Kyu-Myung Chung

Kyu-Myung Chung

Kyu-Myung Chung (born April 19, 1929 in Seoul , Korea ; † December 9, 2005 in Heusenstamm , Hesse ) was a Korean physicist who had lived in Germany since 1958 . From 1973 to 1984 he carried out research in the field of theoretical chemistry as a colleague of Hermann Hartmann at the University of Frankfurt am Main and was significantly involved in the discovery of the unified field of chemical bonds. In accordance with his unifying scientific worldview, he actively campaigned for the reunification of Korea until the end of his life .

Life

The external living conditions of Kyu-Myung Chung were essentially determined by the political situation in his home country, to which he also felt very closely connected in Germany.

In 1948, Kyu-Myung Chung began studying physics at Seoul National University . From 1950 to 1953 he was a soldier in the Korean War . Then he finished his studies. In 1958 he came to Germany on a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and began his dissertation in 1963 at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . In 1967, along with 34 other Korean intellectuals scattered around the world, he was kidnapped by the then South Korean military government, imprisoned on alleged espionage suspicion and sentenced to death in a show trial. In 1971 he was released after the intervention of the then federal government under Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt and returned to Germany. In 1972 he received his doctorate in theoretical physics under Bernhard Mrowka .

From 1973 to 1984 Kyu-Myung Chung was a research assistant to Hermann Hartmann, initially at his Institute for Theoretical Chemistry and from 1976 at the Work Center for Theoretical Chemistry, which was set up in 1973 by the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature to promote basic research by Hermann Hartmann had been. He was also a member of the editorial board of Theoretica Chemica Acta , a specialist journal for theoretical chemistry whose founder and editor was Hermann Hartmann. In 1974, he and 55 other South Koreans living in Germany founded the Forum for Democracy in Korea to improve the human rights situation in his home country.

In 1979 he started working with Dieter Schuch , whose scientific mentor he became. In 1984, after the death of Hermann Hartmann, the theoretical chemistry department was closed. He continued scientific advice to Dieter Schuch until his habilitation in 1990.

In 1985, Kyu-Myung Chung founded a tofu company to ensure his family's livelihood . In 1990 he fell ill with Guillain-Barré syndrome , which resulted in complete paralysis of the body and from which he never fully recovered. But mentally he remained active. Until the end of his life he actively campaigned for the reunification of Korea . He died in 2005 at the age of 76 after being cared for by his wife and two sons Il-Ryun Chung ( composer ) and Ho-Ryun Chung ( geneticist ).

Act

The scientific work of Kyu-Myung Chung and his active commitment to the reunification of Korea were based on the same awareness of unity. Due to his basic attitude towards field theory, he joined Hermann Hartmann in 1973, who began in the early 1970s to take theoretical chemistry to a new, more fundamental level of understanding through unifying approaches in physics. At that time, Hartmann opened his institute for theoretical physicists from all over the world. The pioneering scientific achievement of Kyu-Myung Chung is thanks to Hermann Hartmann's foresight, which provided the suitable environment for his research.

From 1973 onwards, Kyu-Myung Chung developed a foundation for ion cycloton resonance spectrometry based on his field theoretical experience at the Hartmann Institute for Theoretical Chemistry . This method of mass spectrometry was used experimentally at the Institute for Physical Chemistry, also headed by Hermann Hartmann, to study ion-molecule reactions. Five publications by Kyu-Myung Chung deal with this topic.

In the working group for theoretical chemistry set up by the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature, Kyu-Myung Chung first developed a field theoretical generalization of Hartmann's classical perturbation theory of molecular interactions, which Bernd Zeiger worked out between 1973 and 1976 as part of his dissertation. This extension of the theory to coupled fields allows the application to collectively coherent systems such as superfluid helium . This is the subject of the publication by Kyu-Myung Chung in 1978. From 1978, the field theory of chemical forces based on non-linear field equations became the main research topic of Kyu-Myung Chung, which led to a classical non-linear field theory of chemical bonding. The corresponding publication dates from 1980.

In cooperation with Dieter Schuch, who had finished his diploma thesis on the Hartmann potential in 1978, the non-linear field theory was generalized to dissipative systems from 1980, which led to the discovery of a non-linear mechanism for the transition from the macroscopic irreversibility of chemical processes to microscopic ones Reversibility led. Six papers published between 1983 and 1986 document this development towards a unified field of chemistry.

Against the background of the predominant orientation of theoretical chemistry in the 1970s towards numerical ab initio quantum mechanics and together with the fact that the unifying field theoretical methods such as supersymmetry were only recognized in elementary particle physics in the 1980s, is the discovery of the unified field chemical bonding by Hermann Hartmann and Kyu-Myung Chung was a remarkable pioneering achievement in the field of theoretical chemistry.

Due to the political changes in Korea during the 1980s, the national reconciliation between South and North Korea became the main theme of the endeavors of Kyu-Myung Chung, who took over the chairmanship of various organizations in Germany and Europe . Promoting the reunification of Korea remained his patriotic concern until the end of his life .

literature

• Yearbook 1980. Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. F. Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1981
• Song Du-yul : Physicist and patriot Chung Kyu-Myung (obituary) : Koreaforum 1-2, p. 90 (2006)

Web links

• Literature by and about Kyu-Myung Chung in the catalog of the German National Library
• Time Magazine dated December 22, 1967

Individual evidence

1. ↑ K.-M. Chung, B. Mrowka: New contributions to the theory of change of resistance by magnetic fields. Zeitschrift Fur Physik 259, 157-176 (1973)
2. ↑ H. Hartmann, K.-M. Chung: Quantum-theoretical treatment of motions of ions in ion-cyclotron resonance cells. Theoretica Chimica Acta 45, 137-145 (1977)
   H. Hartmann, K.-M. Chung, D. Schuch, J. Radtke: Collisionally damped ion motion in ICR spectrometry. Theoretica Chimica Acta 53: 203-214 (1979)
   H. Hartmann, K.-M. Chung, D. Schuch, KP Wanczek: On the Coriolis coupling of ion-cyclotron motion to ion internal degrees of freedom. International Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Ion Processes 34, 303-310 (1980)
   H. Hartmann, K.-M. Chung, G. Baykut, K.-P. Wanczek: Dependence of ion-cyclotron frequency on electric field inhomogeneity. Journal of Chemical Physics 78, 424-431 (1983)
   D. Schuch, K.-M. Chung, H. Hartmann: Effect of magnetic-field inhomogeneity on exact mass determination in ICR spectrometry. International Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Ion Processes 56, 109-121 (1984)
3. ↑ H. Hartmann, K.-M. Chung: Application of a classical perturbation-theory to theory of coupled fields. Theoretica Chimica Acta 47, 147-156 (1978)
4. ↑ H. Hartmann, K.-M. Chung: Classical non-linear field theory of chemical bonding. International Journal of Quantum Chemistry 18, 1491-1503 (1980)
5. ↑ D. Schuch, K.-M. Chung, H. Hartmann: Non-Linear Schrödinger-type field equation for the description of dissipative systems. 1. Derivation of the nonlinear field equation and one-dimensional example. Journal of Mathematical Physics 24, 1652-1660 (1983)
   D. Schuch, K.-M. Chung, H. Hartmann: A Nonlinear Bridge between Irreversible Macrodynamics and Reversible Microdynamics. In: Reports of the Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry. 89, 1985, p. 589, doi : 10.1002 / bbpc.19850890606 .
   D. Schuch, K.-M. Chung: From macroscopic irreversibility to microscopic reversibility via a nonlinear Schrödinger-type field equation. International Journal of Quantum Chemistry 29,1561-1573 (1986)