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 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...

 at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich

Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich

The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...

 in 1926. He was awarded his doctorate in 1931, with the submission of a thesis on the application of the Green function

Green function

Green function might refer to:*Green's function of a differential operator.*Deligne–Lusztig theory in the representation theory of finite groups of Lie type.*Green's function in many-body theory....

 in quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...

.

Career

After a few years of teaching in high school, he became first an Assistant (1934) and, later, a Lecturer (1937) in theoretical physics at the University of Giessen. From 1939 to 1941 he was a Lecturer at the Humboldt University, Berlin. In 1942, he was appointed “Extraordinary” Professor of theoretical physics and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Rhine-Westfalian Institute of Technology, Aachen, Germany, being promoted to “Ordinary” Professor in 1949.

After Sommerfeld’s death in 1951, Meixner edited a volume and new editions of two other volumes of Sommerfeld’s six-volume Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik.

Meixner conducted research and taught graduate courses at the Institut für theoretische Physik of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen

RWTH Aachen

RWTH Aachen University is a research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with roughly 33,000 students enrolled in 101 study programs....

 (RWTH Aachen). Literature citations, as well as doctorates granted to his students, put Meixner at RWTH Aachen, or just Aachen, for years in each of the decades from the 1950s until his death in 1994. He was known for his work on the physics of deformable bodies (rheology

Rheology

Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in the liquid state, but also as 'soft solids' or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applied force....

), thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, Meixner polynomials, Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials, and spheroidal wave functions.

Selected Literature

. This is Meixner’s doctoral thesis at Munich, submitted for publication 14 July 1931.

. Meixner is cited as being at the Institut für theoretische Physik, RWTH Aachen. Received: 27 October 1972.
. Meixner is cited as being at the Institut für Theoretische Physik, Rhein.-Westf. Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany. Received: 19 May 1982.

Books

• J. Meixner and F. W. Schafke Mathieusche Funktionen uns Sphäroidfunktionen (Springer-Verlag, 1954)
  • J. Meixner, F. W. Schäfke, and G. Wolf Mathieu functions and spheroidal functions and their mathematical foundations: further studies (Springer-Verlag, 1980)

• J. Meixner, editor Statistical Mechanics of Equilibrium and Non-equilibrium Proceedings of the International Symposium on Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics held June 15-20, 1964, in Aachen, Germany. (North-Holland Publishing Co., 1965)

Edited Books

Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 5: Thermodynamik und Statistik. Herausgegeben von Fritz Bopp

Friedrich Bopp

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...

und Josef Meixner. (Diederich, 1952)

Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 2: Optik. 2. Auflage, bearbeitet und ergänzt von Fritz Bopp und Josef Meixner. (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1959)

Sommerfeld, Arnold Vorlesungen über theoretische Physik. Band 3: Elektrodynamik. 3. Auflage, bearbeitet und ergänzt von Fritz Bopp und Josef Meixner. (Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1961)

External links

• Meixner-Pollaczek Polynomials – Wolfram MathWorld
• Meixner Ploynomials 1st Kind – Wolfram MathWorld
• Meixner Polynomials 2nd Kind – Wolfram MathWorld