Friedrich Bopp
Encyclopedia
Friedrich Arnold Bopp was a German
theoretical physicist who contributed to nuclear physics
and quantum field theory
. He worked at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik and with the Uranverein. He was a professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a President of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
. He signed the Göttinger Manifest
.
. In 1934, he became an Assistant (Assistant) at Göttingen. In 1937, Bopp completed his doctorate on the subject of Compton scattering
under the physicist Fritz Sauter
. From 1936 to 1941, he was a teaching assistant at Breslau University. In 1941, Bopp completed his Habilitationsschrift under Erwin Fues
on the subject of a consistent field theory
of the electron
.
), located in Berlin-Dahlem
. He worked on the German nuclear energy project
; collaborators on aspects of this project were for a time known collectively as the Uranverein (Uranium Club). In 1944, when most of the KWIP was evacuated to Hechingen
in Southern Germany due to air raids on Berlin, he went there too, and he was the Institute’s Deputy Director there. When the American Alsos Mission
evacuated Hechingen and Haigerloch
, near the end of World War II
, French armed forces occupied Hechingen. Bopp did not get along with them and described the initial French policy objectives towards the KWIP as exploitation, forced evacuation to France, and seizure of documents and equipment. In order to put pressure on Bopp to evacuate the KWIP to France, the French Naval Commission imprisoned him for five days and threatened him with further imprisonment if he did not cooperate in the evacuation. During his imprisonment, the spectroscopist Hermann Schüler, who had a better relationship with the French, persuaded the French to appoint him as Deputy Director of the KWIP. This incident caused tension between the physicists and spectroscopists at the KWIP and within its umbrella organization the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft
(Kaiser Wilhelm Society).
From 1946 to 1947, Bopp was also a teaching assistant at the University of Tübingen.
From 1947 to 1950, Bopp was an extraordinarius professor and in 1950 an ordinarius professor of theoretical physics at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His main area of interest was quantum field theory
. In 1954, he was a member of the board of trustees of the Institute.
During 1956 and 1957, Bopp was a member of the Arbeitskreis Kernphysik (Nuclear Physics Working Group) of the Fachkommission II „Forschung und Nachwuchs“ (Commission II “Research and Growth”) of the Deutschen Atomkommission (DAtK, German Atomic Energy Commission). Other members of the Nuclear Physics Working Group in both 1956 and 1957 were: Werner Heisenberg
(chairman), Hans Kopfermann
(vice-chairman), Walther Bothe
, Wolfgang Gentner
, Otto Haxel
, Willibald Jentschke
, Heinz Maier-Liebnitz, Josef Mattauch
, Wolfgang Riezler, Wilhelm Walcher
, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
. Wolfgang Paul
was also a member of the group during 1957.
From 1964 to 1965, Bopp was the President of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
.
Bopp was one of the 18 signers of the Göttinger Manifest
in 1957, which was opposed to the rearming of Germany with nuclear weapons.
The great theoretical physicist, Arnold Sommerfeld
, who educated and nurtured a new generation of physicists in the 1920s and 1930s, expanded his lecture notes into the six-volume Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik (Lectures on Theoretical Physics). Sommerfeld died in 1951 as the result of a traffic accident while walking with his grandchildren. He had published all but Volume 5 of his lectures. Bopp and Josef Meixner
edited and completed this volume and put it into publication. Bopp and Meixner also edited and supplemented other volumes in the series and published new editions of volumes within the series.
(Research Reports in Nuclear Physics), an internal publication of the German Uranverein
. The reports were classified Top Secret, they had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. The reports were confiscated under the Allied Operation Alsos
and sent to the United States Atomic Energy Commission
for evaluation. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. The reports are available at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the American Institute of Physics
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
theoretical physicist who contributed to nuclear physics
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
and quantum field theory
Quantum field theory
Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically parametrized by an infinite number of dynamical degrees of freedom, that is, fields and many-body systems. It is the natural and quantitative language of particle physics and...
. He worked at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik and with the Uranverein. He was a professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a President of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft is the world's largest organization of physicists. The DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 60,000, as of 2011...
. He signed the Göttinger Manifest
Göttinger Manifest
The Göttingen Manifesto was a declaration of 18 leading nuclear scientists of West Germany against arming the West German army with tactical nuclear weapons in the 1950s, the early part of the Cold War, as the West German government under chancellor Adenauer had suggested.-Historical situation:In...
