Mário Schenberg

Mário Schenberg
Mário Schenberg
Born	July 2, 1914 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Died	November 10, 1990 São Paulo, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian
Fields	Theoretical physics
Known for	Schönberg-Chandrasekhar limit Urca process
Notes One of the most important Brazilian physicists of the 'heroic era' (1900-1945), together with José Leite Lopes, Cesar Lattes, Jayme Tiomno, and Joaquim da Costa Ribeiro.

Mário Schenberg, (July 2, 1914, Recife (Pernambuco) – November 10, 1990, São Paulo), var. Mário Schönberg, Mario Schonberg, Mário Schoenberg), was a Jewish Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer.

The Urca process

Widely regarded as Brazil's most important theoretical physicist, Schenberg is best remembered for his contributions to astrophysics, particularly the theory of nuclear processes in the formation of supernova stars. He provided the inspiration for the name of the so-called Urca process, a cycle of nuclear reactions in which a nucleus loses energy by absorbing an electron and then re-emitting a beta particle plus a neutrino-antineutrino pair, leading to the loss of internal supporting pressure and consequent collapse and explosion in the form of a supernova. George Gamow (1904-1968) was inspired to name the process Urca after the name of a casino in Rio de Janeiro, when Schenberg remarked to him that “the energy disappears in the nucleus of the supernova as quickly as the money disappeared at that roulette table.”

Together with Indian physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995), Schenberg discovered and published in 1942 the so-called Schönberg-Chandrasekhar limit, which is the maximum mass of the core of a star that can support the overlying layers against gravitational collapse, once the core Hydrogen is exhausted. He was also a known member of the Brazilian Communist Party.

Preceded by José Goldemberg

President of the Brazilian Society of Physics 1979 - 1981

Succeeded by Herch Moysés Nussenzveig

Persondata
Name	Schenberg, Mario
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 2, 1914
Place of birth	Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Date of death	November 10, 1990
Place of death	São Paulo, Brazil