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Richard Lingenfelter

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Dr. Lingenfelter passed away March 20, 2021
Research Physicist Emeritus, CASS


Email: rlingenfelter@ucsd.edu
Office: SERF 402
Phone: (858) 534-2464


Related Websites

ADS

Biography

Rich Lingenfelter published his first paper as an undergraduate at UCLA in 1956 on “Shell Structure Effects on Spontaneous Fission Half-Life,” in the Physical Review, 101, 1615-1616. Since then he published over 270 scientific papers and nearly 20 historical books. Of the papers, 40 have each been cited (SCI/ADS) more than 40 times. He was fortunate to get into physics at the dawn of the space age and was able to stay enough ahead of the observations to make several successful predictions. In the 1960s he and his late colleague, Reuven Ramaty, predicted a Galactic cosmic-ray electron component from pion decay that was soon detected. They further predicted neutron and gamma-ray line fluxes from solar flares that were subsequently observed by SMM and other satellites, and have become a major flare particle diagnostic. With others he also calculated cosmic-ray neutron production in the Earth’s atmosphere, showing the contribution of their decay protons and electrons to the newly discovered radiation belts, and he determined the global production rate of 14C plus its solar cycle and long term geomagnetic variations, that have been a standard for radiocarbon dating for decades. Starting in the 1970s, he and Reuven helped open the burgeoning field of gamma-ray astronomy, modeling various observed sources and predicting the diffuse Galalctic 1.809 MeV line emission from nucleosynthetic 26Al decay, which was discovered by HEAO-3 five years later.

In recent years he and his colleague and former student, Jim Higdon, have shown that the Galactic cosmic rays are accelerated primarily by supernova shocks in the cores of superbubbles, blown by the winds and supernova explosions of massive stars in OB associations. They have further shown that the unique elemental and isotopic abundances of the cosmic rays can all be explained by acceleration out of a mix of roughly 20% massive star ejecta into the ambient interstellar plasma in these cores. This provides the first measure of the spatial and temporal scales of the initial mixing of supernova ejecta in the ISM.

Rich Lingenfelter was born in Farmington, New Mexico, on April 5, 1934, and earned a B.A. in Physics at UCLA in 1956. He worked as a Physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1957-62, then as a Research Geophysicist at the Institute of Geophysics at UCLA, before becoming a Visiting Fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay in 1968-69. Thereafter, he was a Professor in Residence in the Departments of Astronomy, Geophysics & Space Sciences, and History, at UCLA until he came to UCSD in 1979 when CASS was formed. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant to India in 1968-1969 and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Chair of its Division of Astrophysics. He was also a member of the American Geophysical Union, American Astronomical Society, International Astronomical Union, and Western History Association.

Research Interests

His research interests ranged broadly from high-energy astrophysics theory in the origin and interactions of cosmic rays and the sources of gamma rays, through solar flare physics of neutron and gamma-ray emission, meteoritic isotope production, water on the Moon and Mars, and geophysics in radiocarbon and atmospheric neutron production, radiation belt sources, river flood flows, cloud formation and volcanoes, all the way to the history of the American West and Pacific Islands, mining labor and finance, and folk songs.

Projects

Recently, Rich Lingenfelter together with Jim Higdon and Rick Rothschild calculated the expected spatial distribution of both the Galactic positron production from the radioactive decay of 56Ni, 44Ti and 26Al, synthesized in supernovae, and of the subsequent propagation and annihilation of these positrons in the variously distributed phases of the interstellar medium. They showed that these supernova sources alone fully account for all of the observed features and properties of the reportedly “anomalous” diffuse Galactic positron annihilation radiation at 511 keV, which had previously prompted many exotic proposals.

