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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Heisenberg Werner Carl. Biography of a scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
Werner Heisenberg was one of the youngest scientists to win the Nobel Prize. Purposefulness and a strong competitive spirit inspired him to discover one of the most famous principles of science - the uncertainty principle. Werner Karl Heisenberg was born on December 5, 1901 in the German city of Würzburg. Werner's father, August, thanks to successful scientific activity, managed to rise to the level of representatives of the upper class of the German bourgeoisie. In 1910 he became professor of Byzantine philology at the University of Munich. The boy's mother was nee Anna Weklein. From the very birth of Werner, his family firmly decided that he, too, should achieve a high social position through education. Believing that rivalry should be conducive to achieving success in science, his father provoked Werner and his older brother Erwin into constant competition. For many years the boys often fought, and one day the rivalry brought them to such a fight that they hit each other with wooden chairs. Growing up, each of them went his own way: Erwin went to Berlin and became a chemist, they almost did not communicate, apart from rare family meetings. In September 1911, Werner was sent to a prestigious gymnasium. In 1920, Heisenberg entered the University of Munich. After graduating, Werner was appointed assistant to Professor Max Born at the University of Göttingen. Born was sure that the atomic microcosm is so different from the macrocosm described by classical physics that scientists should not even think of using the usual concepts of motion and time, speed, space and a certain position of particles when studying the structure of the atom. The basis of the microworld is quanta, which should not have been attempted to be understood or explained from the visual positions of outdated classics. This radical philosophy found a warm response in the soul of his new assistant. Indeed, the state of atomic physics at that time resembled some kind of heap of hypotheses. Now, if someone could prove by experience that an electron is really a wave, or rather, both a particle and a wave ... But there have been no such experiments yet. And if so, then it was incorrect to proceed from the assumptions alone of what an electron is, according to the pedantic Heisenberg. Is it possible to create a theory in which there will be only known experimental data on the atom, obtained by studying the light emitted by it? What can you say about this light for sure? That it has such and such a frequency and such and such intensity, no more ... According to quantum theory, an atom emits light by passing from one energy state to another. And according to Einstein's theory, the intensity of light of a certain frequency depends on the number of photons. This means that it was possible to try to relate the radiation intensity to the probability of atomic transitions. Quantum oscillations of electrons, Heisenberg assured, must be represented only with the help of purely mathematical relationships. It is only necessary to choose the appropriate mathematical apparatus for this. The young scientist chose matrices. The choice turned out to be successful, and soon his theory was ready. Heisenberg's work laid the foundations for the science of the motion of microscopic particles - quantum mechanics. It does not mention any movement of the electron at all. Movement in the former sense of the word does not exist. The matrices simply describe changes in the state of the system. Therefore, controversial questions about the stability of the atom, about the rotation of electrons around the nucleus, about its radiation disappear by themselves. Instead of an orbit in Heisenberg mechanics, an electron is characterized by a set or table of individual numbers, like coordinates on a geographical map. It must be said that matrix mechanics appeared very opportunely. Heisenberg's ideas were taken up by other physicists, and soon, according to Bohr, it acquired "a form that, in its logical completeness and generality, could compete with classical mechanics." However, there was one depressing circumstance in Heisenberg's work. According to him, he could not succeed in deriving a simple spectrum of hydrogen from the new theory. And what was his surprise when, some time after the publication of his work ... "Pauli gave me a surprise: the complete quantum mechanics of the hydrogen atom. My answer of November 3 began with the words:" It is hardly necessary to write how much I rejoice at the new theory of the hydrogen atom and How great is my surprise that you were able to develop it so quickly"". Almost at the same time, the English physicist Dirac was also working on the theory of the atom with the help of new mechanics. Both Heisenberg and Dirac had extremely abstract calculations. None of them specified the essence of the symbols used. And only at the end of the calculations, their entire mathematical scheme gave the correct result. The mathematical apparatus used by Heisenberg and Dirac in developing the theories of the atom in the new mechanics were both unusual and complex for most physicists. Not to mention the fact that none of them, despite all the tricks, could not get used to the idea that a wave is a particle, and a particle is a wave. How to imagine such a werewolf? Erwin Schrödinger, who was working at that time in Zurich, approached the problems of atomic physics from a completely different angle and with different goals. His idea was that any moving matter can be considered as waves. If this is true, then Schrödinger was turning the foundations of Heisenberg's matrix mechanics into something completely unacceptable. In May 1926, Schrödinger published a proof that these two competing approaches were essentially mathematically equivalent. Heisenberg and other adherents of matrix mechanics immediately began to fight in defense of their concept, and on both sides it took on an increasingly emotional coloring. In defense of this approach, they staked their future. Schrödinger, on the other hand, risked his reputation by refusing to recognize the seemingly irrational concepts of discreteness and quantum leaps and returning to the physical laws of continuous, causal and rational wave motion. Neither side was willing to make concessions, which would mean recognition of the professional superiority of the opponents. The very essence and future direction of quantum mechanics suddenly became a subject of controversy in the scientific world. This strife was further intensified by the emergence of career ambitions on Heisenberg's part. Just weeks before Schrödinger published a proof of the equivalence of both approaches, Heisenberg resigned his professorship at the University of Leipzig in favor of collaborating with Bohr in Copenhagen. A skeptical Weklein, Werner's grandfather, hurried to Copenhagen to try to talk his grandson out of his decision; it was at this point that Schrödinger's work on the equivalence of both approaches appeared. Renewed