Gary Felder: Difference between revisions

Gary Felder
Gary Felder
Residence	Northampton, MA, United States
Alma mater	Oberlin College, Stanford University
Known for	IAAD, Bell's Theorem, EPR, LATTICEEASY
	Scientific career
Fields	Physics, cosmology
Institutions	Smith College
Doctoral advisor	Andrei Linde

Latest revision as of 21:10, 18 July 2026

Gary N. Felder is an American physicist and a Professor of Physics at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. His research centers on inflationary cosmology, numerical simulations of the early universe, and computational and written tools for teaching physics. He is the co-author, with his brother Kenny Felder, of the textbooks Mathematical Methods in Engineering and Physics and Modern Physics.

Biography

Felder grew up in North Carolina and earned a B.A. from Oberlin College. After taking a break of several years between undergraduate and graduate study, during which he traveled through Europe, Israel, and Central America, he completed a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University, where his thesis work on the early universe was supervised by the cosmologist Andrei Linde. Following his doctorate he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto before joining the physics faculty at Smith College.

Research

Felder's research has focused on inflationary cosmology and the use of computational simulations to study complex physical systems, including the evolution of the early universe and wave propagation. Much of his work concerns preheating and reheating, the processes by which energy is transferred out of the inflaton field into other particles at the end of cosmic inflation.

Working with Igor Tkachev of CERN, Felder developed LATTICEEASY, a C++ program for performing lattice simulations of interacting scalar fields in the expanding universe. The program has been used in numerous early-universe cosmology projects and is distributed freely online with documentation. In November 2007 he released CLUSTEREASY, a parallel-computing version of LATTICEEASY for use on computer clusters. He has also developed the related tools FFTEASY and CURVEDLAND.

More recently, Felder's interests have included "quantum chaos," the question of whether chaotic behavior arises at the quantum scale of atoms and particles. He has emphasized that many of these computational problems are accessible to undergraduate students at various levels.

Popular science writing

As a hobby, Felder writes expository papers on scientific topics intended to be accessible to readers with no mathematics or science background. These papers are hosted on the Math and Physics Help Home Page maintained by his brother, Kenny Felder, some of them co-authored with him:

The Expanding Universe — an introduction to the big bang model of the universe, including what it means to say the universe is expanding and what is meant by "The Big Bang."
Beyond the Big Bang: Inflation and the Very Early Universe — a discussion of problems with the standard big bang model and how cosmologists address them with the theory of inflation, which supplements rather than replaces the big bang model.
Quantum Mechanics: The Young Double-Slit Experiment — co-authored with Kenny Felder, an introduction to the basic concepts of quantum mechanics using the double-slit experiment to illustrate wave–particle duality.
Quantum Mechanics: What Do You Do with a Wavefunction? — another collaboration with Kenny Felder, aimed at readers with a physics background who want help synthesizing the ideas and mathematics of quantum mechanics.
Spooky Action at a Distance: An Explanation of Bell's Theorem — an outline of Bell's proof that the experimental results of quantum mechanics require that particles can instantly affect one another at large distances.
Things Fall Apart: An Introduction to Entropy — an explanation of what entropy is and why it always increases, and thus why some natural processes are irreversible.
Bumps and Wiggles: An Introduction to General Relativity — an introduction to basic ideas of Einstein's general theory of relativity, including curved spacetimes and black holes, best read after Kenny Felder's companion paper on special relativity.

Felder also gives frequent public talks on astronomy, cosmology, and modern physics, and created a 12-lecture video course on the early universe for The Great Courses.

Books

Gary N. Felder and Kenny M. Felder, Mathematical Methods in Engineering and Physics (Wiley, 2016).
Gary N. Felder and Kenny M. Felder, Modern Physics (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Abstracts

2007 - "Spooky Action at a Distance: An Explanation of Bell's Theorem"