Most recently, based on the observed Galactic distribution of the NII emission from the HII envelopes of superbubbles surrounding OB associations, Jim Higdon and Rich Lingenfelter calculated the expected 3-dimensional distribution of such associations and superbubbles, as well as the Galactic core collapse supernovae which occur primarily within these bubbles where their collective supernova shocks accelerate the bulk of the cosmic rays. This distribution, which is distributed along the spiral arms, is thus that of source distribution of the majority of the Galactic cosmic rays.



Select Publications

Gamma Ray Astrophysics

Is There a Dark Matter Signal in the Galactic Positron Annihilation Radiation? 2009, Physical Review Letters, 103, 0301301-031304. R. E. Lingenfelter, J. C. Higdon and R. E. Rothschild

The Galactic Positron Annihilation Radiation & the Propagation of Positrons in the Interstellar Medium, 2009, Astrophysical Journal, 698, 350-379. J. C. Higdon, R. E. Lingenfelter and R. E. Rothschild.

The Galactic 26Al Problem & The Close Binary Type Ib/c Supernova Solution ? 2004, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 611, L29-L32. J. C. Higdon, R. E. Lingenfelter and R. E. Rothschild.

Nature versus Nurture: The Origin of Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars, 2001, Astrophysical Journal, 550, 397-409. D. Marsden, R. E. Lingenfelter, R. E. Rothschild and J. C. Higdon.

Gamma Ray Astronomy, 2000, Chapter 10 in Allen's Astrophysical Quantities, 4th Edition, A. N. Cox, ed. (New York: Springer Verlag), 207-238. R. E. Lingenfelter and R. E. Rothschild.

Positrons from Supernovae, 1993, Astrophysical Journal, 405, 614-636. K. W. Chan and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Diffuse Galactic Annihilation Radiation and the Present Rate of Galactic Nucleosynthesis, 1993, Physics Reports, 227, 133-142. R. E. Lingenfelter, K. W. Chan and R. Ramaty.

Compton Backscattered 511 keV Annihilation Line Emission and the 170 keV Line from the Galactic Center Direction, 1991, Astrophysical Journal, 381, 426-438. R. E. Lingenfelter and X-M. Hua.

Positron Annihilation in the Interstellar Medium, 1991, Astrophysical Journal, 378, 170-180. N. Guessoum, R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Gamma-Ray Bursts, 1990, Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 28, 401-436. J. C. Higdon and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Calculated Gamma-Ray Line Fluxes from the Type II Supernova 1987A, 1987, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 318, L51-L55. K. W. Chan and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Positrons from Accelerated Particle Interactions, 1987, Astrophysical Journal, 316, 801-818. B. Kozlovsky, R. E. Lingenfelter and R. Ramaty.

Gamma Ray Astronomy, 1982, Annual Reviews of Nuclear and Particle Science, 32, 235-269. R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Gamma Ray Line Astronomy, 1979, Nature, 278, 127-132. R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Nuclear Gamma Rays from Energetic Particle Interactions, 1979, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 40, 487-526. R. Ramaty, B. Kozlovsky and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Gamma-Ray Lines: A New Window to the Universe, 1978, Physics Today, 31:3, 40-47. R. E. Lingenfelter and R. Ramaty.

26Al: A Galactic Source of Gamma Ray Line Emission, 1977, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 213, L5-L7. R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Gamma-Ray Lines from Interstellar Grains, 1977, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 211, L19-L22. R. E. Lingenfelter and R. Ramaty.


Cosmic Ray Physics

Cosmic Rays, Dust & the Mixing of Supernova Ejecta Into the Interstellar Medium in Superbubbles, 2007, Astrophysical Journal, 660, 330-335. R. E. Lingenfelter and J. C. Higdon.

OB Associations, Supernova-Generated Superbubbles and the Source of Cosmic Rays, 2005, Astrophysical Journal, 628, 738-749. J. C. Higdon and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Actinides in the Source of Cosmic Rays and the Present Interstellar Medium, 2003,Astrophysical Journal, 591, 228-237. R. E. Lingenfelter, J. C. Higdon, K.-L. Kratz and B. Pfeiffer.

