John Archibald Wheeler — Wikipedia Summary

John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911 - April 13, 2008) was an American theoretical physicist. He largely revived interest in general relativity in the US after WWII. Worked with Niels Bohr to explain nuclear fission; with Gregory Breit explored positron-electron pair production (Breit-Wheeler process). Popularized the term “black hole”, coined “quantum foam”, “wormhole”, “it from bit”; hypothesized the “one-electron universe”. Stephen Hawking called Wheeler the “hero of the black hole story”.

Role in MWI

Wheeler was Everett’s PhD thesis advisor at Princeton. He contributed the title “relative state” to Everett’s formulation. Made considerable efforts to make the theory palatable to Bohr, visited Copenhagen 1956 to discuss it, convinced Everett to visit (1959) - Bohr rejected the theory. In 1957 wrote: “No escape seems possible from this relative state formulation if one wants to have a complete mathematical model for the quantum mechanics.” Wheeler disavowed the theory in 1980.

Career

PhD at Johns Hopkins at age 21 under Karl Herzfeld. Professor at Princeton 1938-1976, where he supervised 46 PhD students - more than any other physics professor. Manhattan Project (Metallurgical Laboratory, Chicago; Hanford Site). Helped design hydrogen bomb with Edward Teller. At 65 left Princeton; later at University of Texas at Austin.