Otto Haxel

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Otto Haxel

Otto Haxel (born April 2, 1909 in Neu-Ulm , † February 26, 1998 in Heidelberg ) was a German physicist who dealt in particular with nuclear physics.

life and work

Haxel studied engineering and technical physics at the Technical University of Munich , where he joined the Corps Cisaria , and at the University of Tübingen . In 1933 he received his doctorate in Tübingen with Hans Geiger on proton emission from aluminum stimulated by α-rays from radium C and Thor C. In 1936 he also became a senior assistant with Geiger at the Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg , where he also received his habilitation in 1936 with a thesis on the core spectra of light elements and was there until 1945. While working on radioactive nuclides that are formed when uranium is irradiated, he came into contact with Otto Hahn . During the Second World War he worked on the uranium project .

With Hans E. Suess and J. Hans D. Jensen (who received the Nobel Prize for this with Maria Goeppert-Mayer ), Haxel was involved in the formulation of the shell model of atomic nuclei in 1949 .

After the Second World War he became an employee of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen (headed by Werner Heisenberg) and in 1947 became an associate professor at the University of Göttingen . At the University of Heidelberg he built up the 2nd Physics Institute from 1950. There he dealt with the connection between cosmic radiation and radioactivity, but also in other ways with atmospheric radioactivity and set up a laboratory for age determination using the C14 method . This later became important when the Institute for Environmental Physics was founded in Heidelberg.

Haxel was for many years co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Physik , a member of the German Atomic Energy Commission since it was founded in 1956 and played a key role in the founding of the Karlsruhe nuclear research center in 1956 . From 1970 to 1975 he was the scientific and technical director of the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center, in whose establishment he was involved and on whose supervisory board he was from its establishment until 1970. After 1975 he was back at Heidelberg University and, among other things, dealt with anthropogenic influences on the climate.

In 1957 he was one of the Göttingen Eighteen , a group of leading scientists who issued a joint declaration against the planned nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr.

Honors and memberships

He was a member of the Leopoldina and, since 1951, of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences , of which he was president from 1978 to 1982. 1980 Haxel was awarded the Otto Hahn Prize awarded the city of Frankfurt am Main. In 1971 he received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Cross of Merit . In 1973 he received an honorary doctorate in Karlsruhe.

literature

  • Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 154 .
  • Joachim Heintze : Personal: Otto Haxel in memory. In: Physics Journal. 54, 1998, p. 356, doi : 10.1002 / phbl.19980540417 (free full text).
  • Otto Haxel: How I experienced the development of the physics of atomic nuclei , in: I. Appenzeller u. a. (Ed.), Heidelberg physicists report, Volume 1, Heidelberg University Library 2017, pp. 63-100

Fonts

  • with Jensen, Suess: On the 'magic numbers' in nuclear structure, Phys. Rev., Volume 75, 1949, p. 1766
  • with Jensen, Suess: For the interpretation of the excellent nucleon numbers in the construction of the atomic nucleus, Naturwissenschaften, Volume 35, 1949, p. 376, Volume 36, 1949, p. 153, 155
  • with Jensen, Suess: Model-based interpretation of the excellent nucleon numbers in nuclear structures, Zeitschrift für Physik, Volume 128, 1950, pp. 295-311
  • with Jensen, Suess: The shell model of the atomic nucleus, results of the exact natural sciences 26, 1952, pp. 244–290
  • Origin, properties and effects of ionizing radiation, in H. Vieten (Ed.), Handbuch der Medizinischen Radiologie / Encyclopedia of Medical Radiology, Volume 1-1, Physical Basics and Technology, Springer 1968, pp. 1–107

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Directory of Weinheim Corps Students, 1990, p. 171
  2. ↑ Haxel, Jensen, Suess: On the “Magic Numbers” in Nuclear Structure , Physical Review, Volume 75, 1949, p. 1766, For the interpretation of the excellent nucleon numbers in the construction of the atomic nucleus , Natural Sciences, Volume 35, 1949, model interpretation of the excellent Nucleon numbers in nuclear structures , Natural Sciences, Volume 36, 1949, Model-based interpretation of the excellent nucleon numbers in nuclear structures , Zeitschrift für Physik, Volume 128, 1950, pp. 295-311. On this, Haxel The emergence of the shell model of atomic nuclei , Physikalische Blätter 1994, p. 339
  3. ↑ The founders included chemical managers such as Walther Schnurr and Gerhard Ritter and lawyers. According to Heintze's obituary in the Physikalische Blätter, he was the driving force behind the foundation and, according to the article Die Karlsruhe Connection , Die Zeit, April 30, 1982, also the scientific director of the foundation, which took place on the initiative of the then atomic minister Franz Josef Strauss who was friends with Haxel.
  4. ↑ Brief biography of Haxel in Appenzeller a. a., Heidelberg physicists report, 2017, p. 61
  5. ↑ Text of the Göttingen Declaration 1957 at uni-goettingen.de.
personal data
SURNAME Haxel, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH New Ulm
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1998
Place of death Heidelberg