The Superbubble Origin of 22Ne in Cosmic Rays, 2003, Astrophysical Journal, 590, 822-832. J. C. Higdon and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Cosmic-Ray Acceleration From Supernova Ejecta in Superbubbles, 1998, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 509, L33-L36. J. C. Higdon, R. E. Lingenfelter and R. Ramaty.

Supernova Grains: The Source of Cosmic-Ray Metals, 1998, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 500, L153-L156. R. E. Lingenfelter, R. Ramaty and B. Kozlovsky.

Light Elements and Cosmic Rays in the Early Galaxy, 1997, Astrophysical Journal, 488, 730-748. R. Ramaty, B. Kozlovsky, R. E. Lingenfelter and H. Reeves.

Light Isotopes, Extinct Radioisotopes and Gamma-Ray Lines From Low Energy Cosmic-Ray Interactions, 1996, Astrophysical Journal, 456, 525-540. R. Ramaty, B. Kozlovsky and R. E. Lingenfelter.

The Nature of Cosmic Ray Sources, 1973, Astrophysics and Space Science, 24, 83-94. R. E. Lingenfelter.

Compound Diffusion of Cosmic Rays, 1971, Astrophysical Letters, 8, 93-97. R. E. Lingenfelter, R. Ramaty and L. A. Fisk.

Statistical Discrete-Source Model of Local Cosmic Rays, 1970, Physical Review Letters, 24, 913-916. R. Ramaty and D. V. Reames and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Pulsars and Local Cosmic Ray Prehistory, 1969, Nature, 224, 1182-1186. R. E. Lingenfelter.

Cosmic Ray Electron Lifetimes in the Galactic Disk and Halo, 1966, Physical Review Letters, 17, 1230-1232. R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Galactic Cosmic Ray Electrons, 1966, Journal of Geophysical Research, 71, 3687-3703. R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.


Solar Physics

Angular and Energy-Dependent Neutron Emission From Solar Flare Magnetic Loops, 2002, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 140, 563-579. X.-M. Hua, B. Kozlovsky, R. E. Lingenfelter, R. Ramaty and A. Stupp.

Deexcitation Gamma-Ray Line Emission from Solar Flare Magnetic Loops, 1989, Astrophysical Journal, 341, 516-532. X-M. Hua, R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Solar Flare Neutron and Accelerated Ion Angular Distributions, 1987, Astrophysical Journal, 323, 779-794. X-M. Hua and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Solar Flare Neutron Production and the Angular Distribution of the Capture Gamma Ray Emission, 1987, Solar Physics, 107, 351-383. X-M. Hua and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Solar Gamma Rays, 1975, Space Science Reviews, 18, 341-388. R. Ramaty, B. Kozlovsky, and R. E. Lingenfelter.

High-Energy Nuclear Reactions in Solar Flares, 1967, High-Energy Nuclear Reactions in Astrophysics, ed. B.S.P. Shen, (New York: Benjamin, Inc.), 99-158. 23. R. E. Lingenfelter and R. Ramaty.

On the Origin of Solar Flare Microwave Radio Bursts, 1967, Planetary and Space Science, 15, 1303-1311. R. E. Lingenfelter and R. Ramaty.

The Influence of the Ionized Medium on Synchrotron Emission Spectra in the Solar Corona, 1967, Journal of Geophysical Research, 72, 879-883. R. Ramaty and R. E. Lingenfelter.

High Energy Solar Neutrons, I. Production in Flares, 1965, Journal of Geophysical Research, 70, 4077-4086. R. E. Lingenfelter, E. J. Flamm, E. H. Canfield and S. Kellman.

High Energy Solar Neutrons, II. Flux at the Earth, 1965, Journal of Geophysical Research, 70, 4087-4095. R. E. Lingenfelter, E. J. Flamm, E. H. Canfield and S. Kellman.


