Rudolf Peierls
Encyclopedia
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, CBE
(June 5, 1907, Berlin
– September 19, 1995, Oxford
) was a German
-born British physicist
. Rudolf Peierls had a major role in Britain's nuclear program, but he also had a role in many modern sciences. His impact on physics can probably be best described by his obituary in Physics Today
: "Rudolph Peierls...a major player in the drama of the eruption of nuclear physics
into world affairs...".
in understanding the force
required to move a dislocation
which would be expanded on by Frank Nabarro
and called the Peierls–Nabarro force. In 1929, he studied solid-state physics
in Zurich under the tutelage of Werner Heisenberg
and Wolfgang Pauli
. His early work on quantum physics led to the theory of positive carriers
to explain the thermal and electrical conductivity behaviors of semiconductor
s. He was a pioneer of the concept of "holes" in semiconductors. He actually established "zones" before Léon Brillouin
despite Léon's name being currently attached to the idea and applied it to phonon
s. Doing this, he discovered the Boltzmann equation
s for phonons and the Umklapp process. Physics Today states "His many papers on electrons in metals
have now passed so deeply into the literature
that it is hard to identify his contribution to conductivity in magnetic fields and to the concept of a hole
in the theory of electrons in solids."
came to power in his native Germany. Granted leave to remain in Britain, he worked in Manchester
under a fund set up for refugees, with Hans Bethe
on photodisintegration
and the statistical mechanics
of alloys when asked by James Chadwick
. Their results still serve as the basis for mean-field theories of structural phase changes
in complete alloys
. Moving back to Cambridge, he worked with P. G. L. Kapur at the Mond Laboratory on superconductivity
and liquid helium
. The group derived the dispersion formula for nuclear reaction
s originally given in perturbation theory
by Gregory Breit
and Eugene Wigner, but now included generalizing conditions. This is now known as the Kapur–Peierls derivation. In 1937, he became Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham
, England
.
and James Chadwick. Ironically, both Peierls and Frisch were excluded from working on radar
(then known as RDF) as it was considered too secret for scientists with foreign backgrounds.
. This short paper was the first to set out how one could construct an atomic bomb from a small amount of fissionable
uranium-235
. They calculated that about 1 kg would be needed. Until then it had been assumed that such a bomb would require many tons of uranium, and consequently was impractical to build and use. The paper was pivotal in igniting the interest of first the British
and later the American
authorities in atomic weapons. In 1941 its findings made their way to the United States through the report of the MAUD Committee
, an important trigger in the establishment of the Manhattan Project
and the subsequent development of the atomic bomb. He was also responsible for the recruitment of his compatriot Klaus Fuchs
to the British project, an action which was to result in Peierls falling under suspicion when Fuchs was exposed as a Soviet spy in 1950. In 1995, The Spectator
garnered outrage from his family when they alleged Rudolf Peierls was a spy codenamed "perls" for the Soviet Union.
in August, 1943, Peierls joined the Manhattan Project, located in the United States. Peierls was part of the British team, along with Klaus Fuchs
, whom he recruited for the project. Peierls was initially located in New York and later at the Los Alamos Laboratory, where he played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb. Notably, when the materials were shipped to build the Little Boy
first nuclear bomb at Los Alamos, Rudolf Peierls assembled the bomb by hand.
where he worked until 1963 before joining the University of Oxford
. At Birmingham he worked on nuclear force
s, scattering
, quantum field theories
, collective motion in nuclei
, transport theory, and statistical mechanics
. Also while at Birmingham, he worked as a consultant to the British atomic programme at Harwell. He retired from Oxford in 1974. He wrote several books including Quantum Theory of Solids, The Laws of Nature (1955), Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1979), More Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1991) and an autobiography, Bird of Passage (1985). Concerned with the nuclear weapons he had helped to unleash, he worked on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
, was President of the Atomic Scientists' Association in the UK, and was a major player in the Pugwash movement
.
in 1945 and was knighted
in 1968. He was invited to deliver the Rutherford Memorial Lecture in 1952, was awarded the Lorentz Medal
in 1962, and in 1980 he received the Enrico Fermi Award
from the United States Government for exceptional contribution to the science of atomic energy.
at the University of Oxford
was formally named the Sir Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(June 5, 1907, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
– September 19, 1995, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
) was a German
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...
-born British physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
. Rudolf Peierls had a major role in Britain's nuclear program, but he also had a role in many modern sciences. His impact on physics can probably be best described by his obituary in Physics Today
Physics Today
Physics Today, created in 1948, is the membership journal of the American Institute of Physics. It is provided to 130,000 members of twelve physics societies, including the American Physical Society...
: "Rudolph Peierls...a major player in the drama of the eruption of 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...
into world affairs...".
