Oskar Klein

Oskar Benjamin Klein (born 15 September 1894 in Mörby, Danderyd Municipality, † February 5, 1977 in Stockholm) was a Swedish physicist.

Klein was at a young age apprentice and employees of Svante Arrhenius at the Nobel Institute. From 1917 on, he worked in Copenhagen together with Niels Bohr, before 1921 at the University of Stockholm took his defense. In 1923 he was offered a professorship at the University of Michigan, but came back to Copenhagen in 1925 and in 1926 lecturer at the University of Lund. In 1930 he followed Erik Ivar Fredholm as a professor of physics at the University of Stockholm.

Together with Theodor Kaluza, he developed the Kaluza-Klein theory, an extension of general relativity to electromagnetism. Together with Hannes Alfvén, he developed the Klein- Alfvén cosmology, with Walter Gordon, the Klein-Gordon equation of relativistic quantum mechanics, with Yoshio Nishina, the Klein-Nishina formula. The Klein paradox refers to the compared to the non-relativistic behavior ( Schrödinger equation with potential barrier ) paradoxical behavior of solutions of the Dirac equation, which describes, for example, electrons in relativistic quantum mechanics, with potential barriers: these are sufficiently large (of the order of the rest mass of the Diracteilchens ) penetrate the particles, the barrier almost undisturbed.

In 1959 he was awarded the Max Planck medal.

The University of Stockholm and the Nobel Committee awards in his honor the Oskar Klein medal with associated lecture.