Sommerfeld
Proper noun
Meaning
Sommerfeld (plural Sommerfelds)
A surname from German.
Related terms
Examples
Arnold Sommerfeld identified this adiabatic invariant as the action variable of classical mechanics.
Because Sommerfeld had a sincere interest in his students and knew of Heisenberg's interest in Niels Bohr 's theories on atomic physics, Sommerfeld took Heisenberg to Göttingen to the Bohr-Festspiele (Bohr Festival) in June 1922.
In 1916, Arnold Sommerfeld added elliptical orbits to the Bohr model to explain the extra emission lines, but this made the model very difficult to use, and it still couldn't explain more complex atoms.
Further applying special relativity theory to the elliptic orbits, Sommerfeld succeeded in deriving the correct expression for the fine structure of hydrogen spectra (which happens to be exactly the same as in the most elaborate Dirac theory).
He received his doctorate in 1923, at Munich under Sommerfeld.
However, Sommerfeld stayed in his chair during the selection process for his successor, which took until 1 December 1939.