A keepsake as tribute to an alumnus
Department of Physics to preserve theoretical physicist’s first paper
Tiki Rajwi
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
When Thanu Padmanabhan,
theoretical physicist and cos-
mologist who made signifi-
cant contributions to ex-
panding knowledge of the
universe, passed away last
week, several people re-
called that he had published
his first technical paper at a
young age.
Now, the Department of
Physics at University College
has managed to dig up that
paper written more than
four decades ago. The de-
partment, where a young
Padmanabhan pursued his
BSc and MSc degrees with
great success in the 1970s,
was planning to keep the
paper framed, Madhu G.,
current Head of the Depart-
ment, said.
“That was his first paper.
We are also planning to build
a collection of the scientific
papers written by him over
the years,” Prof. Madhu said.
It was as a 20-year-old BSc
student of the department
that the young Padmanab-
han had written his paper tit-
led ‘Solutions of scalar and
electromagnetic wave equa-
tions in the metric of gravita-
tional and electromagnetic
waves’. It was published in
the 1977 edition of Pramana,
a journal brought out by the
Indian Academy of Sciences.
Solutions, discussions
In the introduction to his
paper, Prof. Padmanabhan
wrote: “In this paper, the
scalar and the electromag-
netic wave equations, in a
space-time curved by the
presence of a gravitational or
an electromagnetic wave,
are solved. From the solu-
tion, one can discuss possi-
ble interactions between
them.” During his days at the
University College, Prof.
Padmanabhan was part of a
science group that strove to
promote the scientific tem-
per, remember former class-
mates. “They would hold
classes in schools and colleg-
es, organise exhibitions,” re-
called David George, a form-
er classmate.
“He may no longer be
with us physically, but he
will be with us in our scientif-
ic achievements,” K. Krish-
nakumar, another of his MSc
classmates, said.