.
Education
From 1929 to 1934, Bopp studied physics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the Georg-August University of Göttingen. He completed his master’s thesis in 1933 under the mathematician Hermann WeylHermann Weyl
Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl was a German mathematician and theoretical physicist. Although much of his working life was spent in Zürich, Switzerland and then Princeton, he is associated with the University of Göttingen tradition of mathematics, represented by David Hilbert and Hermann Minkowski.His...
. In 1934, he became an Assistant (Assistant) at Göttingen. In 1937, Bopp completed his doctorate on the subject of Compton scattering
Compton scattering
In physics, Compton scattering is a type of scattering that X-rays and gamma rays undergo in matter. The inelastic scattering of photons in matter results in a decrease in energy of an X-ray or gamma ray photon, called the Compton effect...
under the physicist Fritz Sauter
Fritz Sauter
Fritz Eduard Josef Maria Sauter was an Austrian-German physicist who worked mostly in quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics.- Education :...
. From 1936 to 1941, he was a teaching assistant at Breslau University. In 1941, Bopp completed his Habilitationsschrift under Erwin Fues
Erwin Fues
Erwin Richard Fues was a German theoretical physicist who made contributions to atomic physics and molecular physics, quantum wave mechanics, and solid-state physics.-Education and career:...
on the subject of a consistent field theory
Quantum field theory
Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically parametrized by an infinite number of dynamical degrees of freedom, that is, fields and many-body systems. It is the natural and quantitative language of particle physics and...
of the electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
.
Career
From 1941 to 1947, Bopp was a staff scientist at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik (KWIP, after World War II reorganized and renamed the Max Planck Institute for PhysicsMax Planck Institute for Physics
Max Planck Institute for Physics is a physics institute in Munich, Germany that specializes in High Energy Physics and Astroparticle physics. It is part of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and is also known as the Werner Heisenberg Institute, after its first director.It was founded as the Kaiser Wilhelm...
), located in Berlin-Dahlem
Dahlem (Berlin)
Dahlem is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in southwestern Berlin. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a part of the former borough of Zehlendorf. Dahlem is one of the most affluent parts of the city and home to the main campus of the Free University of Berlin with the...
. He worked on the German nuclear energy project
German nuclear energy project
The German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II...
; collaborators on aspects of this project were for a time known collectively as the Uranverein (Uranium Club). In 1944, when most of the KWIP was evacuated to Hechingen
Hechingen
Hechingen is a town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about south of the state capital of Stuttgart and north of Lake Constance and the Swiss border.- City districts :...
in Southern Germany due to air raids on Berlin, he went there too, and he was the Institute’s Deputy Director there. When the American Alsos Mission
Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies , branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and...
evacuated Hechingen and Haigerloch
Haigerloch
-Geography:-Geographical situation:Haigerloch lies at between 430 and 550 metres elevation in the valley of the Eyach, which forms two loops in a steep shelly limestone valley...
, near the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, French armed forces occupied Hechingen. Bopp did not get along with them and described the initial French policy objectives towards the KWIP as exploitation, forced evacuation to France, and seizure of documents and equipment. In order to put pressure on Bopp to evacuate the KWIP to France, the French Naval Commission imprisoned him for five days and threatened him with further imprisonment if he did not cooperate in the evacuation. During his imprisonment, the spectroscopist Hermann Schüler, who had a better relationship with the French, persuaded the French to appoint him as Deputy Director of the KWIP. This incident caused tension between the physicists and spectroscopists at the KWIP and within its umbrella organization the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science was a German scientific institution established in 1911. It was implicated in Nazi science, and after the Second World War was wound up and its functions replaced by the Max Planck Society...
(Kaiser Wilhelm Society).
From 1946 to 1947, Bopp was also a teaching assistant at the University of Tübingen.
From 1947 to 1950, Bopp was an extraordinarius professor and in 1950 an ordinarius professor of theoretical physics at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His main area of interest was quantum field theory
Quantum field theory
Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework for constructing quantum mechanical models of systems classically parametrized by an infinite number of dynamical degrees of freedom, that is, fields and many-body systems. It is the natural and quantitative language of particle physics and...
. In 1954, he was a member of the board of trustees of the Institute.
