Leopold Infeld

Leopold Infeld ( born August 20, 1898 in Krakow, † January 15, 1968 in Warsaw) was a Polish theoretical physicist with a focus on theory of relativity.

Life

Infeld grew up in the Polish city of Krakow in a strict Jewish family. Krakow belonged at that time to Austria -Hungary and was one of the oldest university towns in Europe. He studied in Krakow and Berlin physics and earned a doctorate in 1923 at Władysław Natanson at the University of Krakow and was then in his native Poland as a teacher works. In 1930 he became a lecturer at the Polish University of Lviv. In 1933 he went to England and the USA in 1936 and worked in Princeton along with Albert Einstein on problems of theory of relativity. Specifically, it was about the extent to which the equations of motion are included in the field equations.

As Infeld in 1937 received no extension points and thus ran into financial problems, he suggested Einstein, together to write a popular book on the principles of physics, what Einstein enthusiastically received and from which the well-known book was The Evolution of Physics.

Infeld in 1938 received a professorship in Toronto, which he held until 1950. But when he wanted to go on a research trip to Poland, has accused him in a press campaign that he had communist sympathies and secret knowledge about the atomic bomb, which he should have received from Einstein, would ultimately deliver the Soviet Union. This accusation was debated even in the Canadian Parliament. However, there is no doubt that as a theorist Infeld theory of relativity had no special knowledge to the atomic bomb and he was never involved in such projects, especially since 1950 was in the Soviet Union in any case the design of new bomb known. He lost his Canadian citizenship. These incidents are documented in Infelds autobiographical book Life with Einstein in 1963. After this campaign Infeld went all the way to Warsaw and was instrumental in the construction of theoretical physics in Poland. Until his death he was a professor at the University of Warsaw, Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and until 1967.

1955 Infeld was a co-signatory of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. His book about the mathematician Evariste Galois, whom the gods love, which he wrote in Toronto, evaluates previously untapped source material, and Einstein is said to have appreciated this book. Since it is held in novel form, the source value can be hard to assess.

To let Infeld, who sought in vain for his return to Poland resting his professorship at Toronto tentatively ( after which he withdrew from her), received in 1995 an honorary professorship at the University of Toronto.

Among his PhD Andrzej Trautman (1959 ), Alfred Shield (1946) and Wieslaw Woźnicki (1958).

Writings

• With Albert Einstein: The Evolution of Physics. Simon and Schuster, 1938. German edition: The Evolution of Physics. Translated by Werner Preusser. Vienna 1973 ( first German edition of Vienna ( Zsolnay Verlag) 1950, Leiden 1949).