Herbert Fröhlich

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Herbert Fröhlich (born December 9, 1905 in Rexingen ; † January 21, 1991 ) was an English physicist of German origin and of Jewish descent.

life and work

Fröhlich was born to Fanny Frida (née Schwarz) and Jakob Julius Fröhlich. The family moved to Munich in 1907 , where Herbert Fröhlich initially worked briefly in a commercial position after attending school. From 1927 he studied physics and received his doctorate in 1930 under Arnold Sommerfeld on photo effects on metals . This was followed by a private lectureship at the University of Freiburg. Like many contemporary Jewish scientists, Fröhlich had to leave Germany and researched and taught - after staying in Leningrad ( Saint Petersburg , Russia ) at the Joffe Institute at the invitation of Jakow Ilyich Frenkel - in England at the University of Bristol (1935–1948) with Nevill Mott . In 1948, on the recommendation of James Chadwick, he was given the first chair in theoretical physics at the University of Liverpool , where he - among other institutions - worked as an emeritus until 1991 after his retirement in 1973 .

Fröhlich used quantum field theoretical methods in solid state physics early on and pioneered his theory of an attractive interaction between electrons through the exchange of phonons . This is analogous to the attraction between nucleons through pion exchange in the meson theory of nuclear forces, an area in which Fröhlich had previously worked with Nicholas Kemmer and Walter Heitler . It was an important prerequisite for the explanation of superconductivity by Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer ( BCS theory ). In addition to numerous scientific publications, Herbert Fröhlich wrote electron theory of metals (1936) and Theory of Dielectrics (1949), two textbooks that remained valid for a long time in theoretical physics. Later he also dealt with applications of physics in biology, developed a theory of coherent stimuli to explain the action of enzymes and theories to explain brain functions.

In 1951 H. Fröhlich was appointed a member of the British Royal Society appointed him in 1972 that gave German Physical Society with the Max Planck Medal , the highest award in Germany award for scientists in theoretical physics.

literature

  • L. Genzel, H. Haken, M. Wagner Obituary for Herbert Fröhlich , Physikalische Blätter, Volume 47, 1991, pp. 321-322, online
  • Stadtarchiv Horb (Ed.): Carved in stone - traces of life on the Rexingen Jewish cemetery . Stuttgart: Theiss, 1997

Fonts

  • Electron Theory of Metals , Repr. [D. Ed. Of] 1936. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer, 1969.
  • Theory of dielectrics: dielectric constant and dielectric loss , Oxford: Clarendon Pr., 1949, 1958 (1986 repr.).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Happy, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-British physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Rexingen
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1991
Place of death Liverpool