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Biography

Wolfgang E. Pauli (1900-1958) was born on April 25, 1900 in the family of a medical doctor in Vienna, Austria. , has been influenced by science since childhood, and studied physics by himself in middle school. After graduating from high school in 1918, Pauli took his father's letter of introduction to the University of Munich to visit the famous physicist A. Sommerfeld. He asked not to go to university but to directly become Sommerfeld's graduate student. Sommerfeld did not have any Although he refused, he was inevitably worried, but soon he discovered Pauli's talent, and Pauli became the youngest graduate student at the University of Munich. In 1918, the 18-year-old Pauli first showed his talents. He published his first paper, which was about the energy component in the gravitational field. In 1919, Pauli pointed out an error in H. Wegl's theory of gravity in two papers and commented on Wegl's theory from a critical perspective. The argument is so clear and the thinking is so mature that it is hard to believe that it was written by a young man under the age of 20. In 1921, Pauli received his PhD with a thesis on the hydrogen molecule model. In the same year, he wrote a 237-page entry on special and general relativity for the German Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences. This article is still one of the classic documents in this field today. Einstein once commented: "Any expert in this field will not believe that this article was written by a young man who is only 21 years old. The author has shown in the article his understanding of this field, his proficient mathematical derivation ability, his profound insight into physics, and his ability to use The ability to clarify the problem, to express it systematically, to grasp the language, to deal with the problem completely, and to evaluate it will make anyone feel envious." In 1922, Pauli served as Max Born at the University of G?ttingen. Born's teaching assistant, he and Born jointly published a paper on the application of celestial perturbation theory in atomic physics. Born invited the famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr to give lectures in G?ttingen. During the discussion, Bohr learned about Pauli's talent and had extensive conversations with him, which began their long-term cooperation. In the autumn of that year, Pauli went to the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen to engage in research work. In Copenhagen, Pauli first studied band theory with H.A. Kramers***, and then focused on the anomalous Zeeman effect. Pauli proposed the Lande factor based on Lande's research results. . From 1923 to 1928, Pauli served as a lecturer at the University of Hamburg. Among them, in January 1925, Pauli proposed the most important principle discovered in his life-Pauli Exclusion Principle, which laid an important foundation for the development of atomic physics. In 1928, he went to the Federal University of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, as a professor of theoretical physics. In 1935, he immigrated to the United States to escape fascism. In 1940, he was appointed as a visiting professor of theoretical physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 1945, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pauli the Nobel Prize in Physics for his previous discovery of the exclusion principle. In 1946, Pauli returned to the Federal Technical University in Zurich. Pauli died in Zurich on December 15, 1958, at the age of 58. Pauli was rigorous and knowledgeable in knowledge. Although he was mean in life and had sharp language, this did not affect his status in the minds of contemporary physicists. In the most glorious era in the history of physics when geniuses emerged in large numbers, Pauli Leigh remains one of the brightest stars in the night sky.

Edit this paragraph Pauli's principle

Pauli's most important achievement is Pauli's exclusion principle (Pauli's exclusion principle, also known as Pauli principle and exclusion principle) ): Refers to the fact that electrons with exactly the same motion state cannot be accommodated in an atom. It is impossible for an atom to have two electrons with exactly the same electron shell, electron subshell, electron cloud extension direction and spin direction. For example, the two electrons of a helium atom are both in the first layer (K ??layer). The shape of the electron cloud is spherically symmetrical and has only one stretching direction in exactly the same direction. The spin directions must be opposite.

Each orbit can only accommodate two electrons with opposite spins. The number of orbits that can be accommodated in each electron layer is n, and the maximum number of electrons that each layer can accommodate is 2n.

