Wolfgang Kundt

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Wolfgang Kundt in 2017

Wolfgang Kundt (born June 3, 1931 in Hamburg ) is a German astrophysicist .

He studied theoretical physics in Hamburg with Pascual Jordan (diploma 1956) with a focus on general relativity (ART). In 1959 he received his doctorate with Pascual Jordan, at the same time with Jürgen Ehlers and Engelbert Schücking with joint publications as part of the Hamburg Jordan Seminar on ART. In 1965 he completed his habilitation in Hamburg on "Canonical quantization of gauge-invariant field theories", then was a lecturer and from 1971 scientific advisor and professor in Hamburg. Since 1977 he was (now emeritus) professor at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, where Wolfgang Priester appointed him.

Kundt worked as a visiting scientist at the following universities and research institutes: in Syracuse (NY, 1959), Pittsburgh (Pa., 1966), CERN (1972), Bielefeld (1973), Kiel (1974), Hamburg (1975-76), Kyoto (Japan, 1978),  Boston (1986), Bangalore (1987), Linz (1999), Hsinchu (Taiwan, 2002), Maribor (Slovenia, 2004), Rio de Janeiro (2008, 2010, 2012), Buenos Aires ( 2012), and  Gonder (Ethiopia, 2015).

In the years 1969–1979 he was also active as head of the celestial mechanics experiment (E11) on the German-American space probe project HELIOS ; whereby E11 had to be sacrificed prematurely for technical reasons in favor of the ten active experiments on board.

Since 1984 he has also led Erice courses on neutron stars, active galactic nuclei and jets in galaxies.

In addition to Jordan and Ehlers, he had scientific contacts to (in historical order): Klaus Hasselmann , Wolfgang Pauli , Roger Penrose , Peter Bergmann , Thomas Gold , John A. Wheeler , Felix Pirani , Brandon Carter , Hermann Bondi , Rolf Hagedorn , Nigel Holloway, Nino Zichichi , Peter Scheuer , Richard Feynman , Malvin Ruderman , Philip Morrison , David Layzer , Zdenek Kopal , John Maddox , and Paul Dirac .

His scientific work areas moved from gravitational waves (ART) to neutron stars , black holes and accretion disks , astrophysical jets , supernova explosions and gamma ray flashes , as well as terrestrial plate tectonics, the Tunguska catastrophe (1908) and to the ( osmotically pumped) water cycle of the plants. Similar to his teacher Jordan himself or Thomas Gold, who is also known for it, he often developed "alternative" interpretations of these widely diversified topics, which were reflected primarily in his almost 300 publications, including two books ( Physical Myths on the Test Stand , Astrophysics-a new approach ). Kundt later denied the existence of black holes in a letter to the editor to a daily newspaper.

Wolfgang Kundt put forward a completely new hypothesis in 1999 on the Tunguska event based on the work of Andrei Olchowatow , according to which this catastrophe was a volcanic eruption. 10 megatons of natural gas had escaped with explosive force as a result of overpressure, characteristic of a kimberlite chimney ; This created small ice crystals in the high atmosphere and reflected the sunlight, which, according to Kundt, explains the worldwide atmospheric effects of the Tunguska catastrophe. Diamond deposits like those in Siberia are geologically associated with kimberlite chimneys.

He has been married since 1966 and has a daughter and a son.

Fonts (selection)

  • Astrophysics. A primer. Springer, Berlin et al. 2001, ISBN 3-540-41748-6 (2nd edition as: Astrophysics. A New Approach. Ibid 2005, ISBN 3-540-22346-0 ).
  • as editor: Neutron Stars and their Birth Events (= NATO ASI Series. C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 300). Kluwer, Dordrecht et al. 1990, ISBN 0-7923-0596-5 .
  • Cosmic supersonic rays. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Natural, engineering and economic sciences. Lectures. N 359, 1988, ISSN  0066-5754 , pp. 7-28.
  • as editor: Astrophysical Jets and their Engines (= NATO ASI Series. C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 208). Reidel, Dordrecht et al. 1987, ISBN 90-277-2548-9 .
  • as editor: Physics of the solar system and comets (= Studium Universale. Vol. 6). Bouvier, Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-416-04006-6 .
  • with Jürgen Ehlers : Exact solutions of gravitational field equations. In: Louis Witten (Ed.): Gravitation. An Introduction to Current Research. Wiley, New York et al. 1962, pp. 49-101.
  • with Ole Marggraf: Physical myths put to the test. A collection of well-founded alternative theories from geophysics to cosmology to particle physics , Springer 2014, ISBN 978-3-642-37705-1
  • Jets from Stars and Burning Disks - The SS 433 System - Our Galactic Center - Epilogue , in: W. Kundt (Ed.), Jets from Stars and Galactic Nuclei, Lecture Notes in Physics 471, Springer 1996, pp. 1–18, 140-144, 265-270, 284-287.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kürschner, Scholars Calendar 2009
  2. ↑ Kundt: The Gold Effect: Odyssey of Scientific Research, in: Understanding Physics, Ed. AK Richter, Copernicus Gesellschaft eV, Katlenburg-Lindau 1998, pp. 187-240. Arxiv
  3. ↑ General-Anzeiger, Bonn, edition of February 9, 2019, p. 35
personal data
SURNAME Kundt, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg