Hans Grassmann

Hans Grassmann ( born May 21, 1960 in Bamberg ) is a German physicist, author and entrepreneur.

Life

Hans Grassmann studied physics at the University of Erlangen. For his thesis he developed together with his supervisor Eckart Lorenz (MPI Munich) a calorimeter from Cäsumiodid thallium crystals, which was in some physical experiments, including at CERN, used.

1984 Grassmann was a member of the research group led by Carlo Rubbia at the European Nuclear Research CERN in Geneva. In the same year he received his doctorate on his search for leptoquarks ( "Limits on leptoquarks from missing energy and muon events from at the ppbar collider ").

He provided contributions to the field of elementary particle physics and is the author of popular science books. He also researched methods to use renewable energy and information processing in addition to his teaching at the University of Udine.

Founded in 2004 Spin - off companies Isomorph srl. to free research, funded by economic exploitation of its results, allow. In this case, the financial gain should not his main endeavor. Rather was so Grassmann, the research of the profit. In autumn 2007, financed Isomorph in the castle of Duino an interdisciplinary conference on " Information Theory in Practice", which was attended by Valentin Braitenberg, Gregory Chaitin and Kornwachs.

Work

From 1988 research Grassmann at Fermilab. There he developed in 1990 using data from the Tevatron the Analysis of the charge asymmetry in the decay of the W particles. The Tevatron accelerator provided the opportunity to be derived from the decay properties of the W particles largely independent of experimental uncertainty analysis.

In the following years Grassmann developed with other scientists at Fermilab a new method to detect the top quark. In 1994 he succeeded Giorgio Belletini and Marina cobal to observe the top quark with this method. In 1995 the result was confirmed.

After the discovery of the top quark Grassmann worked at the junction of information theory to physics. How Szilárd, Bennett and Landauer have shown, a connection between information theory and physics exist because in certain situations, saving or deleting a bits must dissipate energy. However, neither the classical information theory nor the algorithmic information theory include physical variables. Although the information theory uses the word " entropy ", but it is not there to the thermodynamic entropy, but an indication of the information density. The endeavor Grassmann is to insert the existing concepts of information theory, such as " message " or " amount of information " by means of Boolean and vector algebra in a new mathematical structure.

At the same time, he and his company " Isomorphic " on the efficient use of renewable energy such as wind power and solar energy. Scientific successful was the development of a wind turbine with envelope structure (partially static turbine), despite the economic benefit low power costs found no takers in the industry and now have to compete with similar products from other countries, a development would be in deficit. 2006 began with a mirror system for use of solar energy ( linear mirror ) a project that can be financed due to its simplicity without external partners. The prototype was taken in the fall of 2008 and provides promising results. The Italian Physical Society Italian Society Fisica praised the project, making a presentation on the linear mirror system by Alessandro Prest, a young scientist whose work financed the isomorphous, distinguished as one of the best presentations. The SIF regularly awards in each subject area per two such prices.

Grassmann is the author of four popular books. He is a special way of physics education, by focusing on the essence of one of the physical issues and therefore making it understandable tried. He also criticized - as well as in newspapers and interviews - time effects such as alienation from physics and everyday culture or science operations, the need him think of a reform to ensure that young scientists get more opportunities again. The tenor is idealistic to think of physics, physics to operate for the sake of physics.

Publications

• H. Grassmann: The Top Quark, Picasso and Mercedes Benz - or What is physics, Rowohlt Berlin, 1997, ISBN 3-87134-328-5? .
• H. Grassmann: All Quark? A physics book, Rowohlt Berlin, Berlin, 2000, ISBN 3-87134-362-5.
• H. Grassmann: Thinking and its future - of the nature of man, Hoffman und Campe, Hamburg, 2001, ISBN 3-455-09333-7.
• H. Grassmann: knowledge of the matter - physics for all, Dumont, 2008, ISBN 978-3832180829. .