Memorial Page for Edwin Salpeter

Edwin Ernest Salpeter (born 3 December 1924 in Vienna; died 26 November 2008 in Ithaca, New York) was an Austrian-Australian-American theoretical physicist and astrophysicist. He worked on nuclear processes in stellar interiors, the origin of chemical elements, black holes, quasars and the distribution of stellar masses in galaxies.

From Vienna to Australia

Salpeter was born in Vienna and came to Australia with his family in 1939 after Nazi persecution forced Jewish families out of Europe. At the University of Sydney he earned a bachelor's degree in 1944 and a master's degree in 1945. He then went to Britain and received his doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Birmingham in 1948.

Cornell and Hans Bethe

In 1949 Salpeter arrived at Cornell University as a young researcher to work with Hans Bethe. He remained there throughout his academic career. Together with Bethe, his name is attached to the Bethe-Salpeter equation, a tool of quantum field theory. At Cornell, Salpeter connected mathematical physics with astronomical questions and moved between subjects when a problem seemed physically fertile.

Stellar matter and the Salpeter function

In the 1950s Salpeter described a process in which helium nuclei inside evolved stellar interiors can fuse into carbon. This clarified part of the origin of the chemical elements. In 1955 he also formulated what became known as the initial mass function. It describes how many newly formed stellar bodies occur at different masses and remains a reference for studies of galaxies and stellar populations.

Wide research fields

Salpeter also worked on matter falling into black holes, quasars, X-ray sources, neutrinos, molecules in the interstellar medium and biophysical questions. Later he studied medical subjects such as tuberculosis epidemiology with family members and colleagues. This breadth was part of his working style: he searched for simple physical models for very different systems.

Recognition and Ithaca

His honors included the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Bruce Medal, the Crafoord Prize in astronomy and the Hans A. Bethe Prize. He received the Crafoord Prize in 1997 together with Fred Hoyle for contributions to the physics and development of stellar matter. Edwin Salpeter died at his home in Ithaca on 26 November 2008. He was 83 years old.