John Clive Ward

John Clive Ward, FRS (1 August 1924 – 6 May 2000)

was an Anglo-Australian physicist who made John Clive Ward
significant contributions to quantum field theory,
condensed-matter physics, and statistical mechanics.
Andrei Sakharov called Ward one of the titans of
quantum electrodynamics.

Ward introduced the Ward–Takahashi identity. He was

one of the authors of the Standard Model of gauge
particle interactions: his contributions were published
in a series of papers he co-authored with Abdus Salam.
He is also credited with being an early advocate of the
use of Feynman diagrams. It has been said that
physicists have made use of his principles and
developments "often without knowing it, and generally
without quoting him."[1] The Ising model was another
one of his research interests.
Born 1 August 1924
In 1955, Ward was recruited to work at the Atomic London, England
Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston. Died 6 May 2000 (aged 75)
There, he independently derived a version of the Victoria, British Columbia,
Teller–Ulam design, for which he has been called the Canada
"father of the British H-bomb".[2]
Nationality Australian, British
Alma mater University of Oxford

Early life Known for Ising model

Quantum field theory
John Clive Ward was born in East Ham, London,[3] on Ward–Takahashi identity
1 August 1924.[1] He was the son of Joseph William Luttinger–Ward functional
Ward, a civil servant who worked in Inland Hydrogen bomb
Revenue,[3][4] and his wife Winifred née Palmer, a Awards Guthrie Medal (1981)
schoolteacher. He had a sister, Mary Patricia. He Dirac Medal (UNSW) (1981)
attended Chalkwell Elementary School and Westcliff Heineman Prize (1982)
High School for Boys. In 1938 he sat for and won a Hughes Medal (1983)
£100 scholarship to Bishop Stortford College. He took Scientific career
the Higher School Certificate Examination in 1942,
Fields Particle physics
receiving distinctions in Mathematics, Physics,
Condensed-matter physics
Chemistry and Latin, and was offered a postmastership
Statistical mechanics
(scholarship) to Merton College, Oxford.[3][5]
Institutions Institute for Advanced Study
Bell Laboratories
Although the Second World War was raging at the University of Adelaide
time, Ward was not called up by the Army, and was University of Maryland
allowed to complete his Bachelor of Arts degree in University of Miami
Engineering Science with first class honours, studying Carnegie Institute of
mathematics under J. H. C. Whitehead and E. C. Technology
Titchmarsh. He received a bursary from the Johns Hopkins University
Harmsworth Trust, and in October 1946, with the war Victoria University of
over, secured a position as a graduate assistant to Wellington
Maurice Pryce, who had recently been appointed a Macquarie University
professor of theoretical physics at Oxford.[3] Thesis Some Properties of
Elementary Particles (1949)
Doctoral Maurice Pryce
Scientific contributions advisor

Ward's total number of published papers was only

about 20, a fact that reflects a strong sense of self-criticism. He was also critical of what he called "PhD
factories" and expressed scepticism towards the importance attached to having a large number of
citations.[6] He never supervised graduate students.[3] He received some significant awards, including the
Guthrie Medal and Dirac Medal of the University of New South Wales in 1981, the Heineman Prize in
1982, and the Hughes Medal in 1983 "for his highly influential and original contributions to quantum
field theory, particularly the Ward identity and the Salam–Ward theory of weak interactions".[7] He
became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1965.[3][8]

Andrei Sakharov said Ward was one of the "titans" of quantum electrodynamics alongside Freeman
Dyson, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Gian Carlo Wick.[9] In this regard,
it has been said that physicists have made use of his principles and developments "often without knowing
it, and generally without quoting him."[1]

Quantum entanglement
In 1947, Ward and Pryce published a paper in Nature, in which they were the first to calculate, and use,
probability amplitudes for the polarisation of a pair of quantum entangled photons moving in opposite
directions.[10][11] For polarisations x and y, Ward derived this probability amplitude to be:[11]

which can be normalised as:[11][12]

This can be used to derive the correlation of polarisation of the two photons.[10] Their prediction was
confirmed experimentally by Chien-Shiung Wu and I. Shaknov in 1950.[13] This was the first
experimental confirmation of a pair of entangled photons as applicable to the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen
(EPR) paradox.[14] The result was subsequently explained by Richard Dalitz and Frank Duarte.[11][1][15]
Apparently following Dirac's doctrine, Ward was never bothered by issues of interpretation in quantum
mechanics.[12]
With his Harmsworth scholarship expiring, and seeing few prospects at Oxford, Ward responded to a job
advertisement from the University of Sydney. He was offered a position, but when he arrived, found that
it was for a tutor, and not a lecturer. He therefore served out the year, then returned to Oxford to complete
his Doctor of Philosophy ([Link].) thesis on "Some Properties of the Elementary Particles". Ward
expected that his thesis, an elaboration of his 1947 paper, would be easily approved by the external
examiner, Nicholas Kemmer, but at the last minute Kemmer's place was taken by Rudolf Peierls, who
refused to accept it. Only after a forceful argument by the internal examiner, J. de Witt, was the thesis
awarded.[3][16]

