactions

were detected in KGF in 1965. The first dedicated experiment to search for nucleon decay to a life time of up to 1,031 years was carried out at KGF; this was the first such detector operational in the 100 ton category. In neutron scattering, the group at BARC was one of the early leaders (in the 1960s) in using inelastic scattering to probe elementary excitations in condensed matter. The occultation radio telescope at Ooty, set up in 1970, provided important results relating to the apparent angular size of galaxies with their energy flux. The development of optical telescope facilities also dates to this period; a number of interesting results such as the discovery of rings surrounding Uranus, and the measurement of star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud and their kinematics are from this period. Somewhat later, a number of small or laboratory-scale activities, mainly in condensed matter physics, centered around individuals, began to bear fruit. Perhaps the best known is the sustained work on liquid crystals done at Raman Research Institute in Bangalore; the discovery of a new arrangement in liquid crystals, the discotic phase with a stacking of disc like molecules, (in 1978) is perhaps a high point in the contributions by this group, which
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Photos: M.G.K. Menon

continues to be one of the leaders in the world in this field rich in new science and technology. A group in TIFR has, for more than a generation, made often pioneering discoveries in the still lively and fascinating field of rare earth intermetallic compounds. Their forte is synthesis and experimental analysis of anomalous systems in which the generally completely atomic f electrons (of the rare earth elements) hybridize with the s and p band electrons, to produce heavy electron metals and insulators (the nearly localized electron moves slowly from site to site), or give rise to novel superconductors with unlikely ingredients (the rare earth borocarbides). In the field of quasicrystals, significant early contributions on different families, on structure, and on systematics of approximants are due largely to the Indian community of physical metallurgists. This was in a sense an offshoot of a major programme on rapidly quenched metals. Interesting studies on critical phenomena, e.g. breakdown of the rectilinear diameter law near Tc, and precise measurements of unusual exponents and critical light scattering near special critical points in carefully chosen fluid mixtures, date from this period, and are continuing. Following the Raman tradition, a number of soft modes in ferroelectrics were studied by optical as well as neutron scattering methods. High pressure studies of phases and phase transitions in metals and alloys have yielded insight into electron phases. The tradition of atmospheric studies goes to back to S.K. Mitra at Kolkata in the thirties, and continued with important work on low frequency propagation in the ionosphere, aeronomy and the ozone problem. We now describe Indian contributions to theoretical physics from the 1950s till the 1980s. In the 1950s a programme of selecting and training physicists, chemists and engineers was started in Mumbai under the leadership of Bhabha. This provided the growing atomic energy programmme with professionals; many research physicists also started their career here. In addition, many scientists who did their Ph.D. and subsequent research
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abroad returned to India. A number of centres of quality (universities and research institutes) had been training professional physicists since the twenties or so. Because of increased mobility and ease of communication, international collaboration as well as working abroad for some time became common. All this, along with a rapid growth in the number of physics based government supported institutions after Independence, led to a major expansion in physics; because of the relative sparseness of experimental research and the slant of the intellectual culture, there was (and is) a large thrust in theoretical physics. We mention below some contributions in areas such as particle and nuclear physics, gravitation and cosmology, condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics. Theoretical particle physics has over the past half century gone through many stages. To all of these, Indian physicists have made significant contributions. Perhaps the best known departure was the hypothesis in the late fifties (1957) that the parity violating weak interaction and decay process is maximally so, arising phenomenologically out of a fermion current that is of the form (V-A), where V is a vector and A an axial vector. This (V-A) hypothesis, proposed after analyzing all available experiments (and inconsistent with a few of them, which were subsequently shown to be in error), was a breakthrough towards the present theory of electro-weak interactions. An early area of important activity was the formulation of constraints and sum rules on various elementary processes, using only general principles in the absence of a dynamical theory, with important results on scattering cross sections and amplitudes. In the phase where algebraic properties of quantum particle currents were analyzed, exact low energy theorems were obtained. Gauge field theory, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and electro-weak unification leading to the standard model of fundamental particle interactions, have all seen important original contributions, ranging from results in relevant quantum field theories to

