Gregor Wentzel

Gregor Wentzel
Born (1898-02-17)February 17, 1898
Oldenburg, German Empire
Died August 12, 1978(1978-08-12) (aged 80)
Ascona, Switzerland
Nationality German
Fields Physics
Institutions Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
University of Leipzig
University of Zurich
University of Chicago
Alma mater University of Greifswald
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Doctoral advisor Arnold Sommerfeld
Doctoral students Valentine Bargmann
Markus Fierz
Burt Fried
Res Jost
Nicholas Kemmer
Felix Villars
Klaus Ruedenberg
Known for Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation
Quantum field theory
Notable awards Max Planck Medal (1975)

Gregor Wentzel (February 17, 1898 – August 12, 1978) was a German physicist known for development of quantum mechanics. Wentzel, Hendrik Kramers, and Léon Brillouin developed the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation in 1926. In his early years, he contributed to X-ray spectroscopy, but then broadened out to make contributions to quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, and meson theory.[1][2][3][4]

Life and education

Gregor Wentzel was born in Duesseldorf, German, as the first of four children of Joseph and Anna Wentzel. He married Anna "Anny" Pohlmann in 1929 and his only child, Donat Wentzel, was born in 1934. The family moved to the USA in 1948 until he and Anny returned to Ascona, Switzerland in 1970.

Career

Wentzel began his university education in mathematics and physics in 1916, at the University of Freiburg. During 1917 and 1918, he served in the armed forces during World War I. He then resumed his education at Freiburg until 1919, when he went to the University of Greifswald. In 1920, he went to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) to study under Arnold Sommerfeld. Wentzel was awarded his doctorate in 1921[5] and completed his Habilitation in 1922. He remained at LMU as a Privatdozent until he was called to the University of Leipzig in 1926 as an extraordinarius professor of mathematical physics. In 1926, Wentzel,[6] Hendrik Kramers,[7] and Léon Brillouin[8] independently developed what became known as the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation, also known as the WKB approximation, classical approach, and phase integral method.[9] He became ordinarius professor in the Chair for Theoretical Physics, at the University of Zurich, when he succeeded Erwin Schrödinger, in 1928, the same year Wolfgang Pauli was appointed to the ETH Zurich. Together, Wentzel and Pauli built the reputation of Zurich as a center for theoretical physics. In 1948, Wentzel took a professorship at the University of Chicago. He retired in 1970 and went to spend his last years in Ascona, Switzerland. In 1975, he was awarded the Max Planck Medal.

Bibliography

Books

Articles

Notes

  1. ↑ Mehra. Volume 1, Part 1, 2001, p. 356.
  2. ↑ Gregor Wentzel – ETH Bibliothek.
  3. ↑ Jungnickel. Volume 2, 1990, p. 368.
  4. ↑ Telegdi, V. L. (November 1978). "Obituary: Gregor Wentzel". Physics Today. 31 (11): 85–86. Bibcode:1978PhT....31k..85T. doi:10.1063/1.2994844.
  5. ↑ Dissertation title: Zur Systematik der Röntgenspekten.
  6. ↑ Gregor Wentzel. Eine Verallgemeinerun der Quantenbedingungen für die Zwecke der Wellenmechanik, Z. Physik. 38 518-529 (1926). As cited in Mehra, 2001, Volume 5, Part 2, p. 961.
  7. ↑ H. A. Kramers. Wellenmechanik und halbzahlige Quantisierung, Z. Physik. 39 828-840 (1926). As cieted in Mehra, 2001, Volume 5, Part 2, p. 920.
  8. ↑ Léon Brillouin. La mécanique ondulatoire de Schrödinger; une méthode générale de resolution par approximations successives, Comptes rendus (Paris) 183 24-26 (1926). As cieted in Mehra, 2001, Volume 5, Part 2, p. 882.
  9. ↑ Schiff. 1968, p. 269.
  10. ↑ Charlotte Houtermans nee Riefenstahl was married to Fritz Houtermans.

References

Further reading

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