Hideki Yukawa
Japanese theoretical physicist (1907–1981)

Hideki Yukawa
湯川 秀樹
Yukawa in 1949
Born
Hideki Ogawa

(1907-01-23)23 January 1907
Tokyo, Empire of Japan
Died8 September 1981(1981-09-08) (aged 74)
Kyoto, Japan
Alma mater
Known forTheory of mesons
Spouse
Sumi Yukawa
​
(m. 1932)​
Children2
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsParticle physics
Institutions
Academic advisors
Notable students
Signature

Hideki Yukawa (Japanese: 湯川 秀樹; né Ogawa; 23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981) was a Japanese theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1949 "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces."[3]

Early life and education

Hideki Yukawa was born on 23 January 1907 in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Kyoto with two older brothers, two older sisters, and two younger brothers.[4] He read the Confucian Doctrine of the Mean, and later Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu. His father, for a time, considered sending him to technical college rather than university since he was "not as outstanding a student as his older brothers." However, when his father broached the idea with his middle school principal, the principal praised his "high potential" in mathematics and offered to adopt Ogawa himself in order to keep him on a scholarly career. At that, his father relented.[5]

Ogawa decided against becoming a mathematician when his high school teacher marked his exam answer as incorrect when Ogawa proved a theorem but in a different manner than the teacher expected. He decided against a career in experimental physics in college when he demonstrated clumsiness in glassblowing, a requirement for experiments in spectroscopy.[4]

In 1929, Ogawa graduated from Kyoto Imperial University, where he was a lecturer from 1932 to 1939. During this period, he was interested in theoretical physics, particularly in the theory of elementary particles. In 1933, he became Lecturer and Assistant Professor of Physics at Osaka Imperial University.

Career and research

Physics is a science that has made rapid progress in the twentieth century ... I desire, as I did in the past, to be a traveler in a strange land and a colonist in a new country. (from the foreword to his autobiography)

In 1935, Yukawa published his theory of mesons, which explained the interaction between protons and neutrons at Osaka Imperial University, and was a major influence on research into elementary particles.[6]

In 1938, Yukawa received a doctorate from Osaka Imperial University for his predictions regarding the existence of mesons and his theoretical work on the nature of nuclear forces.[7][8] These research achievements were the reason he was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In 1939, Yukawa was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at Kyoto Imperial University. In 1949, he became a visiting professor at Columbia University, the same year he received the Nobel Prize in Physics—after the discovery by Cecil Powell, Giuseppe Occhialini, and César Lattes of Yukawa's predicted pi meson in 1947. Yukawa also worked on the theory of K-capture, in which a low energy electron is absorbed by the nucleus, after its initial prediction by G. C. Wick.[9]

[Once I had published my seminal 1934 paper on particle interaction] I felt like a traveler who rests himself at a small tea shop at the top of a mountain slope. At that time I was not thinking about whether there were any more mountains ahead. [conclusion of his autobiography]

In 1946, Yukawa founded the journal Progress of Theoretical Physics,[10] and published the books Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (1946) and Introduction to the Theory of Elementary Particles (1948).

In 1953, Yukawa became the first Director of the Research Institute for Fundamental Physics (now the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics), a position he held until his retirement in 1970.

Activism

In 1955, Yukawa joined ten other leading scientists and intellectuals in signing the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, calling for nuclear disarmament.

Yukawa was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution;[11][12] subsequently, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt a Constitution for the Federation of Earth.[13]

Personal life and death

Yukawa with his family, 1949

In 1932, he married Sumi Yukawa (スミ). In accordance with Japanese customs (see Mukoyōshi), since he came from a family with many sons—but his father-in-law, Genyo, had none—he was adopted by Genyo and changed his family name from Ogawa to Yukawa.[4] The couple had two sons, Harumi and Takaaki.

Owing to increasing infirmity, in his final years he appeared in public in a wheelchair. He died of pneumonia and heart failure on 8 September 1981 at his home in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, at the age of 74. His tomb is in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto.