Lunar Physics

The Lunar Neutron Flux Revisited, 1972, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 16, 355-369. R. E. Lingenfelter, E. H. Canfield and V. E. Hampel.

Neutron Capture on 149Sm in Lunar Samples, 1971, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 13, 53-60. G. P. Russ, D. S. Burnett, R. E. Lingenfelter and G. J. Wasserburg.

The Morphology, Distribution and Origin of Lunar Sinuous Rilles, 1970, Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics, 8, 199-224. G. Schubert, R. E. Lingenfelter, and S. J. Peale.

The Distribution of Sinuous Rilles and Water on the Moon, 1968, Nature, 220, 1222-1225. S. J. Peale, G. Schubert and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Lunar Rivers, 1968, Science, 161, 266-269. R. E. Lingenfelter, S. J. Peale and G. Schubert.

The Lunar Neutron Flux, 1961, Journal of Geophysical Research, 66, 2665-2671. R. E. Lingenfelter, W. N. Hess and E. H. Canfield.


Geophysics

Solar Activity and Cloud Opacity Variations: A Modulated Cosmic-Ray Ionization Model, 2003, Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, 60, 626-636. D. Marsden and R. E. Lingenfelter.

Hot Spot and Trench Volcano Separations, 1973, Nature, 247, 820-821. R. E. Lingenfelter and G. Schubert.

[ Astrophysical and Geophysical Variations in Carbon 14 Production,] 1971, Nobel Symposium XII: Radiocarbon Variations and Absolute Chronology, ed. I. U. Olsson, (Uppsala, Sweden: Almquist and Wiksells), 513-537. R. E. Lingenfelter and R. Ramaty.

Production of Carbon 14 by Solar Protons, 1964, Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, 21, 134-149. R. E. Lingenfelter and E. J. Flamm.

Production of Carbon 14 by Cosmic-Ray Neutrons, 1963, Reviews of Geophysics, 1, 35-55. R. E. Lingenfelter.

Cosmic-Ray Neutron Leakage Flux, 1963, Journal of Geophysical Research, 68, 5633-3639. R. E. Lingenfelter.

Cosmic-Ray Neutron Demography, 1961, Journal of Geophysical Research, 66, 665-677. W. N. Hess, E. H. Canfield and R. E. Lingenfelter.


Western American History

Bonanzas & Borrascas: Gold Lust & Silver Sharks, 1848--1884, by Richard E. Lingenfelter. Norman: Arthur H. Clark Co./University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. 461 pp.

Bonanzas & Borrascas: Copper Kings & Stock Frenzies, 1885--1918, by Richard E. Lingenfelter. Norman: Arthur H. Clark Co./University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. 586 pp.

The Mining West: A Bibliography & Guide to the Literature & History of Mining in the American & Canadian West. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002. 2 vols. x + 705 and vii + 847 pp. Richard E. Lingenfelter.

Death Valley and the Amargosa. A Land of Illusion. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. viii + 664 pp. illus. maps. Richard E. Lingenfelter.

Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1978. xv + 195 pp. illus. maps. Richard E. Lingenfelter.

The Hardrock Miners: A History of the Mining Labor Movement in the American West, 1863-1893. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974. viii + 278 pp. illus. map. Richard E. Lingenfelter.

Songs of the American West. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. xii + 595 pp. illus. Edited by Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer and David Cohen.

The Songs of the Gold Rush. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964. xi + 200 pp. illus. Edited by Richard A. Dwyer, Richard E. Lingenfelter and David Cohen.

First Through the Grand Canyon. Los Angeles: Dawson, 1958. 119 pp. illus., port., facsims. Richard E. Lingenfelter.


as well as

Presses of the Pacific Islands, 1817-1867: A History of the First Half Century of Printing in the Pacific Islands. Los Angeles: The Plantin Press, 1967. xvi + 129 pp. illus. Richard E.Lingenfelter.

Bibliography

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