Wojciech Rubinowicz

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Wojciech Rubinowicz (1954)

Wojciech Sylwester Piotr Rubinowicz (Adalbert Silvester Peter Rubinowicz) (born February 22, 1889 in Sadagóra near Chernivtsi , † October 13, 1974 in Warsaw ) was a Polish physicist .

biography

Rubinowicz was born the son of a pharmacist and was supposed to take over the pharmacy. After graduating from high school in 1908, Rubinowicz decided to study at the physical-mathematical faculty of the Chernivtsi University . He studied experimental physics with Josef von Geitler , theoretical physics with Michael Radaković and mathematics with Josip Plemelj . In 1912 he became an assistant at Geitler. In July 1914 the doctorate followed with the thesis "On the question of the strict solutions of some diffraction problems on the wedge and corner mirror ". During the First World War , Czernowitz was temporarily occupied by the Russians and the university was closed. In 1916 Rubinowicz left Chernivtsi. In Grödig near Salzburg , he worked in the commandant's office of the St. Leonhard refugee camp in 1916/1917, then came to Munich , where he continued studying physics with Arnold Sommerfeld , who himself made a significant contribution to the mathematical treatment of diffraction problems in 1896. In 1917 he became Sommerfeld's assistant as a scholarship holder of the Anschütz Kaempfe Foundation . After the end of the World War he came back shortly to Chernivtsi in 1918, which was now under Romanian rule. In 1919 Rubinowicz moved to Vienna . In 1921 he married Elisabeth Norst, daughter of Anton Norst .

1919–1920 he worked for Niels Bohr in Copenhagen . From 1920 to 1922, at the invitation of Plemelj , he took over the chair of physics at the University of Ljubljana (German Laibach ), in 1922 he was appointed to the chair of theoretical physics at the General Faculty of the Polytechnic University in Lviv (Lwów, Poland). 1937 took over the chair for theoretical physics at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lemberg. During the Second World War he was under Soviet rule from 1939 to 1941 and from 1944 to 1945 professor at Lviv University, during the Nazi rule from 1941 to 1944 Rubinowicz worked in secret university teaching. From May 1946 he held the chair for theoretical mechanics at the Mathematical-Physical Faculty of Warsaw University . From 1950 to 1953 he was also a professor at the Mathematical Institute in Warsaw . In 1960 Rubinowicz retired. Rubinowicz published about 90 essays and 17 books, including eight new editions.

His PhD students include Jerzy Rayski and Roman Stanisław Ingarden .

Scientific activity

Rubinowicz (third from left). February 1969.

His interest in theoretical physics was in three areas: first of all, quantum theory , then light diffraction, and finally the mathematical problems of theoretical physics.

His first success in the field of quantum theory was the discovery of the selection rules for light emission in atoms, which he published in 1918.

It was a sensation in 1928 when Ira S. Bowen , who later became director of the Mount Wilson Observatory , discovered some spectral lines in the cosmic nebulae which he called "forbidden" because they contradicted the selection rules ( forbidden transition ). For a while, some physicists thought that the selection rules represent a physical law that only applies reasonably precisely. In the same year, 1928, Rubinowicz succeeded in proving that the mechanism of the formation of these lines is completely different from that in the case of the spectral lines usually observed. They are subject to different selection rules. He developed a complete theory of these spectral lines and suggested checking it against the green spectral line of the aurora borealis . The experiments carried out on this line on the basis of his treatises in the United States and on other spectral lines in the laboratory of Pieter Zeeman in Amsterdam , proved the correctness of his theoretical considerations.

Among his treatises on the theory of light diffraction, the first to be mentioned are those which resolved a dispute between the ideas of Young and Fresnel on light diffraction phenomena from the beginning of the 19th century. The English physicist Thomas Young gave the first theory of this phenomenon in 1801. The theory assumed that the light falling on an opening is scattered on its edge, and the interference of the scattered wave with the incident wave (geometric wave) explains the diffraction phenomenon . A few years later, in 1816, the French physicist Augustin Fresnel gave arguments that contradicted Young's views, so that in 1818 Young finally renounced his theory in a letter addressed to Fresnel. In 1882 the German physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff showed how the Huygens-Fresnel theory can be formulated mathematically precisely. Since then there has been the opinion among physicists that only Fresnel's opinions should be recognized as correct. Intuitively suspecting that Young's opinions also contain a grain of truth, Rubinowicz dealt with this question with youthful vigor in 1917 and proved that one can mathematically transform the diffraction described by Kirchhoff's equations in such a way that it reflects the diffraction phenomena from Young's point of view, that is can describe by interference with the scattered wave on the opening edge (boundary diffraction wave). In this way it has been proven that Young and Fresnel's views are absolutely equivalent. The theory is now known as the Young-Maggi-Rubinowicz theory. In 1961, Rubinowicz noted with great satisfaction that his theory was further developed by the optics expert Emil Wolf of Rochester University .

Honors

Articles and book chapters (selection)

(Often quoted under A. Rubinowicz)

  • On the quantization of cavity radiation, Physikalische Zeitschrift, Vol. 18, p. 96 (1917).
  • The natural oscillations of the Bohr-Debye hydrogen molecule when considering the movement of the nuclei, Phys. Zs. 18, 187 (1917).
  • The diffraction wave in Kirchhoff's theory of diffraction phenomena, Annalen der Physik, Vol. 53, p. 257 (1917).
  • Bohr frequency condition and conservation of momentum, Phys. Journal, Vol. 19, p. 441 u. 465 (1918).
  • About "forbidden" hydrogen lines, Phys. Journal, Vol. 29, p. 817 (1928).
  • On the Zeeman effect of the green northern light line, Die Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 18, p. 227 (1930).
  • Origin and development of the older quantum theory, in: Geiger, Scheel, Handbuch der Physik : Quantentheorie , Springer Verlag 1933, pp. 1–82.

Books

  • 1957 The diffraction wave in Kirchhoff's theory of diffraction, PWN Warsaw
  • 1957 Quantum Theory of the Atom, Joh. Amb. Barth, Leipzig
  • 1965 The Miyamoto-Wolf Diffraction Wave in: Progress in Optics Vol. IV, North Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam
  • 1966 The diffraction wave in Kirchhoff's theory of diffraction, 2nd edition, PWN u. Springer publishing house
  • 1968 Quantum Mechanics, PWN a. Elsevier Publishing Company
  • 1973 Sommerfeld polynomial method, PWN a. Springer publishing house

bibliography

  • Adalbert Rubinowicz: Selected Papers, PWN - Polish Scientific Publishers, Warszawa 1975

Web links

Commons : Wojciech Rubinowicz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rubinowicz Annalen der Physik, Vol. 53, 1917, p. 217
  2. ↑ z. B. Hecht, Optics, p. 513, Born, Wolf, Bhatia, Principles of Optics, 1999, p. 500. Gian Antonio Maggi (1856–1937) had already given a corresponding breakdown of Kirchhoff's diffraction formulas in 1888, which, however, paid little attention at the time and was only clarified by Kottler, Annalen der Physik Vol. 70, 1923, p. 413
  3. ↑ Miyamoto, Wolf J.Optical Society of America, Vol. 52, 1962, S. 615, 626
personal data
SURNAME Rubinowicz, Wojciech
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rubinowicz, Adalbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish physicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Sadagóra near Chernivtsi
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1974
Place of death Warsaw