Mordehai Milgrom

Mordehai Milgrom
Born	1946 Iași, Romania
Nationality	Israeli
Alma mater	Hebrew University Weizmann Institute
Known for	Modified Newtonian dynamics
Scientific career
Fields	Astrophysics
Institutions	Weizmann Institute

Mordehai "Moti" Milgrom is an Israeli physicist and professor in the department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel.

Biography

He received his B.Sc. degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1966. Later he studied at the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his doctorate in 1972. In 1981, he proposed Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) as an alternative to the dark matter and galaxy rotation curve problems. Milgrom suggests that Newton's Second Law be modified for very small accelerations. In the academic years 1980–1981 and 1985–1986 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Before 1980 he worked primarily on high-energy astrophysics and became well-known for his kinematical model of the star system SS 433.

Modified Newtonian dynamics - an acceleration-based modification of dynamics or gravity is the invention of Mordehai (Moti) Milgrom. . . . In the early 1980s no one but Milgrom had considered such a possible modification as an alternative to astrophysical dark matter. It was a brilliant stroke of insight to realize that astronomical systems were not only characterized by large scale but also by low internal accelerations and this could account for the known systematics in the kinematics and photometry of galactic systems. However, the idea was hardly greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm.

Recent findings

In 2022, a study about an astronomical observation was published that might provide evidence of MOND. Specifically, there is an uneven distribution of stars that shows no indication that any dark matter was involved in causing it.

Personal life

Milgrom is married and has three daughters.

See also

• Cosmic rays
• Gamma-ray burst
• Gamma ray and x-ray sources.

Further reading

• Milgrom, Mordehai (Aug 2002), "Does Dark Matter Really Exist?" (PDF), Scientific American, pp. 42–50, 52
• Schilling, Govert (April 2007), "Battlefield Galactica: Dark Matter vs. MOND" (PDF), Sky & Telescope, pp. 30–36
• Zhiping Li, Ran Li. (30 April 2014). "The relativistic astrodynamics of spiral tracks, localized equivalence principle and the dark matter problem of our Milky Way galaxy". Sciencepaper Online.

External links

• MOND - A Pedagogical Review - M. Milgrom, 2001
• M. Milgrom @ Astrophysics Data System
• "MOND: Scale invariance at low accelerations - an alternative to the dark Universe". YouTube. Weizmann Institute of Science. May 11, 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.