Early years
The son of assimilated Jewish parents, he assisted Egon OrowanEgon Orowan
Egon Orowan was a Hungarian/British/U.S. physicist and metallurgist.-Life:Orowan was born in the Óbuda district of Budapest. His father, Berthold, was a mechanical engineer and factory manager, and his mother, Josze Spitzer Ságvári was the daughter of an impoverished land owner...
in understanding the force
Force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...
required to move a dislocation
Dislocation
In materials science, a dislocation is a crystallographic defect, or irregularity, within a crystal structure. The presence of dislocations strongly influences many of the properties of materials...
which would be expanded on by Frank Nabarro
Frank Nabarro
Frank Reginald Nunes Nabarro MBE OMS FRS was an English-born South African physicist and one of the pioneers of solid-state physics, which underpins much of 21st century technology.-Education:...
and called the Peierls–Nabarro force. In 1929, he studied solid-state physics
Solid-state physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from...
in Zurich under the tutelage of 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...
and Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after being nominated by Albert Einstein, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature, the exclusion principle or...
. His early work on quantum physics led to the theory of positive carriers
Electron hole
An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study of physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering. The concept describes the lack of an electron at a position where one could exist in an atom or atomic lattice...
to explain the thermal and electrical conductivity behaviors of semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
s. He was a pioneer of the concept of "holes" in semiconductors. He actually established "zones" before Léon Brillouin
Léon Brillouin
Léon Nicolas Brillouin was a French physicist. He made contributions to quantum mechanics, radio wave propagation in the atmosphere, solid state physics, and information theory.-Early life:...
despite Léon's name being currently attached to the idea and applied it to phonon
Phonon
In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, such as solids and some liquids...
s. Doing this, he discovered the Boltzmann equation
Boltzmann equation
The Boltzmann equation, also often known as the Boltzmann transport equation, devised by Ludwig Boltzmann, describes the statistical distribution of one particle in rarefied gas...
s for phonons and the Umklapp process. Physics Today states "His many papers on electrons in metals
Electronic band structure
In solid-state physics, the electronic band structure of a solid describes those ranges of energy an electron is "forbidden" or "allowed" to have. Band structure derives from the diffraction of the quantum mechanical electron waves in a periodic crystal lattice with a specific crystal system and...
have now passed so deeply into the literature
Scientific literature
Scientific literature comprises scientific publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences, and within a scientific field is often abbreviated as the literature. Academic publishing is the process of placing the results of one's research into the...
that it is hard to identify his contribution to conductivity in magnetic fields and to the concept of a hole
Electron hole
An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study of physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering. The concept describes the lack of an electron at a position where one could exist in an atom or atomic lattice...
in the theory of electrons in solids."
Leading up to World War II
He was studying on a Rockefeller Scholarship at Cambridge University when Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power in his native Germany. Granted leave to remain in Britain, he worked in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
under a fund set up for refugees, with Hans Bethe
Hans Bethe
Hans Albrecht Bethe was a German-American nuclear physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. A versatile theoretical physicist, Bethe also made important contributions to quantum electrodynamics, nuclear physics, solid-state physics and...
on photodisintegration
Photodisintegration
Photodisintegration is a physical process in which an extremely high energy gamma ray interacts with an atomic nucleus and causes it to enter an excited state, which immediately decays by emitting a subatomic particle. A single proton or neutron is effectively knocked out of the nucleus by the...
and the statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics or statistical thermodynamicsThe terms statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics are used interchangeably...
of alloys when asked by James Chadwick
James Chadwick
Sir James Chadwick CH FRS was an English Nobel laureate in physics awarded for his discovery of the neutron....
. Their results still serve as the basis for mean-field theories of structural phase changes
Phase (matter)
In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space , throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, index of refraction, and chemical composition...
in complete alloys
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
. Moving back to Cambridge, he worked with P. G. L. Kapur at the Mond Laboratory on superconductivity
Superconductivity
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
and liquid helium
Liquid helium
Helium exists in liquid form only at extremely low temperatures. The boiling point and critical point depend on the isotope of the helium; see the table below for values. The density of liquid helium-4 at its boiling point and 1 atmosphere is approximately 0.125 g/mL Helium-4 was first liquefied...
. The group derived the dispersion formula for nuclear reaction
Nuclear reaction
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is semantically considered to be the process in which two nuclei, or else a nucleus of an atom and a subatomic particle from outside the atom, collide to produce products different from the initial particles...
s originally given in perturbation theory
Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics)
In quantum mechanics, perturbation theory is a set of approximation schemes directly related to mathematical perturbation for describing a complicated quantum system in terms of a simpler one. The idea is to start with a simple system for which a mathematical solution is known, and add an...
by Gregory Breit
Gregory Breit
Gregory Breit was a Russian-born American physicist and professor at universities in New York, Wisconsin, Yale, and Buffalo...
and Eugene Wigner, but now included generalizing conditions. This is now known as the Kapur–Peierls derivation. In 1937, he became Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
World War II
In 1939, he started working on atomic research with Otto Robert FrischOtto Robert Frisch
Otto Robert Frisch , Austrian-British physicist. With his collaborator Rudolf Peierls he designed the first theoretical mechanism for the detonation of an atomic bomb in 1940.- Overview :...
and James Chadwick. Ironically, both Peierls and Frisch were excluded from working on radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
(then known as RDF) as it was considered too secret for scientists with foreign backgrounds.
