Wolfgang Mückenheim

Wolfgang Mückenheim at an open-air lecture

Wolfgang Mückenheim (born March 14, 1949 in Zorge , district of Osterode am Harz ) is a German physicist and university lecturer. Since 1990 he has been Professor at the Faculty of General Studies of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences , where he subjects Mathematics and Physics represents.

Life

After primary school , Wolfgang Mückenheim first attended secondary school . After passing the secondary school leaving certificate, an apprenticeship as a chemistry laboratory assistant followed. He then obtained the general higher education entrance qualification at the Braunschweig-Kolleg - on the so-called second educational path .

From 1973 to 1977 Mückenheim studied physics with the minor subjects mathematics, astronomy and chemistry at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . His graduate studies he completed at Martin Schumacher with a thesis about the nuclear physics topic The decay of ¹²² J from. In 1979 he earned his doctorate in physics in the same Göttingen research group with a dissertation on elastic photon scattering on uranium , a topic in the field of vacuum polarization . After working as a research assistant at the Second Physics Institute at the University of Göttingen from 1976 to 1981 , he switched to industry in 1981. Most recently, in 1989, he was employed in the laser industry ( Lambda Physik , Göttingen) as head of research and development . At that time he dealt with the development of excimer lasers, among other things .

In 1990 his academic achievements up to that point were recognized as being equivalent to a habilitation . As a university lecturer , he then gave lectures on the theory of electromagnetic fields at the Clausthal University of Technology . In the same year he was appointed professor at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, where he also held the office of dean of the Faculty of General Sciences from 2003 to 2007 .

Wolfgang Mückenheim lives in Bobingen .

Research and Teaching

In the 1980s he published on the fundamentals of quantum mechanics and provided a formal solution to the EPR paradox in the case of spin with a theory of extended probability (which also allows negative probabilities, taking up corresponding ideas from Paul Dirac (1942) and Maurice Bartlett ) -1 / 2 particle.

In the 2000s, Mückenheim studied the infinite in mathematics and was one of the representatives of ultrafinitism . He thinks that he has found contradictions in the concepts of infinite sets in modern mathematics based on set theory . He disseminated these results through monographs , conferences and the Internet. In addition, he regularly gives a lecture The History of the Infinite , in which these are discussed. His textbook mathematics for the first semester is published by R. Oldenbourg Verlag . In 2015, De Gruyter Verlag , which had taken over Oldenbourg Verlag, published the fourth, revised edition of the textbook.

criticism

Mückenheim's theses on set theory and on infinity in mathematics are criticized by mathematicians. Mückenheim writes in the foreword of his book Mathematics for the First Semester : “With the finiteness of every set, the set of all digits of a number is also finite . The mostly tacit assumption that every real number can be approximated with " arbitrary precision" does not apply without restriction - the number axis has gaps; the continuity assumption , the concept of convergence and other pillars of calculus become problematic; even the intermediate value theorem or the fundamental theorem of algebra 'suffer exceptions '. ”However, Mückenheim also makes it clear in the foreword that“ the problem is not mentioned in the following text ”and that he proceeds in the book as if there were infinite sets.

In the Zentralblatt MATH , Franz Lemmermeyer speaks of a " campaign against modern mathematics " in his review of mathematics for the first semester . Lemmermeyer also criticizes definitions that are sometimes incorrect, imprecise or not in line with current practice. In his review of The Mathematics of Infinite , the same reviewer doubts the terms , definitions, and concepts with which Mückenheim claims to have proven the inconsistency of Cantor's set theory and the incorrectness of the uncountability of real numbers. Mückenheim rejects this and declares that he “does not dispute the existence of irrational numbers or that of straight lines , circles , etc.”, but only the existence of actual infinite sets.

Fonts (selection)

• The story of the infinite. 7th edition, MaroVerlag , Augsburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-87512-156-8
• The mathematics of infinity. Shaker Verlag , Aachen 2006, ISBN 978-3-8322-5587-9
• Mathematics for the first semester. 3rd edition, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70821-9

Web links

• Augsburg University of Applied Sciences: Website by Wolfgang Mückenheim
• Augsburg University of Applied Sciences: CV of Wolfgang Mückenheim (PDF; 8 kB)
• DFG national licenses for publications by Wolfgang Mückenheim
• Research report 2011 of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, pp. 44–46 (PDF; 8.5 MB): About mathematics and reality. From Wolfgang Mückenheim

Individual evidence

1. ^ Augsburg University of Applied Sciences: CV of Wolfgang Mückenheim (PDF; 8 kB), accessed on October 11, 2012.
2. ^ Students of Martin Schumacher. (PDF; 50 kB) ( Memento from November 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 11, 2012
3. ^ Mückenheim The EPR Paradox and the Indeterminacy of Reality , Physikalische Blätter 1983, pp. 331–336. Mostly a review article, negative probability is only dealt with in the final part "Speculatics" with reference to the treatment of the EPR Paradox in the version by David Bohm for a spin 1/2 particle in Mückenheim Lett. Nuovo Cimento, vol. 35, 1982, p. 300
4. ^ Mückenheim A review of extended probabilities , Physics Reports, Volume 133, 1986, pp. 337-401, with contributions by Günther Ludwig , Edwin Thompson Jaynes , Jean-Pierre Vigier , Maurice Bartlett and others. a.
5. ^ Description of Mückenheim's research area on his website. Retrieved October 27, 2012 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Physical Constraints Of Numbers . arxiv : math / 0505649 .
7. ↑ List of publications. (PDF; 101 kB) Retrieved October 27, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Mückenheim's article at arXiv. Retrieved October 27, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Materials for his lecture The Story of the Infinite . (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 24, 2010 ; Retrieved October 27, 2012 . 
10. ↑ oldenbourg-verlag.de (PDF; 6.9 MB) : Catalog for mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, technology. Fall 2012
11. ^ W. Mückenheim: Mathematics for the first semester. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2008
12. ↑ Research report 2011 of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences ( Memento from November 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 8.5 MB) p. 44 ff.
13. ^ Discussion on mathematics for the first semester. 2nd rev. ed.
14. ↑ Review of The Mathematics of Infinite.
15. ↑ Comment by Wolfgang Mückenheim on the discussion of mathematics for the first semester. ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 13, 2012.