During 1956 and 1957, Bopp was a member of the Arbeitskreis Kernphysik (Nuclear Physics Working Group) of the Fachkommission II „Forschung und Nachwuchs“ (Commission II “Research and Growth”) of the Deutschen Atomkommission (DAtK, German Atomic Energy Commission). Other members of the Nuclear Physics Working Group in both 1956 and 1957 were: Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
(chairman), Hans Kopfermann
Hans Kopfermann
Hans Kopfermann was a German atomic and nuclear physicist. He devoted his entire career to spectroscopic investigations, and he did pioneering work in measuring nuclear spin...
(vice-chairman), Walther Bothe
Walther Bothe
Walther Wilhelm Georg Bothe was a German nuclear physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 with Max Born....
, Wolfgang Gentner
Wolfgang Gentner
Wolfgang Gentner was a German experimental nuclear physicist.Gentner received his doctorate in 1930 from the University of Frankfurt. From 1932 to 1935 he had a fellowship which allowed him to do postdoctoral research and study at Curie's Radium Institute at the University of Paris...
, Otto Haxel
Otto Haxel
Otto Haxel was a German nuclear physicist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project. After the war, he was on the staff of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen...
, Willibald Jentschke
Willibald Jentschke
Willibald Jentschke was an Austrian-German experimental nuclear physicist. During World War II, he made contributions to the German nuclear energy project. After World War II, he emigrated to the United States to work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Ohio, for the Air Force Materiel Command...
, Heinz Maier-Liebnitz, Josef Mattauch
Josef Mattauch
Josef Mattauch was a German physicist known for his work in the investigation of the isotopic abundances by mass spectrometry. He developed the Mattauch isobar rule in 1934.-Mattauch-Herzog geometry mass spectrometer:...
, Wolfgang Riezler, Wilhelm Walcher
Wilhelm Walcher
Wilhelm Walcher was a German experimental physicist. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club; he worked on mass spectrometers for isotope separation. After the war, he was director of the Institute of Physics at the University of Marburg...
, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the research team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership...
. Wolfgang Paul
Wolfgang Paul
Wolfgang Paul was a German physicist, who co-developed the non-magnetic quadrupole mass filter which laid the foundation for what we now call an ion trap...
was also a member of the group during 1957.
From 1964 to 1965, Bopp was the President of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft is the world's largest organization of physicists. The DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 60,000, as of 2011...
.
Bopp was one of the 18 signers of the Göttinger Manifest
Göttinger Manifest
The Göttingen Manifesto was a declaration of 18 leading nuclear scientists of West Germany against arming the West German army with tactical nuclear weapons in the 1950s, the early part of the Cold War, as the West German government under chancellor Adenauer had suggested.-Historical situation:In...
in 1957, which was opposed to the rearming of Germany with nuclear weapons.
The great theoretical physicist, Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
, who educated and nurtured a new generation of physicists in the 1920s and 1930s, expanded his lecture notes into the six-volume Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik (Lectures on Theoretical Physics). Sommerfeld died in 1951 as the result of a traffic accident while walking with his grandchildren. He had published all but Volume 5 of his lectures. Bopp and Josef Meixner
Josef Meixner
Josef Meixner was a German theoretical physicist known for his work on the physics of deformable bodies, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, Meixner polynomials, Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials, and spheroidal wave functions.-Education:Meixner began his studies in theoretical physics with Arnold...
edited and completed this volume and put it into publication. Bopp and Meixner also edited and supplemented other volumes in the series and published new editions of volumes within the series.
Internal Reports
The following reports were published in Kernphysikalische ForschungsberichteKernphysikalische Forschungsberichte
Kernphysikalische Forschungsberichte was an internal publication of the German Uranverein, which was initiated under the Heereswaffenamt in 1939; in 1942, supervision of the Uranverein was turned over to the Reichsforschungsrat under the Reichserziehungsministerium...
(Research Reports in Nuclear Physics), an internal publication of the German Uranverein
German nuclear energy project
The German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II...
. The reports were classified Top Secret, they had very limited distribution, and the authors were not allowed to keep copies. The reports were confiscated under the Allied Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies , branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and...
and sent to the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
for evaluation. In 1971, the reports were declassified and returned to Germany. The reports are available at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center and the American Institute of Physics
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics promotes science, the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies...
.
