Frank Potter
Frank Potter | |
|---|---|
| Residence | Huntington Beach, CA, United States |
| Nationality | USA |
| Known for | Discrete symmetry approach to lepton and quark properties; Quantum Celestial Mechanics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics, Elementary particle physics, Cosmology |
| Institutions | University of California, Irvine |
Franklin A. Potter (also known as Frank Potter), Ph.D., is a retired American physicist formerly associated with the University of California, Irvine. He conducts research in elementary particle physics and cosmology and is a consultant in physics education. He is a co-author of the popular physics collections Mad About Physics and Mad About Modern Physics, and is the creator of the science-education website Frank Potter's Science Gems.
Biography
Potter earned a Ph.D. in physics and served for many years at the University of California, Irvine, where he held the position of Associate Specialist in Physics. He also worked in physics-education outreach, including as operations coordinator for the UCI Project START program. Now retired, he continues independent research in elementary particle physics and cosmology and maintains long-standing interests in physics education.
Potter created and maintains Frank Potter's Science Gems, a large online collection that organizes thousands of web resources for physical-science, mathematics, engineering, and earth-science curricula from the K-16 level, indexed by grade level and subject.
Work
Potter's research applies discrete symmetries to fundamental physics. He has proposed a framework in which the properties of leptons and quarks are derived from the finite rotational (binary) subgroups of the gauge group of the Standard Model, with particle mass ratios related to the elliptic modular function J. In this program he has published derivations of the neutrino PMNS mixing matrix and the quark CKM matrix from discrete subgroups of SU(2). A related 2011 paper, "Our Mathematical Universe: How the Monster Group Dictates All of Physics", develops these ideas further.
In cosmology and gravitation, Potter has developed an approach he terms Quantum Celestial Mechanics (QCM), which applies quantization concepts to gravitationally bound systems such as planetary and satellite orbits, galaxy rotation, and galaxy clusters. He has published a series of papers on this and related topics, largely in the journal Progress in Physics, addressing subjects including quantum states of solar-system bodies, the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, and comparisons with Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). These proposals lie outside the mainstream consensus of the physics community.
Books
- Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities (with Christopher P. Jargodzki), John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
- Mad About Modern Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities (with Christopher P. Jargodzki), John Wiley & Sons, 2007.
External links
- Frank Potter's Science Gems
- Progress in Physics (journal carrying many of his papers)