Karl Schwarzschild

Karl Schwarzschild ( born October 9, 1873 in Frankfurt am Main, † May 11, 1916 in Potsdam ) was a German astronomer and physicist, considered one of the forerunners of modern astrophysics.

Life

Karl Schwarzschild was born in Frankfurt, the oldest of six children of a wealthy German - Jewish family ( settled but later baptized ). His parents were Moses and Henrietta Sabel Martin Schwarzschild. He grew up in a cultured upper-class environment in which diverse interests, including music and art were encouraged. In Frankfurt he attended the Jewish elementary school and then the Municipal High School, where his interest was awakened early in astronomy. Even as a 16- year-old student he published in the Astronomische Nachrichten two works for orbit determination of planets and of double stars. After graduation, he was a top of his class, he studied from 1890 at the University of Strasbourg astronomy. In 1892 he moved to the Ludwig -Maximilians- University of Munich, where he completed his doctorate on the subject in 1896 as Hugo von Seeliger The emergence of equilibrium shapes in rotating fluids.

From 1897 he worked for two years as an assistant at the Kuffner Observatory in Vienna. There he dealt with the photometry of star clusters and laid the foundations for a formula that describes the relationship between intensity of starlight, the exposure time and blackening of the photographic plate in astrophotography. An important element of this formula is the Schwarzschild exponent. In 1899 he returned to Munich and habilitated there.

From 1901 to 1909, Schwarzschild professor and director of the Göttingen observatory. There he was able to work with people like David Hilbert and Hermann Minkowski.

In 1909 he became director of the Astrophysical Observatory in Potsdam.

1912 Schwarzschild became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he volunteered for the army. He served in the artillery troops on the Eastern and Western Front and had to perform there, among others, ballistic calculations. However, during the war, he became seriously ill with an autoimmune disease of the skin ( pemphigus vulgaris) and returned in March 1916 returned invalided from the front. He died two months later at the age of only 42 years.

Karl Schwarzschild is the father of astrophysicist Martin Schwarzschild.

Work

During military service, he wrote in 1915 in Russia a treatise on the theory of relativity and on quantum physics.

His work on relativity yielded the first exact solutions of the field equations of general relativity - one for non-rotating spherical symmetric body and one for static isotropic empty space to solid objects.

Schwarzschild made ​​some fundamental work on classical black holes. Therefore, some properties of black holes were given his name, namely the Schwarzschild metric, the Schwarzschild metric Tangherlini and the Schwarzschild radius. The core of a black hole is called the Schwarzschild singularity.

In astronomy, he worked on the photographic photometry of stars. In the course of studies on the radiation transport in the solar atmosphere Schwarzschild coined the concept of radiative equilibrium. Using methods from stellar, he examined the distribution of stars in the Milky Way.

He improved further the theory of optical systems.

Others

The asteroid was named after Schwarzschilda Karl Schwarzschild. In Berlin, Göttingen and Garching, a road was ever named after him. The Thuringian State Observatory Tautenburg received the 1992 suffix Karl Schwarzschild Observatory.

Quotes

"It's always nice to have a simple form on strict solutions."

Writings

To optical systems:

• Studies on the geometrical optics I. Introduction to the theory of errors of optical instruments due to the Eikonalbegriffs, 1906, Proceedings of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, Volume 4, Nummero 1, pp. 1-31
• Investigations on the theory of geometrical optics II mirror telescopes, 1906, Proceedings of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, Volume 4, Nummero 2, pp. 1-28
• Studies on the geometrical optics III. About the astro photographic lenses, 1906, Proceedings of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, Volume 4, Nummero 3, pp. 1-54
• About difference formulas for tracing of optical systems, in 1907, news of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 551-570

For light measurement:

• Actinometry of the stars of the BD up to size 7.5 in the zone 0 ° to 20 ° declination. Part A. With the assistance of Bro man Meyer, A. Kohlschütter and O. Birck, 1910, Proceedings of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, Volume 6, Numero 6, pp. 1-117

The solar atmosphere:

• About the balance of the solar atmosphere, 1906, news of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 41-53.

Available on the web in the European Digital Mathematics Library ( in German ).

• Diffraction and polarization of light through a gap. I., 1902, Mathematische Annalen, Volume 55, pp. 177-247

• On the Electrodynamics. I. Two forms of the principle of action in the electron theory, 1903, news of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 126-131

• On the Electrodynamics. II The elementary electrodynamic force, 1903, news of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 132-141

• On the Electrodynamics. III. As to the motion of the electron, 1903, news of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 245-278

• As to the proper motions of the stars, 1907 News from the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 614-632

• Concerning the determination of Vertex and Apex after Ellipsoidhypothese of a smaller number of observed proper motions, 1908, news of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 191-200

• K. Schwarzschild, E. Kron: About the brightness distribution in the tail of Halley's comet, 1911, news of the Society of Sciences in Göttingen, pp. 197-208

• The scientific results and objectives of the newer mechanics., 1904, Annual Report of the German Mathematical Society, Volume 13, pp. 145-156

• About the astronomical training of student teachers. , 1907, Annual Report of the German Mathematical Society, Volume 16, pp. 519-522

To the Einstein field equations

• About the gravitational field of a mass point according to Einstein's theory. Reimer, Berlin 1916, pp. 189 ff ( Proceedings of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, 1916)

• About the gravitational field of a sphere of incompressible liquid. Reimer, Berlin 1916, pp. 424-434 ( Proceedings of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, 1916)