- Fritz Bopp, Erich FischerErich FischerErich Horst Fischer was a German experimental physicist. He worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics and contributed to the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club...
, Werner HeisenbergWerner HeisenbergWerner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
, Carl-Friedrich von WeizsäckerCarl Friedrich von WeizsäckerCarl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the research team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership...
, and Karl WirtzKarl WirtzKarl Eugen Julius Wirtz was a German nuclear physicist. He was arrested by the allied British and American Armed Forces and incarcerated at Farm Hall for six months in 1945 under Operation Epsilon.-Education:...
Untersuchungen mit neuen Schichtenanordnungen aus U-metall und Paraffin G-127 (March 1942)
- Werner Heisenberg, Fritz Bopp, Erich Fischer, Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Karl Wirtz Messungen an Schichtenanordnungen aus 38-Metall und Paraffin G-162 (30 October 1942)
- Fritz Bopp and Erich Fischer Einfluss des Rückstrumantels auf die Neutronenausbeute des U-Brenners G-249.
- Fritz Bopp, Walther BotheWalther BotheWalther Wilhelm Georg Bothe was a German nuclear physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 with Max Born....
, Erich Fischer, Erwin Fünfer, Werner Heisenberg, O. Ritter, and Karl Wirtz Bericht über einen Versuch mit 1.5 to D2O und U und 40 cm Kohlerückstreumantel (B7) G-300 (3 January 1945)
Books
- Fritz Bopp and Oswald Riedel Die physikalische Entwicklung der Quantentheorie (Schwab, 1950)
- Fritz Bopp Das Korrespondenzprinzip bei korpuskular-statistischer Auffassung der Quantenmechanik (Verl. d. Bayer. Akad. d. Wissensch., 1955)
- Fritz Bopp and Eduard Degen Lasset euch versöhnen mit Gott (Eichenkreuz-Verl., 1956)
- Fritz Bopp and Detlef LaugwitzDetlef LaugwitzDetlef Laugwitz was a German mathematician, who worked in Differential geometry, History of mathematics, Functional analysis, and Non-standard analysis.-Biography:...
Lorentzinvariante Wellengleichungen für Mehrbahnsysteme (C.H. Beck Verlag, 1958)
- Fritz Bopp Eine Spinorfeldtheorie im explizite relativistisch invarianten Schrödingerbild (C.H. Beck Verlag, 1975)
- Fritz Bopp Über die Einheit der klassischen Physik (C.H. Beck Verlag, 1984)
Edited and Supplemented Books
- Arnold Sommerfeld Thermodynamik und Statistik - Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik Band 5 Herausgegeben von Fritz Bopp und Josef MeixnerJosef MeixnerJosef Meixner was a German theoretical physicist known for his work on the physics of deformable bodies, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, Meixner polynomials, Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials, and spheroidal wave functions.-Education:Meixner began his studies in theoretical physics with Arnold...
. (Diederich sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1952)- Arnold Sommerfeld, edited by F. Bopp and J. Meixner, and translated by J. Kestin Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics - Lectures on Theoretical Physics Volume V (Academic Press, 1964)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, edited and supplemented by F. Bopp and Josef Meixner Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 2: Optik. 2. Auflage (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1959)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, edited and supplemented by Fritz Bopp and Josef Meixner Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 3: Elektrodynamik. 3. Auflage (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1961)
- Fritz Bopp (editor) Werner Heisenberg Und Die Physik Unserer Zeit (Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig, 1961)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, edited and supplemented by Fritz Bopp and Josef Meixner. Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 5: Thermodynamik und Statistik. 2. Auflage (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1962)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, edited and supplemented by Fritz Bopp and Josef Meixner Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 4: Optik. 3. Auflage (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1964)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, edited and supplemented by Fritz Bopp and Josef Meixner Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 5: Thermodynamik und Statistik. 3. Auflage (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1965)
- Arnold Sommerfeld, edited and supplemented by Fritz Bopp and Josef Meixner Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 3: Elektrodynamik. 5. Auflage (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1967)
Selected literature
- Arnold SommerfeldArnold SommerfeldArnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
and Fritz Bopp Zum Problem der Maxwellschen Spannungen, Annalen der Physik, Volume 8, 41-45 (1950)
- Arnold Sommerfeld and Fritz Bopp Fifty years of quantum theory, Science, Volume 113, 85-92 (1951)