N. V. V. J. Swamy

Nyayapathi Venkata Vaikuntha Jagannatha Swamy was a mathematical physicist. He is well known for his contributions to the physics of relativistic harmonic oscillator^[1][2][3][4] which found wide applications in Atomic, Nuclear and High Energy Physics. Some of the citations to Swamy's work on the relativistic oscillator are given in references.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]} A review of the history and the generalized treatment of the relativistic harmonic oscillator is given by Lisboa et al.^[19]

He is also well known for his group theoretical contributions to mathematical physics. His widely used textbook co-authored with Mark A. Samuel, "Group Theory Made Easy for Scientists and Engineers" (Wiley-Interscience 1979), was very popular.

L.C. Bidenharn and Swamy published very influential papers on the relativistic Kepler problem.^[20][21] They introduced a symmetric Hamiltonian and solved the Dirac Equation for the Hydrogen atom. The history of this effort is given in Harold V. McIntosh's website.

Background and career

Swamy received a BS degree in Mathematics, a BS and MS degree in Physics all from Bombay University, and a PhD degree in Physics from Florida State University. He had lectured at many universities, and was a guest scientist in Jülich, Germany and Cambridge University in UK. He had served as a professor of physics at Oklahoma State University until his retirement.

Since his retirement in mid eighties, he used his own funds to visit India and teach at various academic institutions.^[22]

Dr Swamy died in his hometown of Visakhapatnam in India on 13 June 2013.^[23]

Books

• Nyayapathi V.V.J. Swamy and Mark A. Samuel, Group Theory Made Easy for Scientists and Engineers, Wiley-Interscience, 1979, ISBN 0-471-05128-4