Helmut Rauch

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Helmut Rauch in Budapest, 2013

Helmut Rauch (born January 22, 1939 in Krems an der Donau , Lower Austria ; † September 2, 2019 ) was an Austrian nuclear physicist and head of the Atomic Institute of Austrian universities for many years . He is particularly known for (neutron) experiments on the fundamentals of quantum mechanics .

Life

Helmut Rauch studied technical physics at the TU Wien , where he received his doctorate in 1965 at the Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities with the dissertation anisotropic β-decay after absorption of polarized neutrons . In 1970 he completed his habilitation in the field of neutron and reactor physics . In 1972 he became professor for experimental nuclear physics at the Vienna University of Technology. From 1972 to 1979 he was head of the Institute for Experimental Nuclear Physics and from 1980 to 1996, alternating with Gernot Eder at the Institute for Nuclear Physics. In 1979/80 he spent a year at the nuclear research center in Jülich and in 1983 at the Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble .

From 1985 to 1990 Rauch was Vice President and from 1991 to 1994 President of the FWF . From 1992 to 2003 he was a member of the Scientific Council of European Spallation Sources , from 1996 to 1999 of the Council of the European Science Foundation and since 1999 of the European Neutron Association. From 1972 to 2005 he was head of the Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities.

Rauch's students include Anton Zeilinger , Harald Weinfurter , Kurt Binder , Heinrich Kurz , and Jörg Schmiedmayer .

He was a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (corresponding member since 1979, full member since 1990), the Leopoldina and the Academia Europaea .

Rauch was a Catholic and had been married to Annemarie Rauch (née Krutzler) since 1965; there are three children from the marriage.

Act

In 1974, Rauch, together with Ulrich Bonse and Wolfgang Treimer, demonstrated through interference experiments with a neutron interferometer that he had developed himself that monochromatic neutrons have the character of waves and that matter waves exist on a macroscopic scale. This was further proof that massive particles, not just photons , can be both matter and waves. He also showed experimentally the symmetry of spinors (spin 1/2 particles) at two full rotations (with one full rotation, on the other hand, they change the sign) and the superposition of the spin.

In 1983, through experiments on the exchange of energy between neutrons and magnetic fields in Grenoble, he was also able to prove that a quantum physical measurement does not disrupt or destroy the phase relationship of matter waves.

honors and awards

Fonts

  • With U. Bonse (Ed.): Neutron Interferometry. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1979.
  • With G. Badurek and Anton Zeilinger (eds.): Matter Wave Interferometry. North Holland 1988.
  • With SA Werner: Neutron Interferometry. Clarendon Press, 2000.
  • Neutron interferometry - a quantum mechanics laboratory. In: Physical sheets. Volume 50, 1994, pp. 439-444. doi: 10.1002 / phbl.19940500505 .
  • Quantum mechanics on the test bench of neutron interferometry. In: Physical sheets. Volume 41, 1985, pp. 190-195. doi: 10.1002 / phbl.19850410708 .
  • High-resolution neutron spectroscopy and quantum mechanical uncertainty relation. In: Physical sheets. Volume 44, June 1988, p. 172. doi: 10.1002 / phbl.19880440610 .
  • With Dietmar Petrascheck: Basics for a Laue neutron interferometer - Part 1: Dynamic diffraction. AIAU 74405b, Atominstitute of the Austrian Universities , Vienna 1976.
  • With Dietmar Petrascheck: Basics for a Laue neutron interferometer - Part 2: Theory of the interferometer. AIAU 76401, Atominstitute of the Austrian Universities, Vienna 1976.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary on the website of the Atomic Institute of the TU Vienna , accessed on September 4, 2019.
  2. Member entry by Prof. Dr. Helmut Rauch (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on July 19, 2016.
  3. List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB).
  4. Helmut Rauch receives the highest honor in neutron physics. On: derStandard.at. September 3, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015.