External links

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 | image = Gary Felder 1091.jpg
 | alt = Gary Felder
+| fields = [[Physics]], [[cosmology]]
+| workplaces = [[Smith College]]
+| alma_mater = Oberlin College, Stanford University
+| doctoral_advisor = Andrei Linde
+| known_for = [[IAAD]], [[Bell's Theorem]], [[EPR]], LATTICEEASY
 | residence = Northampton, MA, United States
-| known_for = [[IAAD]], [[Bell's Theorem]], [[EPR]]
 }}
-From [http://www.smith.edu/physics/faculty_felder.php Gary Felder's website]:   <b>Science for the General Public</b>
+'''Gary N. Felder''' is an American physicist and a Professor of Physics at [[Smith College]] in Northampton, Massachusetts. His research centers on inflationary [[cosmology]], numerical simulations of the early universe, and computational and written tools for teaching physics. He is the co-author, with his brother Kenny Felder, of the textbooks ''Mathematical Methods in Engineering and Physics'' and ''Modern Physics''.
-One of my hobbies is writing papers on scientific topics. These papers should be accessible to people with no math or science background, although I like to think they might also be interesting to some people in those fields. All of these papers are hosted on the [http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/home.html Math and Physics Help Home Page] maintained by my brother, who has many more papers of his own there. Alternatively, you can jump directly to any of my papers from here:
+==Biography==
+Felder grew up in North Carolina and earned a B.A. from Oberlin College. After taking a break of several years between undergraduate and graduate study, during which he traveled through Europe, Israel, and Central America, he completed a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University, where his thesis work on the early universe was supervised by the cosmologist Andrei Linde. Following his doctorate he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto before joining the physics faculty at Smith College.
-[http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/cosmo.html The Expanding Universe]<br />This paper is an introduction the the big bang model of the universe, including what it means to say the universe is expanding and what we mean by "The Big Bang."
+==Research==
+Felder's research has focused on inflationary cosmology and the use of computational simulations to study complex physical systems, including the evolution of the early universe and wave propagation. Much of his work concerns [[preheating]] and reheating, the processes by which energy is transferred out of the inflaton field into other particles at the end of cosmic inflation.
-[http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/inflation.html Beyond the Big Bang: Inflation and the Very Early Universe]<br />This paper discusses some of the problems with the standard big bang model and how cosmologists have solved these problems with a theory known as "inflation." As the paper explains, inflation doesn't replace the big bang model but rather supplements it.
+Working with Igor Tkachev of CERN, Felder developed LATTICEEASY, a C++ program for performing lattice simulations of interacting scalar fields in the expanding universe. The program has been used in numerous early-universe cosmology projects and is distributed freely online with documentation. In November 2007 he released CLUSTEREASY, a parallel-computing version of LATTICEEASY for use on computer clusters. He has also developed the related tools FFTEASY and CURVEDLAND.
-[http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/quantum.html Quantum Mechanics: The Young Double-Slit Experiment]<br />My brother Kenny Felder and I co-authored this paper, which introduces the basic concepts of quantum mechanics. We use for illustration the famous double-slit experiment, which shows how matter acts both like particles and like waves.
+More recently, Felder's interests have included "quantum chaos," the question of whether chaotic behavior arises at the quantum scale of atoms and particles. He has emphasized that many of these computational problems are accessible to undergraduate students at various levels.
-[http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/psi.html Quantum Mechanics: What Do You Do with a Wavefunction?]<br />Another collaboration with my brother, this paper is the only one in the bunch that requires a physics background. This paper is designed for people who are taking or have taken a course in quantum mechanics and want some help pulling all the ideas and the math together to see the big picture.
+==Popular science writing==
+As a hobby, Felder writes expository papers on scientific topics intended to be accessible to readers with no mathematics or science background. These papers are hosted on the Math and Physics Help Home Page maintained by his brother, Kenny Felder, some of them co-authored with him:
-[http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/bell.html Spooky Action at a Distance: An Explanation of Bell's Theorem]<br />This paper outlines Bell's proof that the experimental results of quantum mechanics can only occur if particles can instantly affect each other at large distances. As with all these papers, no math or science background is necessary.
+* [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/cosmo.html The Expanding Universe] — an introduction to the big bang model of the universe, including what it means to say the universe is expanding and what is meant by "The Big Bang."
+* [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/inflation.html Beyond the Big Bang: Inflation and the Very Early Universe] — a discussion of problems with the standard big bang model and how cosmologists address them with the theory of inflation, which supplements rather than replaces the big bang model.
+* [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/quantum.html Quantum Mechanics: The Young Double-Slit Experiment] — co-authored with Kenny Felder, an introduction to the basic concepts of quantum mechanics using the double-slit experiment to illustrate wave–particle duality.
+* [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/psi.html Quantum Mechanics: What Do You Do with a Wavefunction?] — another collaboration with Kenny Felder, aimed at readers with a physics background who want help synthesizing the ideas and mathematics of quantum mechanics.
+* [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/bell.html Spooky Action at a Distance: An Explanation of Bell's Theorem] — an outline of Bell's proof that the experimental results of quantum mechanics require that particles can instantly affect one another at large distances.
+* [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/entropy.html Things Fall Apart: An Introduction to Entropy] — an explanation of what entropy is and why it always increases, and thus why some natural processes are irreversible.
+* [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/gr1.html Bumps and Wiggles: An Introduction to General Relativity] — an introduction to basic ideas of Einstein's general theory of relativity, including curved spacetimes and black holes, best read after Kenny Felder's companion paper on [https://www.felderbooks.com/papers/relativity.html special relativity].
-[http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/entropy.html Things Fall Apart: An Introduction to Entropy]<br />Everyone from physics students to readers of popular science literature has heard that entropy is a measure of disorder and that it always increases in the universe. In this paper I explain what entropy is and why it always increases. Put another way, this paper explains why some processes in nature are irreversible.
+Felder also gives frequent public talks on astronomy, cosmology, and modern physics, and created a 12-lecture video course on the early universe for The Great Courses.
-[http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/gr1.html Bumps and Wiggles: An Introduction to General Relativity]<br />As the title suggests, this paper introduces some of the basic ideas of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity: curved spacetimes, black holes and more. This one might be best read after my brother's paper on [http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/relativity.html special relativity].
+==Books==
+* Gary N. Felder and Kenny M. Felder, ''Mathematical Methods in Engineering and Physics'' (Wiley, 2016).
+* Gary N. Felder and Kenny M. Felder, ''Modern Physics'' (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
 ==Abstracts==
 * 2007 - "[[Spooky Action at a Distance: An Explanation of Bell's Theorem]]"
-[[Category:Scientist]]
+==External links==
+* [https://www.smith.edu/people/gary-felder Gary Felder faculty page at Smith College]
+* [https://felderbooks.com/ Gary and Kenny Felder textbook website]
+[[Category:Scientist|Felder Gary]]
+[[Category:Cosmology|Felder Gary]]
+[[Category:Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists]]