The teacher Patricio Letelier (1943-2011), one of the most prolific scientists in the field of general relativity that Brazil has ever had and former professor at the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing (Imecc) at Unicamp, was honored with the name of an asteroid. The tribute was approved in February by a commission from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and announced during the II Patricio Letelier School of Mathematical Physics, held at the Institute of Mathematical and Computing Sciences at USP, in São Carlos, recently.
The asteroid (109879) Letelier = 2001 SL It was discovered on September 16, 2001 by amateur astronomers Paulo Holvorcem, former Imecc doctoral student and former professor at the institute, and Charles W. Juels. The celestial body, confirmed as an asteroid in 2011, is located in the asteroid belt, a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, with an estimated diameter of between 1,4 and 4,3 km and an orbital period of around 3,93 years. A former student of Patricio Letelier, Paulo Holvorcem took the initiative to pay homage to the professor, in a process with the IAU that lasted almost a year.
“The protocol for naming an asteroid involves determining whether the person who will be honored has a good reputation, with a commission that analyzes who is asking to name who”, explains professor Samuel Rocha de Oliveira, from the Department of Applied Mathematics at Imecc, one of those responsible for the II Patricio Letelier School. “When we were preparing the II School, I contacted Paulo to inform him about the event, and that’s where the idea for the tribute came from.”
Approval of the naming of an asteroid by the IAU is communicated to astronomers through a circular message. From its publication, the body receives the name after its technical designation number.
Samuel Rocha explains that the vast majority of asteroids are discovered through observations by amateur astronomers. After crossing data and carrying out other observations, which can last years, its existence, approximate location and orbit can finally be confirmed. “It’s work that requires expertise in mathematics and computing.” After the identification of the asteroid, monitoring of its orbit ends up being carried out by astronomers dedicated to the subject, with the concern of identifying objects that could be potentially dangerous for Earth.
O (109879) Letelier = 2001 SL It is the third asteroid named after initiatives linked to Unicamp. In the 2007 Grand Challenge of the Unicamp Exploratory Science Museum, the winning team, made up of students from a Ourinhos, you can name the asteroid after your city (12367), discovered in 1994 by Venezuelan astrophysicist Orlando Naranjo.
In the 2010 edition of the Grand Challenge, students from Escola Municipal Maria Pavanati Favaro, in Campinas, had as a prize the baptism of the asteroid (15453), also discovered by Orlando Naranjo in 1998, with the name Brasileirinhos. As well as the (109879) Letelier, these two asteroids are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Patricio Anibal Letelier Sotomayor passed away in 2011 at the age of 67. Born in Chile, Patricio Letelier was a reference in the area of general relativity on the continent. He graduated from the University of Chile and obtained his doctorate from Boston University, until he settled permanently in Brazil. In 1978 he took up a position as professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Brasília. In 1988 he transferred to Unicamp, coming to work in the Department of Applied Mathematics at Imecc.
Patricio Letelier's research on the theory of general relativity contributed to studies of black holes, chaos, topological defects and exact solutions to Einstein's equations. “His production was of a high level, and his results generated new research that is still a reference today”, declares Samuel Rocha de Oliveira. “He created a school that sees Albert Einstein's equations as a very rigorous physical-mathematical perspective, but with very strong physical intuition. We have a tradition in general relativity that is often abstract, and he brought a more balanced look between physics and mathematics.”
In his honor, scientists from several universities organized two editions of the Patricio Letelier School of Mathematical Physics, the first in 2016 at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, dealing with aspects of physics and mathematics of quantum field theory in curved spaces. The second edition was held in February 2018 at USP in São Carlos, addressing mathematical tools aimed at dealing with various problems in physics.
“Einstein's great contribution was to show that mathematics can be the flagship of physics in the sense of showing that mathematical structures are saying something about nature. Understanding a little about the mathematical structure means understanding the structure of nature and the universe”, explains Samuel Rocha de Oliveira. The next edition of the Patricio Letelier School is scheduled to be held in 2020, at Unicamp.
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Data about the asteroid (109879) Letelier = 2001 SL can be consulted on the website Minor Planet Center, maintained by the International Astronomical Union.
