Ludwig Waldmann

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Ludwig Waldmann (born June 8, 1913 in Fürth ; † February 9, 1980 in Erlangen ) was a German physicist who worked in the field of statistical physics of non-equilibrium systems .

Life

After graduating from high school, Ludwig Waldmann studied mathematics and physics in Munich and Göttingen. In 1938 he received his doctorate under Arnold Sommerfeld at the University of Munich to Dr. phil. with the work on a generalization of the Boltzmann's counting method to the van der Waals gas . From 1937 to 1939 he was assistant to Sommerfeld at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and from 1939 to 1943 to Klaus Clusius at the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the University of Munich. From 1943 to 1954 he worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and the subsequent Max Planck Institute for Chemistry : 1943/44 in Berlin, from 1944 to 1949 in Tailfingen and from 1949 to 1954 in Mainz.

In 1954 he was appointed Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Chemistry in Mainz. In 1963 he received the chair for theoretical physics at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg , but he remained an External Scientific Member of the MPI.

In 1974 he worked in the research group for molecular physics of Jan Beenakker and Hein FP Knaap at the University of Leiden . In 1978 he retired. Since 1979 he has been a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Leiden. From 1966 to 1972 he represented the Federal Republic in the IUPAP Commission for Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics.

Waldmann made pioneering contributions to the clarification of various effects in the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, which stimulated further theoretical and experimental investigations. He investigated the diffusion thermal effect , the associated pressure and temperature dependency and Onsager's reciprocity relationships . In 1957 he extended the Boltzmann equation for quantum mechanically interacting systems . This equation later entered the scientific literature as the Waldmann-Snider equation , as the Canadian physicist RF Snider also derived it a little later. In an article for the Handbuch der Physik in 1958, Waldmann summarized the current state of the kinetic gas theory and its experimental application. He played a decisive role in the development of methods for solving the Waldmann-Snider equation and the application of the kinetic theory to transport phenomena in the presence of external magnetic and electric fields ( Senftleben -Beenakker effects).

literature

  • Siegfried Hess , Walter Köhler: Ludwig Waldmann in memory . In: Physical sheets . tape 36 , no. 6 , 1980, pp. 155–156 , doi : 10.1002 / phbl.19800360610 .
  • Siegfried Hess: In Memoriam Ludwig Waldmann . In: Journal of Nature Research A . tape 58 , 2003, p. 269–274 ( online [PDF; accessed May 21, 2017]).
  • Heinrich Welker : Ludwig Waldmann (obituary) . In: Yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . 1981, p. 260–261 ( online [PDF; accessed on May 21, 2017]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludwig Waldmann: Transport phenomena in gases of medium pressure . In: S. Flügge (Ed.): Handbuch der Physik . tape 12 . Springer, Berlin a. a. 1958, p. 295-514 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Waldmann, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Fuerth
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1980
Place of death gain