Volker Schönfelder

Volker Karl Schönfelder (born October 5, 1939 in Barmstedt ) is a German physicist and was head of the group for gamma astronomy at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial physics in Garching near Munich and professor of physics at the Technical University of Munich .

Volker Schönfelder (2015)

Life

After attending grammar school in Elmshorn in Göttingen and Kiel, Volker Schönfelder studied physics from 1959 to 1966 and received his doctorate in 1970 at the Technical University of Munich . From 1970 to 1979 he was a scientific employee at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching . In 1979 he completed his habilitation in experimental physics at the Technical University of Munich. In 1980 he became a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, where he became head of the group for gamma astronomy in 1982. In 1995 he became an adjunct professor for experimental physics at the Technical University in Munich . There he held the main lectures in Astrophysics I and II as well as numerous special astrophysics lectures. Volker Schönfelder has been retired since 2004.

Volker Schönfelder is widowed and has three sons.

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Volker Schönfelder deals with experimental high-energy astronomy , here in particular with cosmic radiation, X-ray and gamma astronomy . He developed u. a. the Compton - Telescope as a novel tool for gamma-astronomical observations in the MeV range. The Compton telescope was optimized on numerous balloon trips in Texas until it was finally used in the COMPTEL project, whose scientific director was Volker Schönfelder, as one of four gamma-ray projects on NASA's large-scale astronomical project GRO ( Gamma Ray Observatory ) . The 17 tonne satellite observatory GRO was brought into orbit 450 km high on April 5, 1991 in flight STS-37 by means of the space shuttle Atlantis with 5 astronauts . From there it provided valuable data over 9 years, which provided a multitude of new scientific findings. Among other things, a complete sky survey in the range 20 keV to 30 GeV was carried out for the first time and numerous new findings about the gamma ray bursts and the center of our Milky Way were gained. The COMPTEL sky map shows 32 discrete sources over a diffusely distributed galactic and cosmic background radiation. The sources are pulsars, black holes in binary star systems, supernova remnants and nuclei of active galaxies. The nature of 9 of the 32 springs remains unknown. In addition to the 32 objects mentioned, 31 cosmic gamma burst sources could be located because they happened to be in COMPTEL's field of view. Particularly noteworthy is the first creation of a complete sky map in the light of the 1.8 MeV line of radioactive Al-26.

Schönfelder was also co-principal investigator of the SPI spectrometer at ESA's INTEGRAL observatory . The high-resolution spectrometer SPI was designed and built for improved energy determination. INTEGRAL was launched in October 2002 from Baikonur with a Russian Proton rocket, which put the approximately 4-ton satellite into a highly elliptical, 72-hour orbit. This large eccentricity allows long observation times with relatively constant background radiation. SPI has performed cosmic gamma lines with high spectral resolution and sensitivity. The radioactive decay lines detected so far come from TI-44, Ni-56, Co-56, Al-26, Fe-60 and the annihilation of electrons and positrons that were nuclear interaction lines (e.g. from C-12 and O-16) seen with solar flares.

In his numerous publications, Schönfelder focused on the results of his measuring devices and their interpretation. In addition, he dealt with the determination of the distance of variable x-ray sources , with the importance of white dwarfs as a source of cosmic radiation (both together with J. Trümper), with considerations on the origin of the diffuse cosmic and interstellar gamma background radiation, with considerations for

Acceleration of the cosmic particle radiation, with considerations on the gamma emission of radio pulsars and much more. The total number of COMPTEL publications was already over 700 in 2002. In the 1990s, Schönfelder was the scientist with the most astronomical publications in Germany, according to Bild der Wissenschaft (1999, Issue 5). A large part of the scientific work was carried out by students in the context of diploma and doctoral theses as well as by visiting scholars from Germany and abroad. The total number of diploma theses was 28 and that of doctoral theses 20.

Schönfelder himself was a scientific guest in 1973 at the Theoretical Institute for Astronomy in Cambridge / England and in 1989 at the Space Science Center of the University of New Hampshire / USA. Schönfelder was a member of the expert committee on basic extraterrestrial research of DARA , member of the "Astronomy Working Group" of ESA , member of the INTEGRAL Science Team of ESA, member of the GRO Science Team of NASA, member of the German physical society , from 1989 to 2016 co-editor of the international journal "Experimental Astronomy" and editor of the book The Universe in Gamma Rays by Springer-Verlag.

Awards

• Inclusion in the encyclopedia "Personalities in Munich" (1987)
• Medal for "Exceptional Scientific Achievement" from NASA, 1993
• Philip Morris Research Award , 1997
• Golden badge of honor from the Faculty of Physics at the Technical University of Munich
• Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon, 2020

Special

• One of the 5 welfare stamps of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1999/2000 with the theme "cosmic motifs" shows the sky map obtained by COMPTEL in gamma light.
• The original structure model from COMPTEL can be seen in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Web links

• Literature by and about Volker Schönfelder in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage Volker Schönfelder at MPE Garching. 1998, archived from the original on March 14, 2011 . 
• List of publications at arXiv.org. (75 publications between 1995 and 2006). 
• Photos by Schönfelder on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Compton GRO. 2016.