CONCLUDING REMARKS

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Submitted on 1 Jan 1979

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CONCLUDING REMARKS

U. Gonser

To cite this version:

U. Gonser. CONCLUDING REMARKS. Journal de Physique Colloques, 1979, 40 (C2), pp.C2-689-

C2-691. �10.1051/jphyscol:19792239�. �jpa-00218621�

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JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE Collogue C2, suppl6rnent au n O 3, Tome 40, mars 1979, page C2-689

CONCLUDING REMARKS

U

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^Gonser

U n i v e r s i t a t des SaarZandes, Fachbereich Angewandte Physik, 6600 Saarbriicken, Germany

With this conference we are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the M'dssbauer effect. With twenty years one reaches the age of maturity and it then seems appropriate to remember and recount some of the events of childhood. As you all know, the first paper was published in 1958, but there is still some darkness (and room for further research) concerning the creative early moments

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in other words, how M'dssbauer "fathered" his effect

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Unfortunately, Rudolf Mgssbauer could not come to this celebration and give us further details on this point.

Great events or discoveries often start with a big bang. ~he"~'dssbauer big bang" was a special one because it was the quietest possible. In the process, by definition, not even a single phonon was created or annihilated. In addition, it took some incubation time

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a period of disbelief

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^{until fi-}

nally the door broke open and suddenly this popular new tool entered with ease into all fields of natu- ral science. From the beginning the effect was in the extremely good care of the Miissbauer Effect Data Index (MEDI) where every single notion was recorded.

Consequently, all the authors engaged in this type of spectroscopy (about 6000 2 500) are known, as is the total number of publication in all languages (about 16000 5 500). Exact numbers and further in- formation can be obtained from the Mgssbauer Effect Reference and Data Journal (MERDJ) published by Dr.

John and Virginia Stevens (University of North Caro- lina, Asheville) and from the M'dssbauer News Letter compiled by Dr. Gopal Shenoy (Argonne National Labo- ratory, Argonne, Illinois).

When people have something in mind, they talk.

In Japanese this "noise making" may be symbolized by the KANJI cpnsisting of a cluster of three women, called kashi mashi. As scientists we make conferences which may be regarded as the milestones of the development of our method (see Fig. 1). In the early period the M'dssbauer effect conferences were on two tracks : one running on the Western side and one on the Eastern side. Fortunately, in the seventies the

tracks moved together like a zipper and finally j oined.

U S S R

I

NEW

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^ZEALAND

I \

BULGARIA HUNGARY

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D D R

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C S S R

/

Fig. 1

Scientists are always looking for correlations, so here one might note that in recent years the Western side has preferred islands as conference sites. By extrapolating the increasing sizes of the islands (Bendor 1974, Corfu 1976) one could easily predict Honshu for 1978 as indicated in figure 2.

Jugoslavia will host next year's conference, followed by India in 1981. It seems that in the fu- ture there will be only one kind of international Mijssbauer conference, and for the eighties it was suggested that every second year be skipped.

Some statistics on this conference : there were about 275 participants, 130 from abroad, represen- ting 27 countries. However the real problem for the organizers did not arise from the number of participants but rather from the huge number of papers

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nearly 300. Our previous conferences were confron- ted with similar numbers, and to solve this problem

Article published online by EDP Sciences and available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/jphyscol:19792239

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C2-690 JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE

various options were adopted : parallel sessions, the Japanese Mijssbauer activities is mostly practi- rapporteurs, and reduction of presentations by a

tough refereeing system. The Japanese chose poster sessions. Opinion on poster sessions range from love

tp hate and, of course, it depends on whether you are the showman or the audience.

Fig. 2

Drawbacks often cited are the extensive preparation required of the organizers as well as of the authors, and the fact that usually the showmen have difficul- ty attending the shows of their colleagues. However, being myself critical of poster sessions, I thought them very successful. The best poster sessions I have experienced so far. What contributed to their success was the closeness and informality, which made them like tea parties with scientific entertain- ment instead of tea.

Conferences reflect certain customs in the host countries, and this has affected the scale of Japanese participation at Mzssbauer conferences. On the one hand the Japanese

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with their reputation as now-a-days' greatest travelers

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have been represented at previous conferences by rather small numbers, actually never exceeding three. On the other hand, here at Kyoto we have witnessed an overwhelming activity b y a large number of Japanese scientists.

Nearly 100 papers (more than one third of the total) were presented by Japanese. The reason for this dis- crepancy can be traced to the pattern of organized research which prevails in this country. The research units are usually small and field-oriented.

