Lothar Nordheim

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Lothar Nordheim, born in Copenhagen in 1963

Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim (born November 7, 1899 in Munich ; † October 5, 1985 in La Jolla ) was an American theoretical physicist of German origin.

Life

Nordheim doctorate 1923 at Max Born in Göttingen and was a pioneer in the application of quantum mechanics to solid problems ( thermionic emission from metals, the work function of metals, Fowler-Nordheim theory of tunneling in the field emission of electrons from 1928, rectifying in metal-semiconductor contacts , electrical resistance in metals and alloys). He wrote two extensive articles in the “Textbook of Physics” by Müller and Pouillet (Vieweg 1926–1929) on the “quantum theory of magnetism” and the conduction phenomena in metals. Nordheim was, supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation , private lecturer in Göttingen and visiting professor in Moscow. In the early 1930s he also began to work on nuclear physics , including with Hans Bethe on meson decay and applied Fermi's theory of beta decay . As "physical assistant" to David Hilbert (like his teacher Born before him) he worked with him and John von Neumann on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics in 1928 .

In 1934 he emigrated as a Jew from Germany via the Netherlands (where he was a Lorentz Fellow) to the United States and came to Purdue University , where he began research on cosmic rays , partly supported by his wife, the physicist Gertrud Pöschl. In 1936 he became a fellow of the American Physical Society and in 1937 a professor at Duke University . During the war he worked as a member of the Manhattan project as a department head in the " Clinton Laboratories " in Oak Ridge and from 1945 to 1947 head of the physics department there (which later became the Oak Ridge National Laboratory ). In 1947 he returned to Duke University, but remained a consultant at Oak Ridge and the Los Alamos National Laboratory . After his wife was killed in a car accident (during a stay in Germany), Nordheim went to California. In 1956 he became a scientist at the "John L. Hopkins Laboratory of Pure and Applied Science" of General Atomics in San Diego and later head of the theoretical department there. There he mainly dealt with the physics of nuclear reactors. In the early 1950s, however, he also made early contributions to the shell model of atomic nuclei (spin coupling, beta decay.)

In 1951 he received an honorary doctorate from the TH Karlsruhe and 1963 from Purdue University.

Fonts

In addition to the works cited in the footnotes:

  • David Hilbert, Johann von Neumann, Lothar Nordheim: About the basics of quantum mechanics . In: Mathematical Annals . tape 98 , 1928, pp. 1–30 ( uni-goettingen.de ).
  • L. Nordheim: From someone who set out to learn quantifying, or the sufferings of a young self-worth man : an out of date fairy tale . In: Physical sheets . tape 17 , 1961, pp. 420 , doi : 10.1002 / phbl.19610170904 ( wiley.com ).

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Nordheim: The theory of thermoelectric effects . Hermann, Paris 1934.
  2. ↑ Proceedings Royal Society A . Volume 119, 1928, p. 173.
  3. ↑ he also wrote the handbook of physics. Volume 5, the articles "The Principles of Dynamics" and with E. Fues "The Hamilton-Jacobi Theory of Dynamics".
  4. ^ Nordheim, Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Moszkowski: Nuclear Shell structure and beta decay . In: Reviews of Modern Physics 1951.
personal data
SURNAME Nordheim, Lothar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nordheim, Lothar Wolfgang (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH 5th October 1985
Place of death La Jolla