Ward identity
Pryce arranged for Ward to receive an award from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
(DSIR) for two years. It was then that he developed the Ward–Takahashi identity, originally known as
"Ward Identity" (or "Ward's Identities").[1][3][17] This result in quantum electrodynamics was inspired by
a conjecture of Freeman Dyson,[18] and was disclosed in a one-half-page letter typical of Ward's succinct
style. In their book Quantum Electrodynamics, Walter Greiner and Joachim Reinhardt state in their
discussion of charge renormalisation: "the Ward Identity has a much more fundamental significance: it
ensures the universality of the electromagnetic interaction."[19] In his book The Infinity Puzzle, Frank
Close wrote: "Ward's Identities are the basic foundations on which the entire edifice of renormalisation
rests."[2]

In 1950, Ward's DSIR fellowship was coming to an end. Pryce had become a visiting professor at the
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and Ward's colleagues P. T. Matthews and Abdus
Salam were visiting members there in the 1950–1951 academic year. Through them, he was able to
secure a $3,000 membership for the 1951–1952 academic year. It was at Princeton that he was introduced
to the Ising Model, and met Mark Kac from Cornell University, with whom he would collaborate on an
exact solution of the Ising model using a combinatorial method.[3][20][21] His joint work with Kac on the
Ising Model gave rise to what is now being called the Kac-Ward operator.[20][22] When his membership
ended he worked for the Bell Laboratories in 1952 and 1953.[1] He then accepted an offer of a lectureship
at the University of Adelaide from Bert Green, where he worked for a year before taking up another
membership at the Institute for Advanced Study.[3]

Standard Model
Ward left the British hydrogen bomb programme and took a job with an electronics company in
California. Later in 1956, Elliott Montroll offered him a visiting professorship at the University of
Maryland.[3] Noting a recent paper by Keith Brueckner and Murray Gell-Mann on the ground state
energy of an electron gas, Ward gave a lecture in which he proposed a different approach. Montroll
recognised that this was Debye–Hückel theory. Over the next few weeks, Ward later recalled, "We had
managed not only to produce a definitive extension of a previously purely classical theory, but also to
establish the rules for diagrammatic treatment of problems in quantum statistical mechanics, rules that are
now the bread and butter of modern calculations."[3]

Soon after, physicists were rocked by the news that Wu and Tsung-Dao Lee had demonstrated in the Wu
experiment that parity is not conserved in weak interactions. This inspired Ward to consider particle
physics again. Along with many others, he consider how gauge theory could be applied to Fermi's theory
of beta decay.[3] Ward became one of the authors of the Standard Model of gauge particle interactions; his
contributions on electromagnetic and weak interactions were
published in a series of papers he co-authored with Abdus
Salam.[23][24][25][26] Ward wrote a note to Abdus, informing him
that Albert Einstein would be spinning in his grave, presumably
clockwise.[3]

The contributions of Salam and Ward to the Standard Model were

used in the development of the theoretical structure of the Higgs
boson.[27] Ward also made contributions to quantum
mechanics,[16][28] fermion theory,[29] quantum solid-state Luttinger's theorem (introduced by J.
physics,[30] and statistical mechanics and the Ising model.[31] M. Luttinger and Ward) relates a
Fermi liquid's particle density to the
volume enclosed by its Fermi
surface.
Aldermaston
In 1955, Ward was recruited by William Cook to work on the British hydrogen bomb programme at the
Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston. The British government had decided that it
needed hydrogen bombs, and it was Aldermaston's task to design one.[32] Cook had been put in charge of
the project in September 1954. Ward was the only theoretical physicist at Aldermaston; the director,
William Penney, although a physicist, was an expert on hydrodynamics and instrumentation. Penney was
not happy to have Ward forced on him, and the two did not get along.[33] John Corner recalled that Ward
did not fit in at Aldermaston.[32]

British knowledge of thermonuclear designs was limited to the work done by the wartime Manhattan
Project: Edward Teller's Classic Super,[3] and a 1946 design by John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs. All
that was known for certain about the American hydrogen bomb design was that it had multiple stages.[32]
"I was assigned", Ward later recalled, "the improbable job of uncovering the secret of the Ulam–Teller
invention ... an idea of genius far beyond the talents of the personnel at Aldermaston, a fact well-known
to both Cook and Penney."[33]