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Fate gave Pauli a good living and learning environment, and he also proved to himself that he was not spoiled by fate. When he was in middle school, Pauli developed a strong interest in Einstein's general theory of relativity, which was little known at the time, and often immersed himself in studying it. After graduating from high school in 1918, he became a graduate student of Professor Sommerfeld at the University of Munich. His physics teacher, the famous Professor Sommerfeld, asked him to write an article on the theory of relativity for an encyclopedia that was being published in Germany. Pauli actually completed a 250-page monograph, which greatly surprised the professor. In 1921, Pauli received his doctorate from the University of Munich. Later, after reading Pauli's treatise, Einstein said: "Anyone who sees such a mature and imaginative work cannot believe that the author is just a 21-year-old student." Pauli had already shown his talent as a student. His extraordinary scientific talent attracted the attention of some famous physicists. After graduating from university, Pauli worked as an assistant to Max Born and Niels Bohr. When these two scientists, who were at the forefront of the world's physics at the time and later won the Nobel Prize, later talked about Pauli, they both still vividly remembered his meticulous research spirit of searching for the roots and tracing their origins, and his flashing sparks of thought. . Pauli always had unique opinions and was never easily persuaded by others. He was argumentative but never egotistical. When he verified an academic point of view and came to the correct conclusion, whether it was his own or someone else's, he was so excited that he felt like he had found a treasure, and he forgot all about the blushing during the argument. It was his scientific attitude of staying away from the world and valuing truth that won the love of Sommerfeld, Born and Bohr. He also learned instructive thinking methods and experimental techniques from these famous teachers, which laid a solid foundation for his subsequent scientific research. Finally, he discovered the quantum exclusion principle and entered the ranks of world-famous physicists. In the spring of 1925, news came from the University of Hamburg that attracted the attention of the world's physics community: a new physical principle-the exclusion principle was born. Its proposer was the 25-year-old Pauli, a little-known young scholar who was teaching at the university at the time. Pauli's exclusion principle can be expressed as follows: In an atom, the four quantum numbers of any two orbital electrons cannot be exactly the same. The Exclusion Principle did not immediately show its value, but Pauli's talent was recognized by society. In 1928, he was appointed professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; in 1935, he was invited to give lectures in the United States. In 1940, he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA. During this period, he also predicted the existence of neutrinos with scientific foresight and won the Planck Medal. It was not until 1945, 20 years after Pauli proposed the incompatibility theory, that the correctness of this theory and its widespread and far-reaching influence were confirmed. The exclusion principle is known as one of the main pillars of quantum mechanics and is a basic law of nature. It made much of the knowledge about atomic structure known at that time coherent. People can use the fourth quantum number introduced by Pauli, which represents the electron spin, to arrange the electrons of various elements according to shells and branch shells, and according to the properties of the elements, it mainly depends on the number of electrons in the outermost layer (valence). This theory gives a scientific explanation to Mendeleev's periodic law of elements. He devoted his life to scientific research and did not get married until he was 34 years old. In 1945, Pauli won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the "exclusion principle" he discovered in 1925 when he was 25 years old. In 1958, he unfortunately died of illness. Pauli became an American citizen in 1946 and was one of the founders of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Pauli's main achievements were in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and elementary particle theory, especially the establishment of Pauli's exclusion principle and the neutrino hypothesis in beta decay, which made important contributions to the development of theoretical physics. contribute.

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1. The godfather of genius

Pauli was born in Vienna in the home of a professor who studied colloidal chemistry. His godfather was the famous Mr. Maher.

Mr. Mach was called the pioneer of the theory of relativity by Einstein - although Mr. Mach did not give Einstein this face, claiming that he believed in the theory of relativity as much as he believed in the molecular theory. As we all know, Mr. Mach was extremely opposed to molecular theory, and this opposition was one of the reasons that made Boltzmann, the genius of statistical physics, finally despair and commit suicide.

2. Outstanding Contributions

A few young people probably think that the name of this prince of physics is only associated with the exclusion principle, and they even think that this principle is only related to quantum mechanics. A corollary. In fact, this principle was proposed in 1925, even before Heisenberg proposed quantum mechanics. Pauli used his genius insight to derive the exclusion principle from a vast sea of ??spectral data, which was even more difficult than Kepler's compilation of planetary orbit data. Pauli's contributions spanned all fields of physics at that time. He participated in the basic construction of quantum mechanics, the basic construction of quantum field theory, and the theory of relativity... In the field of physics, Pauli seemed to be a conqueror rather than a colonizer. Much of this work was not published but remained in private letters. In the letters that can be found today, we find a large number of such examples. His proof of the equivalence of matrix mechanics and wave mechanics was written in his letter to Jordan. The uncertainty principle first appeared in his letter to Heisenberg. In the letter, Dirac's Poisson bracket quantization was independently discovered by Hendrik Kramers, and he pointed out that Pauli had already pointed out the expression method of this commutation relationship. Perhaps the lives of some geniuses are destined to be short. Pauli was born in 1900 and died in 1958, only 3 years later than the emperor in his heart (Einstein 1879-1955). His only regret was that he felt that he had not done anything in his life. Produce great work like his king.