The Mzssbauer effect is widely used, but only a few

~Gssbauer "groups" can be distinguished, namely those headed by the lady professors Ito and Tanaka (~chanomizu), by Prof. Sano (Metropolitan Tokyo) and by Drs. Shinjo and Maeda (Kyoto). The strength of

cal and is centered on physical metallurgy (defects, magnetic properties, amorphous phases) and chemical applications.

A final note concerning the representation of the various countries : Japan with all its activities does not take first place if one normalizes to the populations of the countries. After norma\iza- tion by far the most strongly represented, in terms of participants (including ladies) and papers, is Israel, and also Qatar and Iceland.

The goals of our conferences are :

1. To discuss new applications and interpretations 2. To advance our methodology and compare and com-

bine it with other tools 3. To review the various fields 4. To make personal contacts.

At this conference every one of these aspects was taken care of. The invited talks were well se- lected and well presented. They set the frame and were also the high-lights of the conference : R.V. Pound and W.T. Vetterling on total external reflection of y-rays, T. Shinjo on surfaces and in- terface magnetism, J. Chappert on amorphous magnetic rare-earth alloys, R. Ingalls on high-pressure magnetism, A.Ito and M. Horiike on critical dynamics of the two-dimensional antiferromagnet, P. Giitlich, H. ~sppen, R. Link and H.G. Steinhzuser on spin cross-over compounds, G.M. Bancroft on the chemical state of iron in silicate minerals, Y. Maeda on the iron ligand binding in hemoproteins and C.W. Kimball, C. Barnet, G. van Landuyt, B.D. Dunlap, F.Y. Fradin and G.K. Shenoy on ternary superconductors.

Personally, I could not recognize anything that might be called a breakthrough. However, signi- ficant results and contributions were presented and in particular one can distinguish a shift from qua- litative and preliminary results to quantitative papers

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We restrict ourselves to one method, but we are wide open to all fields, and at times our conferences assume the characteristics of an introduc- tion to general education. Take, for example, the field of archaeology. This time we heard talks about ancient Japanese, Egyptian, Mexican and Indian ware and pottery. In the poster show we even had an exhi- bit of the real stuff. In previous conferences we had already learned about Mycenean, Minoan and Amazonian archaeology. These different aspects make our conferences interesting and give them special flavor and color. The Miissbauer spectra

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our common language

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are rather similar and are familiar to

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every onepf us. From this common basis of under- standing we are able to enter areas previously un- known to us. Of course, " ~ e dominates everything

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It seems that wherever iron is present

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^{be it on}

the ocean floor, in the star dust, in bacteria, on the moon, or in coal mines

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you can be sure Mgss- bauer people are digging for it.

There is another first this year : we have a satellite conference. The conference is on "invar"

and takes place at Nagoya. This field bordering both physical metallurgy and magnetism has been developed most energetically in Japan.

One other point should be mentioned : photo- graphy. Hundreds of pictures were taken and are dis- played outside the conference hall. In this polula- rity contest the movie star prize should be awarded to Ted Cranshaw.

Charm and perfection are reflected in Japanese life. This conference was a masterpiece of these two attributes. With the color slides you are now seeing in the background we bring some additional Japanese charm into this room. Perfection was experienced everywhere

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for instance, in the punctuality which has been the rule here well as in the fact that no slide was shown upside down by the projectionist (in contrast to the speakers who often had trouble with the orientation of their transparencies). The success of the conference was the fruit of hard work by the organizers. Three years in advance the various com- mittees and subcommittees were formed. Everything in the preparation was worked out with great care and painstaking attention to details.

In addition to the well organized scientific program we also had good opportunities to experience Japanese atmosphere. Sight-seeing tours were arranged and the wives of our colleagues

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sometimes in their nice kimonos

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were knowledgeable guides, even pre-

senting us with traditional Noh performances. Ano- ther first should be mentioned : the beautiful daughters of the organizers were conference hos- tesses.

We are extremly thankful to you : Ono-sensei, Fujita-sensei, Nakamura-sensei and Sano-sensei.

Although only the principal organizers are mentioned here, we really mean that we are full of thanks to the many people who have worked so hard to make this conference successful and for us so enjoyable. We are deeply moved by your hospitality and it is diffi- cult to express our appreciation.

Fig. 3

The symbol of this conference (Fig. 3) will be fixed in our memories. It can be interpreted as two

spectra having the same base line. The emission spec- trum shows our excitment which gives us the feeling of being on top of Mt. Fuji and viewing wonderful Japan. The picture also reflects the fact that we simultaneously absorbed scientific knowledge and observed new aspects of life in your old culture.

That is, we were in resonance with each other and with our surroundings. All that is left is to surmna- rize :

DOMO

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^ARIGATO.