Fritz London

Fritz Wolfgang London ( born March 7, 1900 in Breslau, † March 30, 1954 in Durham, North Carolina, USA ) was a German - American physicist.

Life

Fritz London was born into a wealthy upper-class German - Jewish family. He studied in Bonn, Frankfurt, Göttingen, Munich and Paris. In 1921 he received his doctorate in Munich. After a brief spell as a teacher put London to study physics in Göttingen and Munich continues ( 1922-25 ), was in 1926/27 by Paul Peter Ewald assistant at the Technical University in Stuttgart and studied in Zurich and Berlin with Erwin Schrödinger. In Berlin, Fritz London habilitated in 1928. His first lecture as professor at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin he held in the winter semester 1928/29, about quantum mechanics, in particular applications to the multi-body problems and the chemistry.

Together with Walter Heitler, published London 1927, the first quantum mechanical treatment of a chemical bond, ie the bond in the hydrogen molecule ( Valenzstrukturtheorie, valence bond theory, VB theory ). After the seizure of power in 1933, he was forced to emigrate and worked 1933-1936 with his brother Heinz London, who was also a physicist at Oxford University. In 1936, he became research director in Paris.

In 1939 London to the U.S. and became a professor of theoretical chemistry at Duke University in Durham. In 1953 he became Professor of Physical Chemistry.

Work

Fritz London developed the theory of the chemical bond homopolar molecules. It is regarded as a milestone of modern chemistry. Together with his brother Heinz London, he developed a phenomenological interpretation of superconductivity, which helped with the help of quantum mechanics to a better understanding of chemical observations. In the U.S., he worked mainly in the field of superfluidity. In 1939 the book La théorie de l' observation de mécanique quantique (51 Pages, Paris, Hermann & Cie ), which he had written with Edmond Bauer ( 1880-1963 ) was published.

Effect

• According to Fritz London, the London force is named.
• Every three years the International Fritz London Prize is awarded for Low Temperature Physics.
• London equation