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predictions and analyses of experiments. For example, it was shown quite early that the quanta of a massless Yang-Mills (gauge) field are confined (much before the advent of QCD). Very early, one loop (higher order) corrections to muon decay were obtained in gauge theory and shown to be finite. A lepton isolation criterion for the top quark was proposed as a means of detection, and prediction of its mass was made. Charged quantum solutions and charged vortex solutions were shown to be present in appropriate field theories. Various possible experimental signatures for detecting the quark gluon plasma in high energy collisions between heavy ions have been analyzed, and their uniqueness discussed. The consequences of the spin content of nucleons in several nuclear reactions were examined within the QCD. The detailed nature and implications of the chiral phase transition in lattice QCD were determined. Physics beyond the standard model, namely in supersymmetric models has been actively explored, both from a formal viewpoint (e.g. the solution to the naturalness or gauge hierarchy problem in supersymmetric field theories, this being a strong theoretical argument for such theories) and the approach of using high energy collision events to set limits on say masses of supersymmetric analogues of quarks, gluons, and Higgs bosons. Another fruitful area is at the active interface of cosmology and particle physics ; an early example is a limit on masses of weakly interacting particles such as neutrinos, from cosmological considerations (this was perhaps the first suggestion of the existence and relevance of dark matter in the universe). In theoretical nuclear physics, a great deal of original work has been done on the microscopic approach to nuclear structure, especially the shell model. For example, relating the spectrum of a particle - particle and a particle - hole configuration, the magnetic moments of neighbouring nuclei could be connected, and an estimate obtained for three body nuclear forces. A method for reducing the nuclear three body problem to two body problems

for separable potentials was used extensively for understanding few nucleon systems, and also for the three quark model for a nucleon. Some of the conclusions from the latter presage a new degree of freedom for quarks, now well known as 'colour'. There is a long tradition of research in general theory of relativity and gravitation, earlier mainly in departments of mathematics. Some of the early major results are the exact solution of Einstein's equations for the case of any electrostatic field, and for a radiating star, as well as the equation which turned out to be the key ingredient in the proof of the black hole singularity theorems (Hawking and Penrose). Other important contributions were made to gravitation theory and cosmology, such as the development of steady state cosmology, various aspects of black hole physics, and the seismology of the sun based on its normal modes of oscillation. In the area of condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics, activity started in the 1960s. An early result was the recognition that orbital ordering in Jahn Teller distorted oxides is an order - disorder transition, rather than displacive. It was shown that the exact ground state of an antiferromagnetically coupled spin system (for a particular ratio between nearest and next nearest neighbour couplings) is a dimerized superposition of spin singlets, an important signpost in quantum magnetism and a forerunner of spin singlet or resonating valence bond ideas for antiferromagnetism and high temperature superconductivity. A theory of unusual time dependent specific heat and heat pulse propagation in glassy dielectrics at low temperatures was developed. Qualitative and quantitative consequences of quantum spin fluctuation effects in itinerant electron (fermion) systems with ferromagnetic transition temperature T ~ 0 were spelt out ; the related, presently active field of quantum critical phenomena developed a generation later. The theory of liquid to solid transition in (real) dense classical systems was developed, in terms of a new free energy functional of the density involving
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known strongly nonlocal fluid phase correlations. This approach has proved of value in a number of phenomena in which both the fluid and the solid, as well as large deformations of the solid are involved. Optical nonlinear susceptibilities for semiconductors and at metal surfaces were predicted and calculated, as was also the prominent surface enhanced Raman scattering. The nature of ground state and excitations in coupled spin chains is a theme of continued activity. It is a field that has recently seen a very large amount of experimental work because of synthesized spin ladder compounds with unusual properties. Here, exact solutions for ground states for chains, ladders and special two dimensional systems have been obtained. Multimagnon bound states and solitonic excitations have been explored. Conservation laws for and exact integrability of one dimensional lattice electron systems with interaction have been discovered. A complete renormalization group based analysis of the properties of a magnetic impurity in a metal (Anderson model) as it evolves from weak to strong coupling with its environment on cooling was developed. An inverse orbital degeneracy expansion was proposed for Anderson model magnetic impurity systems, in the context of mixed valence and heavy fermions. The essentiality of 'hedgehog ' like spin defect textures for the ferromagnetic - paramagnetic transition in systems was shown. The long time relaxation behaviour of disordered ferromagnets was shown to be dominated by exponentially improbable ferromagnetic domains. The dependence of the area of the hysterisis loop in magnets on the size frequency of the reversing field was analyzed for the first time and power law relations obtained, the results being close to those known from the experiments of Steinmetz more than a century ago. The above account necessarily touches on a wide range of phenomena and models, reflecting the nature of condensed matter physics. In other areas of theoretical physics, some of
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the major contributions are the following. In the 1950s, Pancharatnam, while exploring the description of the state of polarized light in terms of a vector with the tip on the surface of a 'Poincare' sphere, clearly understood and enunciated the idea of a geometrical phase (Berry phase; now often called the Berry-Pancharatnam phase) associated with changes of polarizarion described by the tip executing a closed curve on the Poincare sphere. Subsequent work includes extension to non-closed curves, kinematics and mathematical structure of the theory. In a contribution of central value to biochemistry and biophysics, Ramachandran and colleagues showed that dihedral angles between successive molecular groups in proteins are sterically constrained, and can lie only within certain regions of values (Ramachandran diagram). In the area of quantum optics, in addition to the basic coherent state representation of electromagnetic fields, pioneering work has been done in areas such as cooperative resonance fluorescence, pair coherent states and squeezing etc.. Plasma physics is another area with significant Indian contributions, e.g. the theory of parametric instabilities and stabilization of tokamak ballooning modes. The survey is concluded by mentioning some physics research facilities and achievements pertaining to the last decade or so. The attempted description will be grossly incomplete and patchy, since the physics community is rather large, with perhaps 5,000 or more Ph.D. physicists. Most major areas of physics are pursued, so that there is a large and widespread knowledge and research base. This base is formed by the sustained efforts of a large number of dedicated practitioners working under difficult conditions, and a relatively small number of prominent figures or leaders, some of whom have made contributions of major significance to physics. A few individuals have successfully built and/or nurtured major institutions and facilities, especially in government departments connected with atomic energy, space, defence etc. A culture of self-reliance of developing the tools needed,

