Paul Sophus Epstein

Paul Sophus Epstein ( born March 20, 1883 in Warsaw, † February 8, 1966 in Pasadena ) was a Russian- American physicist and professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology.

Life and work

He was born into a middle class Jewish family in what was then the Russian Warsaw and studied mathematics and physics at the University in Minsk and from 1901 to 1905 at the University of Moscow, where he was a pupil of Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev. After graduating in 1909 he was a lecturer at the University of Moscow. In 1910 he went to Munich to Arnold Sommerfeld, where he received his doctorate diffraction problems ( via the diffraction on a flat screen, taking into account the influence of material ). 1914 Even during the First World War, when he was classified as an "enemy alien ", he could stay on using Sommerfeld back in Germany and continue his research. In 1915 he wrote to Max von Laue the article wave optics in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences. In 1916, he treated the Stark effect in the Bohr - Sommerfeld older quantum theory, as well as about the same time regardless Karl Schwarzschild. As Epstein reported also worked Schwarzschild at the suggestion of Sommerfeld in competition with the Epstein and sent the results as Epstein on summer field. Schwarzschild's formula, however, was flawed and he corrected his work after taking cognizance of Epstein's results prior to publication, Epstein filed first. With this work, Epstein habilitated in Zurich. After the First World War Epstein was an assistant with Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Paul Ehrenfest in Leiden, before he was brought in 1921 by Robert Millikan to the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, where he remained the rest of his career as a professor until his retirement in 1953.

In the 1920s, he made other important contributions to the then new quantum mechanics, including the Stark effect and the Zeeman effect. He also dealt with the various areas of theoretical physics of sound absorption in suspensions and in the fog up to vibrations of shells and plates and the air resistance of projectiles. In 1920 he published after Alfred Wegener calculations Polflucht of continents, but not sufficient to be the cause of the then discovered continental drift.

1930 Epstein was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.

He was married to Alice Ryckman since 1930 and had a daughter with her. In addition to physics he was interested also Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, with which he occupied himself since his time in Zurich. He was with Thomas Libbin a founder of the Psychoanalytic Study Group from the Los Angeles Institute for Psychoanalysis emerged.

He should not be confused with the mathematician Paul Epstein.

Writings

• Textbook of thermodynamics, Wiley 1937