Who are the Iconic Characters in Physics and Mathematics?

[Krakatit]

Dear PF Members!

This is my first post.
I've been reading these boards for some time now and the community as well as the pool of information is great and very inspiring.

I realize this post may have seem better posted in fantasy section, however, I hope the discussion taking place focuses on physics problems.

The reason I registered is, I'd like to ask you all for help. I am an author wiritng a novel and in middle of research on various fronts. One of them is history of sciences, especially physics, astrophysics and mathematics. I am a keen reader of popular literature on the topic (Greene, Hawking, Kaku, etc) but my knowledge only goes so far.

The problem is, I am looking for characters used in explanations of various physical or mathematical problems - think Schroedinger's Cat, Maxwell's Demon or Pearson's traveller through time.
During the course of the story I'm developing, main character builds up a party of companions like the one's mentioned above. I need at least four characters with certain "special" abilities and so far I have only Maxwell's Demon.

It would be a tremendous help and greatly appreciated if you could add anyone you might remember that appeared in some problem described by a physicist or mathematician.

Thank you very much in advance!

 

[Borek]

I don't see why Schroedinger's Cat can't be a companion

 

[SW VandeCarr]

You only have to feed a cat that's both dead and alive at the same time half as much.

 

[Krakatit]

I don't see why Schroedinger's Cat can't be a companion

Actually, it is a companion but not a narrative-creating element. In the story, Max Heiliger owns it as a pet (fictitious person NAZIs used for a bank account to store all the wealth taken from Jews}.
Good point, though.

 

[Vanadium 50]

You only have to feed a cat that's both dead and alive at the same time half as much.

But it won't go outside if there is a 50% chance of rain.

 

[Krakatit]

In the meantime, I found another interesting "character" - Boltzmann Brain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

 

[SW VandeCarr]

In the meantime, I found another interesting "character" - Boltzmann Brain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

Bayesian analysis might be more appropriate for the evolution of life (and brains) in the universe. I understand the Boltzmann Brain concept considers the probability of a brain originating randomly from some base (high entropy) state. With a Bayesian approach probabilities are conditional on the previous, possibly lower entropy state. Lower entropy means a higher probabity for a given possible state to occur.

http://authors.library.caltech.edu/59452/2/PhysRevE.94.022102.pdf

 

[PetSounds]

Dennis the Menace.

http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_04.html