Solo violinist Diana Yukawa (ダイアナ湯川) is a close relative of Hideki Yukawa.[citation needed]

Recognition

Awards

Country Year Institute Award Citation Ref.
Japan 1940 Japan Academy Imperial Prize "Theoretical study on the interaction of elementary particles and prediction of the existence of mesotrons in cosmic rays" [14]
Sweden 1949 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Nobel Prize in Physics "For his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces" [3]
Soviet Union 1963 Soviet Academy of Sciences Lomonosov Gold Medal "For outstanding services in the development of theoretical physics" [15]

Memberships

Country Year Institute Type Ref.
United States 1949 National Academy of Sciences International Member [16]
United States 1961 American Academy of Arts and Sciences International Honorary Member [17]
Vatican City 1961 Pontifical Academy of Sciences Academician [18]
United Kingdom 1963 Royal Society Foreign Member [19]
United States 1963 American Philosophical Society International Member [20]

Chivalric orders

West Germany
Year President Order Ref.
1967 Heinrich Lübke Pour le Mérite [21]

Bibliography

  • Profiles of Japanese science and scientists, 1970 – supervisory editor: Hideki Yukawa (1970)
  • Creativity and intuition: a physicist looks at East and West by Hideki Yukawa; translated by John Bester (1973)
  • Scientific works (1979)
  • Tabibito (旅人) – The Traveler by Hideki Yukawa; translated by L. Brown & R. Yoshida (1982), ISBN 9971-950-10-3

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Hideki Yukawa - Physics Tree". academictree.org. Retrieved 7 June 2025.
  2. ^ https://www.ias.edu/scholars/hideki-yukawa
  3. ^ a b "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1949". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 October 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
  4. ^ a b c Yukawa, Hideki (1982). Tabibito (旅人) = The Traveler. World Scientific. pp. 46–47 & 118, 121–123, 10, Foreword, 141 & 163. doi:10.1142/0014. ISBN 9971-950-10-3. S2CID 124612924.
  5. ^ Kemmer, N. (1983). "Hideki Yukawa. 23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 29: 660–676. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1983.0023. JSTOR 769816.
  6. ^ Yukawa, H. (1935). "On the Interaction of Elementary Particles". Proc. Phys.-Math. Soc. Jpn. 17 (48).
  7. ^ "学位論文" [Dissertation] (PDF). www-yukawa.phys.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp (in Japanese).
  8. ^ "Hideki Yukawa - Scholars | Institute for Advanced Study". 9 December 2019.
  9. ^ Segré, Emilio (1987) "K-Electron Capture by Nuclei", pp. 11–12, chapter 3 in Discovering Alvarez: selected works of Luis W. Alvarez, with commentary by his students and colleagues, Luis W. Alvarez and W. Peter Trower, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-81304-5.
  10. ^ Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics; Gakkai, Nihon Butsuri (1946). Progress of Theoretical Physics. Kyoto: Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics and Physical Society of Japan. OCLC 44519062. Archived from the original on 3 February 2002. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
  11. ^ "Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  12. ^ "Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  13. ^ "Preparing earth constitution | Global Strategies & Solutions | The Encyclopedia of World Problems". The Encyclopedia of World Problems | Union of International Associations (UIA). Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  14. ^ "21st–30th". Japan Academy. Archived from the original on 25 May 2025. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  15. ^ "Lomonosov Gold Medal" (in Russian). Russian Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  16. ^ "Hideki Yukawa". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 18 June 2025. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  17. ^ "Hideki Yukawa". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  18. ^ "Hideki Yukawa". Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 18 July 2025. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  19. ^ "Search past Fellows". Royal Society. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  20. ^ "Member History". American Philosophical Society. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  21. ^ "Hideki Yukawa". www.orden-pourlemerite.de (in German). Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  • Hideki Yukawa on Nobelprize.org
  • "Research Profile – Hideki Yukawa". Lindau Nobel Mediatheque. 23 January 1907. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
  • Paper: On the Interaction of Elementary Particles. I – paper for which Yukawa received the Nobel Prize
  • About Hideki Yukawa
  • The short film "Yukawa Story (1954)" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
  • Works by or about Hideki Yukawa at the Internet Archive
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