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and of applied science at a high level of competence in diverse areas, has been developed. In experimental physics research, a few fields stand out in terms of the investments made, and facilities created. These are overwhelmingly in the area of 'big' science. In the field of astronomy and astrophysics (as described in the Chapter on this area) a number of major facilities have been set up that are of world class and available widely to scientists within India as well as from abroad. A number of medium energy particle accelerators have been functioning in the country, e.g. a heavy ion accelerator in the Nuclear Science Centre, Delhi, used as a common facility in Nuclear Physics and Materials Science for all Indian universities for about a decade. A major tokamak facility using a solid state superconducting magnet is coming up at the Institute of Plasma Research, Ahmedabad. An ultraviolet synchrotron is operational at the Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, and an X-ray synchrotron is expected to come on line soon. There have been many interesting developments in experimental condensed matter/materials physics. The energy dependence of the electronic excitation spectrum near the T=0 metal insulator transition, with the possible development of a pseudogap, has been explored. While subsequent to the discovery of superconductivity in the cuprates, considerable amount of materials related work was done, the absence of quality single crystal growth and cryogenic facilities has proved a serious handicap in this as well as other areas. However, novel phenomena associated with flux lattice melting, plastic flow of the flux lattice etc. have been discovered (TIFR) using cuprate and other superconductor crystals grown elsewhere. The nature of atom (or molecule) light interaction in intense laser fields has been actively probed. Aspects of electronic and optical processes in quantum well semiconductor structures have been studied by several groups. An interesting new development in a field of basic interest as well as current activity is the detection and quantitative analysis of electrical