pressure from Weklein and Schrödinger's challenge to the fundamentals of matrix physics led Heisenberg to redouble his efforts and try to do the work at such a high level that it would be widely accepted by specialists, and would eventually secure a place in some other department. However, at least three events that took place in 1926 made him feel a huge gulf between his ideas and Schrödinger's point of view. The first of these is a series of lectures given by Schrödinger in Munich at the end of July and devoted to his new physics. In these lectures, the young Heisenberg argued to a crowded audience that Schrödinger's theory did not explain certain phenomena. However, he failed to convince anyone and left the conference in a depressed state. Then, at an autumn conference of German scientists and doctors, Heisenberg witnessed a complete and, from his point of view, erroneous support for Schrödinger's ideas. Finally, in Copenhagen in September 1926, a discussion broke out between Bohr and Schrödinger, in which neither side was successful. As a result, it was recognized that none of the existing interpretations of quantum mechanics can be considered quite acceptable. Driven in his work by various motives - personal, professional and scientific - Heisenberg unexpectedly gave the necessary interpretation in February 1927, formulating the uncertainty principle and not doubting its correctness. In a letter to Pauli dated February 23, 1927, he gives almost all the essential details of the article "On the Quantum Theoretical Interpretation of Kinematic and Mechanical Relations", presented exactly one month later, devoted to the uncertainty principle. According to the uncertainty principle, the simultaneous measurement of two so-called conjugate variables, such as the position (coordinate) and momentum of a moving particle, inevitably leads to a limitation in accuracy. The more accurately the position of a particle is measured, the less accurate its momentum can be measured, and vice versa. In the limiting case, an absolutely accurate determination of one of the variables leads to a complete lack of accuracy when measuring the other. Uncertainty is not the fault of the experimenter: it is a fundamental consequence of the equations of quantum mechanics and a characteristic property of every quantum experiment. In addition, Heisenberg stated that as long as quantum mechanics is valid, the uncertainty principle cannot be violated. For the first time since the scientific revolution, a leading physicist has proclaimed that there are limits to scientific knowledge. Together with the ideas of such luminaries as Niels Bohr and Max Born, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle entered the logically closed system of the "Copenhagen interpretation", which Heisenberg and Born, before the meeting of the world's leading physicists in October 1927, declared completely complete and unchangeable. This meeting, the fifth of the famous Solvay Congresses, took place only a few weeks after Heisenberg became professor of theoretical physics at the University of Leipzig. At only twenty-five years of age, he became the youngest professor in Germany. Heisenberg was the first to present a well-articulated conclusion about the most profound consequence of the uncertainty principle related to the relation to the classical concept of causality. The principle of causality requires that every phenomenon be preceded by a single cause. This proposition is denied by the uncertainty principle proved by Heisenberg. The causal connection between the present and the future is lost, and the laws and predictions of quantum mechanics are probabilistic, or statistical, in nature. It didn't take long for Heisenberg and other "Copenhageners" to convey the doctrine they defended to those who had not attended European institutions. In the United States, Heisenberg found a particularly favorable environment for converting new adherents. During a joint trip around the world with Dirac in 1929, Heisenberg gave a course of lectures on the "Copenhagen Doctrine" at the University of Chicago that had a huge impact on the audience. In the preface to his lectures, Heisenberg wrote: "The purpose of this book can be considered achieved if it contributes to the establishment of the Copenhagen spirit of quantum theory ... which showed the way for the general development of modern atomic physics." When the "bearer" of this "spirit" returned to Leipzig, his early scientific work was widely recognized in the field of professional activity that secured him a high position both in society and in science. In 1933, along with Schrödinger and Dirac, his work received the highest recognition - the Nobel Prize. Within five years, the Heisenberg Institute created the most important quantum theories of the solid-crystalline state, molecular structure, scattering of radiation by nuclei, and the proton-neutron model of nuclei. Together with other theorists, they made a huge step towards relativistic quantum field theory and laid the foundation for the development of research in the field of high energy physics. These achievements attracted many of the best students to a scientific institution like the Heisenberg Institute. Raised in the tradition of the "Copenhagen Doctrine," they formed a new dominant generation of physicists who spread these ideas around the world in the thirties after Hitler came to power. Although Heisenberg is rightfully considered today one of the greatest physicists of our time, he is also criticized for many of his actions after Hitler came to power. Heisenberg was never a member of the Nazi Party, but he held high academic positions and was a symbol of German culture in the occupied territories. From 1941 to 1945 Heisenberg was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and professor at the University of Berlin. Repeatedly rejecting offers to emigrate, he headed the main research into the fission of uranium, in which the Third Reich was interested. After the end of the war, the scientist was arrested and sent to England. Heisenberg gave various explanations for his actions, which further contributed to the decline of his reputation abroad. The faithful son of his country, Heisenberg, who managed to penetrate the secrets of nature, failed to discern and understand the depth of the tragedy into which Germany was plunged. In 1946, Heisenberg returned to Germany. He becomes director of the Physics Institute and professor at the University of Göttingen. Since 1958, the scientist was the director of the Physics University and astrophysics, as well as a professor at the University of Munich. In recent years, Heisenberg's efforts have been directed towards the creation of a unified field theory. In 1958 he quantized Ivanenko's non-linear spinor equation (the Ivanenko-Heisenberg equation). Many of his works are devoted to the philosophical problems of physics, in particular the theory of knowledge, where he stood on the position of idealism. Heisenberg died at his home in Munich on February 1, 1976 from kidney and gallbladder cancer. Author: Samin D.K.
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