Martin Teucher

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Martin W. Teucher (* 1921 ; † December 26, 1978 ) was a German experimental physicist in the field of particle physics and high energy physics .

Life

Martin Teucher began his studies in Leipzig and continued it after the Second World War in Göttingen at the institute of Hans Kopfermann . He did his doctoral thesis with Friedrich Georg Houtermans on a topic of experimental nuclear physics , namely the investigation of (n, 2n) nuclear reactions using a radium-alpha-beryllium neutron source .

After receiving his doctorate in 1949, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Physics headed by Werner Heisenberg . In 1952 he followed his doctoral supervisor Houtermans, who had taken up a professorship at the University of Bern , there; In 1956 he completed his habilitation in Bern. He then spent a few years in the United States, first a year at the University of Oklahoma , then in Marcel Schein's laboratory at the University of Chicago .

In 1960 he was appointed professor at the University of Hamburg and thus returned to Germany. From 1962 he was a member of the board of directors of the German Electron Synchrotron DESY, responsible for the coordination of administrative and technical tasks.

Martin Teucher died on December 26, 1978 at the age of 57.

Work

After his doctoral thesis on nuclear physics, after the war Teucher first worked at the Max Planck Institute for Physics with the generation and detection of the recently discovered pions , using cosmic rays as the particle source and the nuclear emulsions already used by the pion discoverer Cecil Powell as the detection technique Method used.

He also brought the emulsion technique with him to Bern when he followed his doctoral supervisor Houtermans to his new institute. Houtermans entrusted Teucher with setting up a high energy physics group using the method. The group thus made important contributions to the physics of kaons .

In Chicago, at the end of the 1950s, Teucher was able to research particle reactions of the highest energies, from 100 to 10,000 GeV , in cosmic rays - also thanks to the good equipment of Marcel Schein's laboratory . Thirty years later, his work from this time was still of topical importance for questions about collisions with heavy nuclei with several hundred generated particles.

After moving to the University of Hamburg, he opened the work area of ​​high energy physics at the European particle accelerator laboratory CERN . The bubble chamber research group he founded was involved in the discovery of several mesons from data from the 80 cm bubble chamber at CERN. For DESY, which is currently under construction, he obtained the construction of a bubble chamber for use there, which was built by the French CEA in Saclay and, after the completion of DESY in Hamburg, was used there for systematic investigations into photo production in the GeV energy sector.

As a member of the DESY board of directors, he played a major role in setting the strategic course for the further development of the facility and advocated the construction of an electron-positron storage ring for collision experiments and was then also responsible for the implementation of this project in the form of the DORIS double ring storage system .

In the course of the 1960s, Teucher had recognized that the essential future applications of bubble chamber technology would be in the field of neutrino physics. In 1966 and 1967 he was chairman of the bubble chamber committee at CERN and, in this function, promoted the project of the Big European Bubble Chamber BEBC , which was implemented as a multinational collaboration, went into operation in 1970/71 and became an important instrument in this area.

Publications

Professional article (selection)

  • AG Barkow, DM Haskin, B. Chamany, MW Teucher, E. Lohrmann, M. Schein, PL Jain: Nuclear interactions of protons, neutrons, and shower particles of very high energy in nuclear emulsion . In: Physical Review . tape 122 , no. 2 , April 15, 1961, p. 617-625 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev.122.617 .
  • E. Lohrmann, M. Schein, MW Teucher: Nuclear interactions and mean free paths of protons, neutrons, and alpha particles at energies around 250 BeV / nucleon . In: Physical Review . tape 122 , no. 2 , April 15, 1961, p. 672-686 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev.122.672 .
  • H. Meyer, MW Teucher, E. Lohrmann: Interactions of 25 GeV protons with protons and heavy nuclei in nuclear emulsions . In: Nuovo Cimento . tape 28 , no. 6 June 1963, p. 1399-1411 , doi : 10.1007 / BF02750052 .
  • PL Jain, E. Lohrmann, MW Teucher: Heavy nuclei and alpha-particles between 7 and 100 BeV / nucleon: II. Fragmentations and meson production . In: Physical Review . tape 115 , no. 3 , August 1, 1959, p. 643-654 , doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev.115.643 .
  • E. Lohrmann, MW Teucher: Meson production on heavy target nuclei at energies greater than 10 11 eV . In: Nuovo Cimento . tape 25 , no. 5 , September 1962, p. 957-963 , doi : 10.1007 / BF02733721 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Adventurous Life of Friedrich Georg Houtermans, Physicist . In: Edoardo Amaldi, Giovanni Battimelli, Giovanni Paoloni (Eds.): 20th Century Physics: Essays and Recollections. A Selection of Historical Writings . World Scientific, Singapore 1998, ISBN 978-981-02-2369-4 , pp.  666 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Erich Lohrmann : Obituary for Martin Teucher . In: Physical sheets . tape  35 , no. 7 , July 1979, p. 323-324 , doi : 10.1002 / phbl.19790350705 ( wiley.com [PDF]).
personal data
SURNAME Teucher, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Teucher, Martin W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German experimental physicist in the field of particle physics
DATE OF BIRTH 1921
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 1978