noise near the metal insulator transition in silicon (universal conductance fluctuation), its suppression by electric fields and thermal dephasing. Very careful structural work on quantum and mixed ferroelectrics has greatly clarified the nature of phases in these; the phenomena and materials are of importance both scientifically and technologically. In the growing field of colossal magnetoresistance oxides (manganites) a large amount of well known work exploring the bewildering variety of electron driven phases and phase transitions has been done (mainly at IISc). Two notable features of this body of work are the fruitful collaboration between solid state chemists and physicists, and the systematic study of phenomena using several probes, e.g. transport, tunnelling, heat capacity, light scattering and EPR. Fullerenes (C60, C70....) and carbon nanotubes are another aspect of this kind of work. For example, in Y junctions of carbon nanotubes, rectification has been shown to occur; many unusual properties of single and multiwalled nanotubes are coming to light. We have here entered the completely quantum world of nanoscience where there are no boundaries between different areas of science, and between science and technology. However, facilities for sustained frontier work in this area are very poor. A growing concern in modern physical science is the study of soft systems, such as colloids, membranes, foams, and gels, in which the energies associated with the relevant degrees of freedom are of low energy (~ kB T). Here, in addition to liquid crystals mentioned above, aggregates of colloids forming a glassy phase have been studied structurally (and kinetically), diffusion of photons in this medium has been analyzed, and surfactant based self-organized assemblies have been probed using light scattering. In theoretical physics, the last decade has seen a wide range of contributions. In string theory, an area of great intellectual ferment, the Indian presence is quite prominent. While many of the developments over the decade had active Indian participation, at least two stand out because of the critical Indian contributions namely the idea of
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duality between strongly and weakly interacting string field theory, a major breakthrough in the field with wide implications and an absolute value for black hole entropy from a quantum model for it. Contributions to theoretical astrophysics range from an analysis of shock wave induced triggering of starburst collections in interacting galaxies and a calculation of the selfconsistent (gravitational) potential at the core of elliptical galaxies to early discussions of gravitational lensing as well as nonlinear mechanisms for large scale structure formation in the early universe. Indian theorists have contributed notably to ideas connected with high temperature superconductivity, e.g. the resonating valence bond model for antiferromagnetically coupled electron spins on a lattice and the associated gauge degree of freedom which are believed by many to be crucial ingredients in any theory. A long range one dimensional antiferromagnetic interaction model with exactly known ground state, and with spinons was discovered a little more than a decade ago. The nature of interlayer tunnelling and consequences for the puzzling anisotropy of resistivity in the cuprates has been discussed. A very interesting proposal for a mirrorless laser in a disordered one-dimensional medium using (Anderson) localization properties has been made. A number of interesting contributions to mesoscopic physics, e.g. conductance fluctuations and persistent currents in mesoscopic structures, have been made. In the area of strongly correlated electron systems, the dynamical mean field theory has been extended in several significant ways, in particular going beyond the single site approximation to describe clusters. In what has now become a standard method in the field, it has been shown how photoemission data can be used to derive reliable and precise information about electron spectral density in cuprate superconductors. In statistical mechanics, a unique exactly soluble model for self-organized criticality, the Abelian sandpile model, was formulated and the results analyzed. A number of interesting soluble
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models in low dimensions for interfacial dynamics were proposed and solved in the broad area of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Multiscaling behaviour in turbulence has been numerically explored. Chaotic control of cardiac arrhythmia is one of the many fascinating contributions to emerge from the increased attention given to nonlinear dynamics and chaos. Some others are chaotic computing, yielding of solids and premonitory phenomena in earthquakes. The nature of glassy free energy minima and their landscape, and a formal approach to freezing in disordered systems, are some efforts at understanding one of the major unsolved problems in condensed matter physics, namely the glass transition. In the area of equilibrium statistical mechanics, phase transitions in polymeric systems, the nature of the DNA denaturation / unzipping transition, and flux lattice melting are some of the notable efforts. Original work on autocatalytic networks as involved in prebiotic evolution has been carried out. Work on spin ice, namely dipolar interacting spin models with residual entropy (measured in some pyrochlores) as in some models of ice, has attracted attention. The above incomplete survey suggests that physics activity in India continues at a high international level and over a widening range. While this is broadly true, there are a number of clear signs suggesting that immediate corrective action is necessary for the continued vitality, growth and usefulness of not only physics but science in general. These signs are briefly: (a) the generally poor state of experimental science (at least physical science) in India, due to continued lack of support for laboratory-scale physical science (by a factor of five or more), (b) relative paucity of physics related (high) technology, (c) the concentration of research in a small number of non-teaching institutions with few students, and the blighting of universities with many students, an inherently unstable arrangement not found in scientifically vigorous societies, and (d) a sharp decline in the number of students taking up physics.

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