Retrospective view on the last half century
The year 2014 is a significant anniversary. Personally, it is 80 years since I was born. More importantly, it is one hundred years since the outbreak of the World War I, a catastrophe from which most of the world's present problems resulted. The slaughter was bad enough but without this bloodba...
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Інститут фізики конденсованих систем НАН України
2014
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| Schriftenreihe: | Condensed Matter Physics |
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| Zitieren: | Retrospective view on the last half century / D. Henderson // Condensed Matter Physics. — 2014. — Т. 17, № 1. — С. 19001:1-2 . — англ. |
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irk-123456789-1524692019-06-12T01:26:04Z Retrospective view on the last half century Henderson, D. The year 2014 is a significant anniversary. Personally, it is 80 years since I was born. More importantly, it is one hundred years since the outbreak of the World War I, a catastrophe from which most of the world's present problems resulted. The slaughter was bad enough but without this bloodbath we might have been spared Lenin's paradise, the great depression, Germany's embrace of an evil maniac, which occurred roughly at the time of the above mentioned birthday, the continuing spectre of a nuclear holocaust, and forty years of the cruel and smothering rule of the heart of Europe by a totalitarian regime. However, although often distressing, humanity's random walk has been forward. For example, an important paper by Ornstein and Zernike in the theory of liquids appeared in 1914. We can only hope that the positive direction of our random walk continues... 2014 Article Retrospective view on the last half century / D. Henderson // Condensed Matter Physics. — 2014. — Т. 17, № 1. — С. 19001:1-2 . — англ. 1607-324X DOI: 10.5488/CMP.17.19001 http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/152469 en Condensed Matter Physics Інститут фізики конденсованих систем НАН України |
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The year 2014 is a significant anniversary. Personally, it is 80 years since I was born. More importantly, it is one hundred years since the outbreak of the World War I, a catastrophe from which most of the world's present problems resulted. The slaughter was bad enough but without this bloodbath we might have been spared Lenin's paradise, the great depression, Germany's embrace of an evil maniac, which occurred roughly at the time of the above mentioned birthday, the continuing spectre of a nuclear holocaust, and forty years of the cruel and smothering rule of the heart of Europe by a totalitarian regime. However, although often distressing, humanity's random walk has been forward. For example, an important paper by Ornstein and Zernike in the theory of liquids appeared in 1914. We can only hope that the positive direction of our random walk continues... |
| format |
Article |
| author |
Henderson, D. |
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Henderson, D. Retrospective view on the last half century Condensed Matter Physics |
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Henderson, D. |
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Henderson, D. |
| title |
Retrospective view on the last half century |
| title_short |
Retrospective view on the last half century |
| title_full |
Retrospective view on the last half century |
| title_fullStr |
Retrospective view on the last half century |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Retrospective view on the last half century |
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retrospective view on the last half century |
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Інститут фізики конденсованих систем НАН України |
| publishDate |
2014 |
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http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/152469 |
| citation_txt |
Retrospective view on the last half century / D. Henderson // Condensed Matter Physics. — 2014. — Т. 17, № 1. — С. 19001:1-2 . — англ. |
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Condensed Matter Physics |
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AT hendersond retrospectiveviewonthelasthalfcentury |
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2025-07-13T03:14:44Z |
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2025-07-13T03:14:44Z |
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1837499927563862016 |
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Condensed Matter Physics, 2014, Vol. 17, No 1, 19001: 1–2
DOI: 10.5488/CMP.17.19001
http://www.icmp.lviv.ua/journal
Launching the Condensed Matter Physics special issue
Retrospective view on the last half century
The year 2014 is a significant anniversary. Personally, it is 80 years since I was born. More impor-
tantly, it is one hundred years since the outbreak of the World War I, a catastrophe from which most
of the world’s present problems resulted. The slaughter was bad enough but without this bloodbath we
might have been spared Lenin’s paradise, the great depression, Germany’s embrace of an evil maniac,
which occurred roughly at the time of the above mentioned birthday, the continuing spectre of a nu-
clear holocaust, and forty years of the cruel and smothering rule of the heart of Europe by a totalitarian
regime. However, although often distressing, humanity’s random walk has been forward. For example,
an important paper by Ornstein and Zernike in the theory of liquids appeared in 1914. We can only hope
that the positive direction of our random walk continues.
Of course, the development of condensed matter physics occurred within these global events and is a
subset of them. I have already mentioned Ornstein and Zernike. Eighty years ago (or even fifty years ago)
condensedmatter physics really meant solid state physics or even more narrowly electrons in metals and
semi-conductors. The physics of solids (and gases) was well understood but there was no adequate theory
of the liquid state. In retrospect, this is not true. The van der Waals theory is the basis of satisfactory
theory but this was not understood at the time. Unfortunately, nearly a century was wasted by attempting
to adjust the van der Waals parameter a instead of refining the concept of an excluded volume. In fact,
as it is apparent from CO
2
, it is not even physically necessary for a liquid phase to exist. Of course, life as
we know it would be impossible without liquids, in particular water.
The beginning of our understanding of the liquid state occurred fifty years ago. Computers and sim-
ulations were being developed. This made it possible to separate the questions of the appropriateness of
a model for the intermolecular potentials and the accuracy of the theoretical approximations. Longuet-
Higgins and Widom published an important paper that indicated that the van der Waals theory was not
merely an interesting pedagogical tool but was the basis of a useful theory. In 1964, I was preparing to
spend a year with John Barker in Australia. During this stay, which occurred two years later, a quantita-
tively accurate theory, called perturbation theory, was developed. The two important papers written in
Australia and a seminal article in Reviews of Modern Physics (1976) began the development of our under-
standing. This should be supplemented by review articles in Science by Widom (1967) and by Chandler,
Weeks, and Andersen (1983).
In my review with Barker, we asked the question, “What is liquid?”. This was a paraphrase of ques-
tions that were often asked by aliens in the television series, “Star Trek”. Using the occasion of all above
mentioned anniversaries, together with my colleagues from Prague and Lviv, we feel it is timely for a
collection of expert contributions to access could we now answer the question “What is liquid?” firmly in
the affirmative? Do we understand how surfaces affect liquids that are confined? How studies of bulk and
confined liquids were influenced by the papers of van derWaals, Ornstein and Zernike, and other giants?
More precisely, with this essay and on behalf of the co-editors, namely, Myroslav Holovko, Ivo Nezbeda,
and Andrij Trokhymchuk, I wish to announce the special issue of Condensed Matter Physics to discuss
how we arrived here, what is our present state of knowledge, and, most difficultly, where we might be
heading. The issue will be published by the end of this year-early the next year, depending how efficient
we will be, while deadline for submission of the selected contributions is before the end of September.
The selection will be made based on the submitted titles and a brief description of the proposed contri-
butions that must reach the Editors of the issue (cmp-liquid@icmp.lviv.ua) before April 20. There is no
© D. Henderson, 2014 19001-1
http://dx.doi.org/10.5488/CMP.17.19001
http://www.icmp.lviv.ua/journal
formal page limit but authors are encouraged to point out the desired page size in the description of their
contribution. An invitation to submit a paper with a page limit recommendation will be sent by the end
of April.
Doug Henderson
Editor of Condensed Matter Physics,
Provo UT, USA
19001-2
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