Frisch–Peierls memorandum
In March 1940, he co-authored the Frisch–Peierls memorandum with Otto Robert FrischOtto Robert Frisch
Otto Robert Frisch , Austrian-British physicist. With his collaborator Rudolf Peierls he designed the first theoretical mechanism for the detonation of an atomic bomb in 1940.- Overview :...
. This short paper was the first to set out how one could construct an atomic bomb from a small amount of fissionable
Fissile
In nuclear engineering, a fissile material is one that is capable of sustaining a chain reaction of nuclear fission. By definition, fissile materials can sustain a chain reaction with neutrons of any energy. The predominant neutron energy may be typified by either slow neutrons or fast neutrons...
uranium-235
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
. They calculated that about 1 kg would be needed. Until then it had been assumed that such a bomb would require many tons of uranium, and consequently was impractical to build and use. The paper was pivotal in igniting the interest of first the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and later the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
authorities in atomic weapons. In 1941 its findings made their way to the United States through the report of the MAUD Committee
MAUD Committee
The MAUD Committee was the beginning of the British atomic bomb project, before the United Kingdom joined forces with the United States in the Manhattan Project.-Frisch & Peierls:...
, an important trigger in the establishment of the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
and the subsequent development of the atomic bomb. He was also responsible for the recruitment of his compatriot Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research to the USSR during and shortly after World War II...
to the British project, an action which was to result in Peierls falling under suspicion when Fuchs was exposed as a Soviet spy in 1950. In 1995, The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
garnered outrage from his family when they alleged Rudolf Peierls was a spy codenamed "perls" for the Soviet Union.
Manhattan project
Following the signing of the Quebec AgreementQuebec Agreement
The Quebec Agreement is an Anglo-Canadian-American document outlining the terms of nuclear nonproliferation between the United Kingdom and the United States, and signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 19, 1943, two years before the end of World War II, in Quebec City,...
in August, 1943, Peierls joined the Manhattan Project, located in the United States. Peierls was part of the British team, along with Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research to the USSR during and shortly after World War II...
, whom he recruited for the project. Peierls was initially located in New York and later at the Los Alamos Laboratory, where he played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb. Notably, when the materials were shipped to build the Little Boy
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon...
first nuclear bomb at Los Alamos, Rudolf Peierls assembled the bomb by hand.
Post-war
After the war, Peierls reassumed his position in the physics department at the University of BirminghamUniversity of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
where he worked until 1963 before joining the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. At Birmingham he worked on nuclear force
Nuclear force
The nuclear force is the force between two or more nucleons. It is responsible for binding of protons and neutrons into atomic nuclei. The energy released causes the masses of nuclei to be less than the total mass of the protons and neutrons which form them...
s, scattering
Scattering
Scattering is a general physical process where some forms of radiation, such as light, sound, or moving particles, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by one or more localized non-uniformities in the medium through which they pass. In conventional use, this also includes deviation of...
, quantum field theories
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...
, collective motion in nuclei
Nuclear structure
Understanding the structure of the atomic nucleus is one of the central challenges in nuclear physics. This article is written from a nuclear physics perspective; as such, it is suggested that a casual reader first read the main nuclear physics article....
, transport theory, and statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics or statistical thermodynamicsThe terms statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics are used interchangeably...
. Also while at Birmingham, he worked as a consultant to the British atomic programme at Harwell. He retired from Oxford in 1974. He wrote several books including Quantum Theory of Solids, The Laws of Nature (1955), Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1979), More Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1991) and an autobiography, Bird of Passage (1985). Concerned with the nuclear weapons he had helped to unleash, he worked on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical online magazine that covers global security and public policy issues, especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction...
, was President of the Atomic Scientists' Association in the UK, and was a major player in the Pugwash movement
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats...
.
Honours
Peierls was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division)Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1945 and was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1968. He was invited to deliver the Rutherford Memorial Lecture in 1952, was awarded the Lorentz Medal
Lorentz Medal
Lorentz Medal is a prize awarded every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 1925 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Hendrik Lorentz. This solid gold medal is given for important contributions to theoretical physics, though...
in 1962, and in 1980 he received the Enrico Fermi Award
Enrico Fermi Award
The Enrico Fermi Award is an award honoring scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievement in the development, use, or production of energy. It is administered by the U.S. government's Department of Energy...
from the United States Government for exceptional contribution to the science of atomic energy.
Legacy
On 2 October 2004, the building housing the sub-department of Theoretical PhysicsTheoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
was formally named the Sir Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics.
External links
- Selected Scientific Papers of Sir Rudolf Peierls, edited by R H Dalitz & Sir Rudolf Peierls, World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics, Volume 19, 1997.
- Sir Rudolf Peierls: Selected Private and Scientific Correspondence Volume 1, by Sabine Lee (University of Birmingham, UK).
- Pictures in the National Portrait Gallery, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. - Annotated bibliography for Rudolf Peierls from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- Rudolf Peierls own biographical notes from Los Alamos National Laboratory as a pdf