After working through a large number of proposals, Ward hit upon a workable design incorporating
staging, compression and radiation implosion.[1][33] At a meeting on 2 December 1955, Ward sketched it
on the blackboard. Penny's response was cool, regarding it as too complicated, but Cook recognised it as
worthy. Although Ward's design was not the one ultimately adopted for the hydrogen bombs used in
Operation Grapple, the concept was influential,[3][32] and the development of a more advanced design
than the Americans had would be the key to achieving the overall objective of the project—a resumption
of the nuclear Special Relationship with the Americans.[33][34] He has been called the "father of the
British H-bomb".[2]

Macquarie University
After Maryland, Ward looked for a new job. He thought he had found one at the University of Miami in
Florida, but was denied tenure and left in 1959. He then secured a position at Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but was unhappy there. He applied once again for a one-year membership at
the Institute for Advanced Study, and was accepted for a third time. Theodore H. Berlin then offered him
a position at Johns Hopkins University in 1961. He remained until 1966, when he answered an
advertisement for a mathematics professor at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
Australian friends were astounded that anyone would choose New Zealand over Australia. At Macquarie
University in Sydney he was welcomed by Professor Peter Mason in 1968 with a professorial
appointment. He turned down offers from Oxford and Cambridge.[3][1] He eventually became an
Australian citizen.[6]

In 1967 he created the physics program at Macquarie University using the Feynman Lectures on Physics
as primary textbooks. This program had a strong experimental emphasis and Ward himself (who
originally was trained as an engineer) "had great admiration for anything practical".[6] He is credited with
being an early pioneer in the use of Feynman diagrams, and spreading their use in Australia.[35] In the late
1970s Ward participated, with Frank Duarte, in the successful Macquarie science reform movement,[36]
and considered this a "most important accomplishment".[6] The most visible sign was that the university
agreed to present Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees instead of just Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees, the
former being more highly prized by students and workplaces in Australia.[3]

Personal life and death

Besides his physics, Ward played the piano and the French horn. Ward played the piano at public
performances, for example, in August 1968 playing Grieg at Blacktown Town Hall, Sydney. He was a
bachelor for most of his life, but he was briefly married while in the US. He had no children.[3] He died
on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, on 6 May 2000, from a respiratory illness.[1]

