Benjamin Mollow
«Wit now and then, struck smartly, shows a spark.»
Benjamin Mollow is a theoretical physicist, known for the eponymous triplet[1] observed in the strong-driving regime of resonance fluorescence. Since this object (the Mollow triplet) is one of the most fascinating quantum-optical systems that we know of—the drosophila of quantum optics as well as a treasure trove of results, such as leapfrog processes—we naturally have much deference for his father, who was the first to derive its spectral shape exactly, in a fight against the Rochester school.
The character also looks very interesting. Comments from his students at UMass Boston also paint a dramatic picture (e.g., "Beware the days he wears his jogging outfit...he tends to wear no shirt underneath and has the zipper halfway down...") His webpage is a model of conciseness (?!) with his triplet as a profile picture. The latter is notoriously difficult to find. The picture displayed above comes from a colorized version from some heritage website (copy) also adding elements to the legend ("Noted for his wrestling").
He was a post. doctoral assistant of Glauber (!?) and wrote at least two papers with him[2][3]. Little more seems to be known about Mollow. About Roy Glauber. B. Friedrich, D. Kleppner and D. Herschbach in Authorea [1] (2022).
According to the Urban Dictionary, "mollow" also means To think or dwell on something until it is no longer possible to think about it. (!?)
References
- ↑ Power Spectrum of Light Scattered by Two-Level Systems. B. R. Mollow in Phys. Rev. 188:1969 (1969).
- ↑ Quantum Theory of Parametric Amplification. I. B. R. Mollow and R. J. Glauber in Phys. Rev. 160:1076 (1967).
- ↑ Quantum Theory of Parametric Amplification. II. B. R. Mollow and R. J. Glauber in Phys. Rev. 160 (1967).