Arnold sommerfeld biography wikipedia
Autobiography wikipedia!
Sommerfeld, Arnold Johannes Wilhelm
(b.
Arnold sommerfeld biography wikipedia
Königsberg, Prussia [later Kaliningrad, Russia], 5 December 1868; d. Munich, Germany, 26 April 1951), theoretical physics, quantum theory. For the original article on Sommerfeld see DSB, vol. 12.
Paul Forman’s and Armin Hermann’s thoughtful and detailed portrayal of Sommerfeld’s career does not need major revisions (see DSB).
However, the historical research since that essay has resulted in a deeper understanding of the boundary zones between physics and mathematics at the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, so that Sommerfeld’s case may be better evaluated in larger contexts.
New source material concerning his early career displays in great detail the contingent and fragile nature of the nascent discipline of theoretical physics; for the later period, Sommerfeld’s scientific correspondence reveals his dominant role for the spread of this discipline.
Although best known for the relativistic extension of Niels Bohr’