Wolfgang Ernst Pauli

Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (April 25th 1900 with Vienna - December 15th 1958) is a Austrian Physicien , prize winner of the Nobel Prize in 1945, known for its definition of the principle of exclusion in quantum Mécanique. He is also prize winner of the Franklin Médaille in 1952.

Biographical elements

Childhood

Pauli was born the April 25th 1900 from a father Professor of the universities Wolfgang Joseph Pauli (1869-1955), and from a mother Berta Maria Camilla Schütz (1878-1927) Journaliste and Juriste. His/her father, whose name of origin is Wolf Pascheles, was initially of Jewish confession, before being converted with Catholicism little before his marriage in 1899. Pauli had also a sister Hertha (1906-1973), who was Actrice and Ecrivain. Its second first name was given to him in the honor of sound Parrain, the physicist Ernst Mach. Already with the college with Vienna, Pauli was regarded as a child prodigy in Mathématique.

Studies

As from 1919, it begins its studies at the university of Munich of Physique with for professor Arnold Sommerfeld. At the 21 years age, he wrote an article of synthesis of the theories of the restricted Relativité and General relativity for the mathematical Encyclopedia. Here what Einstein in a letter of December 30th, 1921 addressed to Born will say: In 1921, it obtains its Doctorat with for subject the Atome of hydrogen with for mention summe cum laude . Its work was perceived like disappointing, but it however clearly showed the limit of the model of the Bohr atom, to which it will work as an assistant of max Born with Göttingen between 1921 and 1922.

Scientific career

During the years 1922 and 1923, he worked at the sides of Niels Bohr with Copenhagen. Between 1923 and 1928, he taught with Hamburg before leaving to ETH Zurich, where he obtained a post of professor of Theoretical physics. As from 1935, it left for the the United States, where it occupies of the posts of professor invited, in particular with the Institute for Advanced Study with Princeton during the years 1935-1936, but also with the Université of Michigan, in 1931 and 1941, and the Purdue University, in 1942. As a German citizen (because of the Anschluss), it did not take part in the scientist projects of the war. In 1946, it obtains the American citizenship, but returns the same year to ETH of Zurich, where a place of professor had been kept to him. In 1949, he becomes Swiss citizen. In the Fifties, it regularly turns over to Princeton in order to give courses as an invited professor. In the last years of its life, it took part in the foundation of CERN. He dies the December 15th 1958 of an ulcer gastro-duodénal.

Pauli had as assistants: Ralph Kronig, Felix Bloch, Rudolf Peierls, Hendrik Casimir, Markus Fierz, Nicholas Kemmer, Victor Weisskopf, LMBO Jost. One of these students was Robert Oppenheimer.

In 1930, Pauli receives the Lorentz Medal, in 1945, the Nobel Prize of physics in homage to its formulation of the principle of exclusion. Finally in 1958, the Médaille max Planck is given to him, little of time before its death.

Major works

Pauli contributed a share essential with the modern Physique, and more especially with the field of the quantum Mécanique. Its perfectionism limited it in its publications, but it had many epistolary exchanges, with in particular Bohr, Jordan and Heisenberg, to which it often subjected his work before being published.

In 1924, Pauli discovers the Spin core, which makes it possible to explain the hyperfine Structure atomic spectra.
In 1925, it introduces new a Degree of freedom to quantum mechanics. This degree of freedom was identified by George Uhlenbeck and Samule Abraham Goudsmit as being the Spin of the electron. Pauli formulates then its principle of exclusion which bears today its name, postulate fundamental of the quantum physics according to which two electron S, or more generally two Fermion S, cannot be in the same quantum state.
In 1926, little time after the publication of the matric representation of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Pauli résoud uses it to explain the spectrum of the atom of the Atome of hydrogen, which confirms the theory of Heisenberg.
In 1927, Pauli introduces the Matrices of Pauli, to describe the Spin electron S.
In 1930, it was the first to postulate the existence of the Neutrino to cure the apparent not-conservation of energy during the disintegrations β. It thus contributed in a fundamental way to the development of the mesonic dynamic . The experimental evidence will be obtained only in 1956 by Reines and Cowan.
In 1940, it gives a general demontration of the Théorème spin-statistics within the framework of the Quantum theory of the fields. On this occasion, it found a justification of its principle of exclusion.
In 1949, it finds with Villars a method for the regularization of the Singularité S in quantum mechanics of the fields. This publication makes following the work undertaken with Heisenberg, Weisskopf, and Jordan, during the Thirties and Forties.
In 1955, it proves the theorem of Symétrie CPT. The discovery of the violation of parity by the weak Interaction was a shock for Pauli.
the following years, it was devoted again to the General relativity, and in particular to the Théorie of Kaluza-Klein

Quotations

On Pauli

De Pauli

Addressed to Von Neumann:
At the time of a seminar in 1955:

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