John C. Slater

John Clarke Slater ( born December 22, 1900 in Oak Park, Illinois, † July 25, 1976 on Sanibel Iceland, Florida ) was an American theoretical physicist and chemist. He was in the 1920s one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics in the United States.

Life

Slater studied physics from 1917 at the University of Rochester, where his father headed the English language and literature faculty. He then moved to Harvard University, where he heard quantum theory with EC Kemble and 1923 doctorate at Percy W. Bridgman (The compressibility of the alkali halide ). As a post - graduate student he was then at the University of Cambridge and Copenhagen ( Niels Bohr). In Copenhagen, the joint work with Bohr and Hendrik Anthony Kramers, which made ​​him known at that time ( BKS theory, the authors considered to abandon the principle of energy conservation in quantum theory ) was created. He also visited Leipzig and Zurich in 1925 and then returned back to Harvard. He was from 1930 to 1966 professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In the 1950s he founded the Solid State and Molecular Theory Group ( SSMTG ) and turned electronic computer in the Vielteilchenrechnungen the group.

He made fundamental contributions to quantum mechanics, especially the structure of many-electron systems, where the Slater determinant is named after him, a wave function in the form of a determinant in which the Antisymmetrisierungsregel for many-electron systems (see Pauli principle) is automatically satisfied and often to starting point for calculations of the properties of atoms, molecules and solids is chosen (eg, Hartree -Fock method). He dealt in addition to theoretical atomic and molecular physics with the application of quantum mechanics in solid state physics.

During World War II, he turned to the radar research.

His doctoral included William Shockley and Nathan Rosen. To his SSMTG group also Fernando J. Corbato belonged.

Writings

  • Modern Physics, McGraw Hill 1955
  • With NH Frank: Electromagnetism, McGraw Hill 1955, Dover 1969
  • Introduction to Chemical Physics, McGraw Hill, 1939 Reprint by Dover
  • With NH Frank: Introduction to Theoretical Physics, McGraw Hill 1933
  • With N. H. Frank: Mechanics, McGraw Hill 1947
  • Microwave Transmission, McGraw Hill, 1942 Reprint by Dover
  • Quantum theory of atomic structure, McGraw Hill 1960
  • Quantum Theory of Matter, 2nd Edition, McGraw Hill, 1968
  • Quantum Theory of Molecules and Solids, 4 volumes, McGraw Hill 1963-1974
  • Solid-State and Molecular Theory: A Scientific Biography, Wiley 1975
  • The theory of complex spectra, Physical Review, Volume 34, 1929, pp. 1293-1323
  • The electronic structure of metals, Rev. Mod Phys., Volume 6, 1934, pp. 209-280
  • A simplification of the Hartree -Fock method, Physical Review, Volume 81, 1951, 385-390
Oak Park (Illinois) Edwin C. Kemble Hans Kramers Pauli exclusion principle Slater-type orbital Integrated Authority File
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