Paul Sophus Epstein

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Paul Sophus Epstein (March 20, 1883 in Warsaw , † February 8, 1966 in Pasadena ) was a Russian-American physicist and professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology .

life and work

He was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Warsaw, Russia at the time, and studied mathematics and physics at the University of Minsk and from 1901 to 1905 at Moscow University, where he was a student of Pyotr Nikolayevich Lebedev . After graduating in 1909, he was a private lecturer at Moscow University. In 1910 he went to Munich to join Arnold Sommerfeld , where he received his doctorate in 1914 on diffraction problems (on diffraction on a flat screen taking into account the influence of the material) . Even during the First World War, when he was classified as an "enemy alien", he was able to use Sommerfeld to stay in Germany and continue his research. In 1915 he and Max von Laue wrote the article wave optics in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences . In 1916 he treated the Stark effect in Bohr-Sommerfeld's older quantum theory, as did Karl Schwarzschild independently at the same time . As Epstein reports, Schwarzschild also worked in competition with Epstein at Sommerfeld's suggestion and, like Epstein, sent the results to Sommerfeld. Schwarzschild's formula was incorrect, however, and he corrected his work after taking note of Epstein's results before the publication, which Epstein submitted first. With this thesis, Epstein completed his habilitation in Zurich. After the First World War, Epstein was assistant to Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Paul Ehrenfest in Leiden before he was brought to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena by Robert Millikan in 1921 , where he remained as a professor for the rest of his career until his retirement in 1953.

In the 1920s he made other important contributions to the then new quantum mechanics, including the Stark effect and the Zeeman effect . In addition, he dealt with the most diverse areas of theoretical physics, from sound absorption in suspensions and in fog to vibrations of shells and plates and the air resistance of projectiles. In 1920, following Alfred Wegener, he published calculations on the polar flight of the continents, but these were insufficient as the cause of the continental drift discovered at the time .

In 1930 Epstein was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences . Since 1921 he was a fellow of the American Physical Society .

He had been married to Alice Ryckman since 1930 and had a daughter with her. In addition to physics, he was also interested in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis , which he had been dealing with since his time in Zurich. Together with Thomas Libbin, he was one of the founders of the Psychoanalytic Study Group, from which the Los Angeles Institute for Psychoanalysis emerged .

He should not be confused with the mathematician Paul Epstein .

Fonts

  • Textbook of thermodynamics, Wiley 1937

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oral History Interview with J. Heilbron 1962. See the obituary by Jesse Dumond in the Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy
  2. ^ About the pole flight of the continents , Natural Sciences, Vol. 9, 1921, pp. 499–502
personal data
SURNAME Epstein, Paul Sophus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1966
Place of death Pasadena, California