Karel Niessen

Karel Frederick Niessen (1895 – 1967) was a Dutch theoretical physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics and is known for the Pauli-Niessen model.

Education

Niessen began his studies in physics at the University of Utrecht in 1914. In 1922, he received his doctorate under L. S. Ornstein. He was an assistant at the University from 1921 to 1928, except for his postdoctoral study and research at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich under Arnold Sommerfeld, 1925 to 1926 on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. He also spent 1928 to 1929 on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [ [http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/guides/ahqp/ Author Catalog: Niessen] – American Philosophical Society]

In 1922, Niessen’s doctoral thesis, [ Karel F. Niessen "Zur Quantentheorie des Wasserstoffmolekülions", doctoral dissertation, University of Utrecht, Utrecht: I. Van Druten (1922) as cited in Mehra, Volume 5, Part 2, 2001, p. 932.] as well as Wolfgang Pauli’s extended doctoral thesis, [ W. Pauli "Über das Modell des Wasserstoffmolekülions", "Ann. D. Phys." 68 (4) 177-240 (1922). Extended doctoral dissertation; received 4 March 1922, published in issue No. 11 of 3 August 1922.] dealt with the hydrogen molecule ion in the Bohr-Sommerfeld framework. Their work is referred to as the Pauli-Niessen model. [ H. C. Urey "The Structure of the Hydrogen Molecule Ion", "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" 11 618-21 (1925). Johns Hopkins University. Read before the Academy April 27, 1925. [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/11/10/618.pdf Urey] – PNAS.] Their works helped to show the inadequacy of the old quantum mechanics, which gave physicists the impetus to explore new paths [ Mehra, Volume 5, Part 2, pp. 850-851.] which led to the matrix mechanics formulation of quantum mechanics by Werner Heisenberg and Max Born in 1925 [ W. Heisenberg, "Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen", "Zeitschrift für Physik" 33 879-893, 1925 (received July 29, 1925). [English translation in: B. L. van der Waerden, editor, "Sources of Quantum Mechanics" (Dover Publications, 1968) ISBN 0-486-61881-1 (English title: "Quantum-Theoretical Re-interpretation of Kinematic and Mechanical Relations").] ] [ M. Born and P. Jordan, "Zur Quantenmechanik", "Zeitschrift für Physik" 34 858-888, 1925 (received September 27, 1925). [English translation in: B. L. van der Waerden, editor, "Sources of Quantum Mechanics" (Dover Publications, 1968) ISBN 0-486-61881-1] ] [ M. Born, W. Heisenberg, and P. Jordan, "Zur Quantenmechanik II", "Zeitschrift für Physik" 35 557-615, 1925 (received November, 1925). [English translation in: B. L. van der Waerden, editor, "Sources of Quantum Mechanics" (Dover Publications, 1968) ISBN 0-486-61881-1] ] and the wave mechanics formulation by Erwin Schrödinger in 1926, [ Erwin Schrödinger "(From the German) Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem (First Communication)", "Annalen der Physik" 79 (4) 361-376, 1926. [English translation in Gunter Ludwig "Wave Mechanics" 94-105 (Pergamon Press, 1968) ISBN 08-103204-8] ] [ Erwin Schrödinger "(From the German) Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem (Second Communication)", "Annalen der Physik" 79 (6) 489-527, 1926. [English translation in Gunter Ludwig "Wave Mechanics" 106-126 (Pergamon Press, 1968) ISBN 08-103204-8] ] [ Erwin Schrödinger "(From the German) Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem (Third Communication)", "Annalen der Physik" 80 (13) 437-490, 1926.] [ Erwin Schrödinger "(From the German) Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem (Fourth Communication)", "Annalen der Physik" 81 (18) 109-139, 1926. [English translation in Gunter Ludwig "Wave Mechanics" 151-167 (Pergamon Press, 1968) ISBN 08-103204-8] ] which were shown to be equivalent. [ Erwin Schrödinger "(From the German) On the Relationship of the Heisenberg-Born-Jordan Quantum Mechanics to Mine", "Annalen der Physik" 79 (8) 734-756, 1926. [English translation in Gunter Ludwig "Wave Mechanics" 127-150 (Pergamon Press, 1968) ISBN 08-103204-8] ]

Career

Upon Niessen’s return to The Netherlands in 1929, he took a life-long position as a theoretical physicist at Philips Electronics in Eindhoven. [ [http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/guides/ahqp/ Author Catalog: Niessen] – American Philosophical Society]

elected Literature

* Karel F. Niessen "Zur Quantentheorie des Wasserstoffmolekülions", doctoral dissertation, University of Utrecht, Utrecht: I. Van Druten (1922) as cited in Mehra, Volume 5, Part 2, 2001, p. 932.

* K. F. Niessen "Zur Quantentheorie des Wasserstoffmolekülions", "Annalen der Physik" 70 129-134 (1923)

*K. F. Niessen "Ableitung des Planckschen Strahlungsgesetzes für Atome mit zwei Freiheitsgraden", "Annalen der Physik" 75 743–780 (1924)

*K. F. Niessen (Utrecht) "Die Energieberechnung in einem sehr vereinfachten Vierkörperproblem", "Zeitschrift für Physik" Volume 43, Numbers 9-10, Pages 675-693 (1927). Received 14 April 1927.

*K. F. Niessen "Überdie annähernden komplexen Lösungen der Schrödingerschen Differentialgleichun für den harmonischen Oszillator", "Annalen der Physik" 85 487-514 (1928) as cited in Jammer, 1966, p. 279.

*K. F. Niessen "On the Saturation of the Electric and Magnetic Polarization of Gases in Quantum Mechanics", "Phys. Rev." 34 253 - 278 (1929). Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Received 1 June 1929.

*K. F. Niessen (Physics Department, Madison, Wisconsin) "Ein Gas in gekreuzten Feldern nach der Quantenmechanik" Journal "Zeitschrift für Physik", Volume 58, Numbers 1-2, Pages 63-74 (1929). Received 13 July 1929.

*K. F. Niessen "Über das akustische analogon der sommerfeldschen oberflächenwelle" Niessen, K. F. "Physica" 8 (3) 337-343 (1941)

*K. F. Niessen "On one of Heisenberg's hypotheses in the theory of specific heat of superconductors", "Physica" 16 (2) 77-83 (1950)

References

*Jammer, Max "The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics" (McGraw Hill, 1966)

*Mehra, Jagdish, and Helmut Rechenberg "The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Volume 5 Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 2 The Creation of Wave Mechanics: Early Response and Applications 1925 - 1926." (Springer, 2001) ISBN 0-387-95180-6

Notes