A discussion between Hugh Montgomery and Freeman Dyson @the_IAS in 1972 was to result in a surprising discovery. Courtesy of @the_IAS, this is the letter that Dyson wrote to Atle Selberg referring Montgomery to “Random Matrices”, a book by Madan Lal Mehta.

A short thread.

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While Mehta’s “Random Matrices” enjoys a scripture-like status in the field of random matrix theory, he is not one of the most talked-about names in physics or mathematics.

Madan Lal Mehta was born in a small village in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

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Over the span of a half-a-century-long career spread over three continents, Mehta made immense contributions to the Random Matrix Theory (RMT) working alongside Wigner, Dyson and a number of other amazing scientists.

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He would go on to develop numerous mathematical methods founded in the theory of random matrices. Many of these led to the application of RMT to a large number of areas including the study of disordered systems, quantum chaos and quantum gravity.

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The IPhT website has a well-documented biography of Mehta which can be accessed here: https://www.ipht.fr/en/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast_visu.php?id_ast=447

That’s also where Mehta’s photograph is from.

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Mehta passed away in 2006 after a long and fruitful career on the interface of mathematics and physics. And without doubt, much of his work will continue helping us understand this rich interplay that nature keeps hinting at.

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Another must-read is this beautifully written piece on @the_IAS website about the discussion between Montgomery and Dyson, the Riemann zeta function, heavy nuclei and more.

https://www.ias.edu/ideas/2013/primes-random-matrices

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