References
1. Dalitz, Richard H.; Duarte, Frank J. (October 2000). "John Clive Ward" ([Link]
63%2F1.1325207). Physics Today. 53 (10): 99–100. Bibcode:2000PhT....53j..99D ([Link]
[Link]/abs/2000PhT....53j..99D). doi:10.1063/1.1325207 ([Link]
63%2F1.1325207).
2. Close, Frank (2011). The Infinity Puzzle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-
0-19-959350-7.
3. Ward, John Clive (2004). "Memoirs of a Theoretical Physicist" ([Link]
m/[Link]) (PDF). Rochester, New York: Optics Journal. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
4. "No. 28490" ([Link] The London
Gazette. 2 May 1911. p. 3340.
5. Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900–1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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6. Duarte, F. J. (2009). "The man behind an identity in quantum electrodynamics" ([Link]
[Link]/AUSTRALIAN%20PHYSICS%2046%286%29%20171-175%20%28200
9%[Link]) (PDF). Australian Physics. 46 (6): 171–175.
7. "John Clive Ward" ([Link]
dy/find-a-course/science/physics/john-clive-ward). Macquarie University. Archived from the
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8. Dombey, Norman (2021). "John Clive Ward. 1 August 1924—6 May 2000" ([Link]
0.1098%2Frsbm.2020.0023). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 70:
419–440. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2020.0023 ([Link]
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 9. Sakharov, Andrei (1990). Memoirs ([Link]
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394-53740-5. OCLC 21303910 ([Link]
10. Pryce, M. H. L.; Ward, J. C. (1947). "Angular Correlation Effects with Annihilation Radiation"
([Link] Nature. 160 (4065): 435.
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doi:10.1038/160435a0 ([Link] S2CID 4101513 ([Link]
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Polarization Measurements". The European Physical Journal H. 37 (2): 311–318.
Bibcode:2012EPJH...37..311D ([Link]
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Physical Review. 77 (1): 136. Bibcode:1950PhRv...77..136W ([Link]
abs/1950PhRv...77..136W). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.77.136 ([Link]
ev.77.136).
14. Dalitz, R. H.; Duarte, F. J. (2000). "John Clive Ward" ([Link]
7). Physics Today. 53 (10): 99. Bibcode:2000PhT....53j..99D ([Link]
bs/2000PhT....53j..99D). doi:10.1063/1.1325207 ([Link]
15. Duarte, F. J. (2013). "The Probability Amplitude for Entangled Polarizations: an
Interferometric Approach". Journal of Modern Optics. 60 (8): 1585–1587.
Bibcode:2013JMOp...60.1585D ([Link]
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XVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph020288298) (D. Phil. thesis). Oxford University. Retrieved
2 January 2017.
17. J. C. Ward (1950). "An identity in quantum electrodynamics" ([Link]
R/v78/i2/p182_1). Phys. Rev. 78 (2): 182. Bibcode:1950PhRv...78..182W ([Link]
[Link]/abs/1950PhRv...78..182W). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.78.182 ([Link]
03%2FPhysRev.78.182).
18. Dyson, F. J. (1949). "The S matrix in Quantum Electrodynamics". Physical Review. 75 (21):
1736–1755. Bibcode:1949PhRv...75.1736D ([Link]
75.1736D). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.75.1736 ([Link]
19. Greiner, Walter; Reinhardt, Joachim (2009). Quantum Electrodynamics ([Link]
etails/quantumelectrody00grei_605). Berlin: Springer. p. 319 ([Link]
ntumelectrody00grei_605/page/n332). ISBN 978-3-540-87560-4. OCLC 920255774 (https://
[Link]/oclc/920255774).
20. Kac, M.; Ward, J. C. (1952). "A Combinatorial Solution of the Two-Dimensional Ising Model".
Physical Review. 88 (6): 1332–1337. Bibcode:1952PhRv...88.1332K ([Link]
[Link]/abs/1952PhRv...88.1332K). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.88.1332 ([Link]
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21. Potts, R. B.; Ward, J. C. (1955). "The Combinatorial Method and the Two-Dimensional Ising
Model" ([Link] Progress of Theoretical Physics. 13 (1
Year=1955): 38–46. Bibcode:1955PThPh..13...38P ([Link]
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22. Chekhov, L. O. (1999). "A Spectral Problem on Graphs and L-Functions". Russian
Mathematical Surveys. 54 (6): 1197–1232. arXiv:cond-mat/9911244 ([Link]
nd-mat/9911244). Bibcode:1999RuMaS..54.1197C ([Link]
RuMaS..54.1197C). doi:10.1070/RM1999v054n06ABEH000231 ([Link]
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23. Salam, A.; Ward, J. C. (1959). "Weak and electromagnetic interactions". Nuovo Cimento. 11
(4): 568–577. Bibcode:1959NCim...11..568S ([Link]
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24. Salam, A.; Ward, J. C. (1961). "On a gauge theory of elementary interactions". Nuovo
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(2): 168–171. Bibcode:1964PhL....13..168S ([Link]
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136 (3B): B763 – B768. Bibcode:1964PhRv..136..763S ([Link]
964PhRv..136..763S). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.136.B763 ([Link]
v.136.B763).
27. Higgs, P. W. (1966). "Spontaneous Symmetry Breakdown Without Massless Bosons" (http
s://[Link]/10.1103%2FPhysRev.145.1156). Physical Review. 145 (4): 1156–1163.
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Theory and Some Remarks on Properties of an Electron Gas". The Physics of Fluids. 1 (1):
55–72. Bibcode:1958PhFl....1...55M ([Link]
M). doi:10.1063/1.1724337 ([Link]
29. Luttinger, J. M.; Ward, J. C. (1960). "Ground-State Energy and Many-Fermion System".
Physical Review. 118 (5): 1417–1427. Bibcode:1960PhRv..118.1417L ([Link]
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30. Ward, J. C.; Wilks, J. (1952). "Second Sound and the Thermo-Mechanical Effect at Very
Low Temperatures". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and
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Magnetization of the Two-Dimensional Ising Model". Journal of Mathematical Physics. 4 (2):
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8M). doi:10.1063/1.1703955 ([Link]
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pp. 80–88, 244–245. ISBN 978-0-333-73685-2. OCLC 925315618 ([Link]
rg/oclc/925315618).
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[Link]/[Link]). London Review of Books. Retrieved
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34. Cathcart, Brian (12 September 1994). "A myth exploded: we did not bluff to gain the Bomb:
Britain did have the world's ultimate weapon within its grasp in the Fifties, says Brian
Cathcart" ([Link]
-[Link]). The
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35. Kaiser, David (2005). Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in
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36. Mansfield, B.; Hutchinson, M. (1992). Liberality of Opportunity: A History of Macquarie
University 1964–1989. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger. pp. 115–118.

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