3. Sharp vision

As a physicist, Pauli's vision is quite sharp. For example, in the story Feynman told, Pauli predicted that Wheeler would never be able to generalize the quantum mechanics of the advance-delay potential (as expected, he did not do it). Feynman was really shocked by Pauli's vision afterwards. When Pauli was young, he was probably at his best. When he and Heisenberg met, although they were not the same age, Heisenberg really obeyed his words and seemed to admire him very much. Heisenberg first wanted to work on the theory of relativity. Pauli, who was already a minor expert in the theory of relativity, told Heisenberg that he felt that the recent progress in the theory of relativity was hopeless, but in atomic physics The opportunities are huge. If Heisenberg had done the theory of relativity, it would not be what it is now.

4. Unique Personality

Pauli is known for his rigorous and erudition, and is also known for being sharp and critical. 1. When Pauli was twenty years old, he once went to listen to Einstein’s speech. Sitting in the last row of seats, he asked Einstein some questions. His firepower was so fierce that even Einstein could not withstand it. . It is said that when Einstein gave a speech thereafter, he would scan the last row to see if any familiar figures appeared. There are also rumors that Einstein gave a report at an international conference. After the end, Pauli stood up and said: "I don't think Einstein is completely stupid." 2. Once, after listening to Italian physicist Segre After the report (which later discovered the antiproton), Pauli said: "I have never heard such a bad report as yours." Segre said nothing. Pauli thought for a while, then turned to the Swiss physical chemist Brescher who was traveling with him and said: "If you come to give a report, the situation will be even worse. Of course, except for your last opening ceremony report in Zurich." 3. Once , Pauli wanted to go somewhere but didn't know how to get there, so a colleague told him. Later, when his colleague asked him if he had found it, he said: "When you don't talk about physics, your thinking should be said to be clear." 4. He once criticized a student's paper, "It's not even a mistake." He said to The best evaluation of an article is: "There are almost no mistakes in this chapter." Kronig first proposed the concept of electron spin, but when he took the paper to Pauli, he was scolded because Pauli pointed out that the calculation was not consistent with the theory of relativity. So they didn’t dare to publish this article, which is tragic.

5. Pauli was called "the conscience of physics" by Bohr because his sensitivity, caution and criticality gave him the ability to detect errors at a glance. There is a joke in the physics community that there is a "Pauli effect" - wherever Pauli appears, people there will make mistakes whether they are doing theoretical derivation or experimental operations. 6. The famously bohemian physicist Feynman often had an air of "you don't care what others say" when it came to other people's opinions. However, when someone mentioned Pauli's criticism of contemporary physicists, Feynman couldn't wait to express his opinions. Knowing what kind of judgment Pauli had made on him, Pauli was still as sharp as ever, saying, "That guy Feynman talks like a gangster in New York." Feynman could only laugh after hearing this. 7. Pauli said: "Oh, there's nothing wrong with that." This usually means a high degree of approval. Someone made up a joke: Pauli went to see God after his death, and God showed him his design for the world. After reading it, Pauli shrugged and said, "You could have done better..." The origin of this joke Another version is: After Pauli died, he came to heaven to see God. God showed Pauli his design for the universe. Pauli looked at it for a long time, scratched his head, and said, "I can't find anything wrong." Finally, I would like to add that although Pauli was mean and had sharp language, this did not affect his status in the minds of contemporary physicists. In that most glorious era in the history of physics when geniuses emerged and heroes came together, Pauli, who died young, was still one of the most dazzling stars in the night sky, so much so that long after his death, when there was another new star in the world of physics, When making progress, people often think of him: "I wonder what Pauli would have thought about this if he were still alive. ”

5. Pauli and Experiments

Pauli was probably born unfit for experiments. It is said that wherever he appeared, the laboratory instruments there would malfunction. Once, a certain The boss's laboratory equipment suddenly malfunctioned. They joked that Pauli had not come to this place today. Later, not long after, Pauli told them that the train he took that day stopped briefly in their city at that time.

6. About the status of Pauli and Einstein

For all those who love science, Einstein was simply God in the last century. Bonn once believed that Pauli was. Perhaps he was a better scientist than Einstein, but he added that Pauli was a completely different kind of person, “In my opinion, he cannot be as great as Einstein. "So what did Pauli think of Einstein? In 1945, after Pauli finally got the Nobel that he felt he should have got 20 years ago, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton held a celebration party for Pauli. Love. Einstein congratulated him for his speech at the meeting. Pauli later wrote to Bonn to recall this period, saying, "The scene at that time was like a king of physics sitting in his successor. "Pauli was not polite at all, thinking that he was the successor.

7. The Regret of Genius

The most regretful thing about Pauli's life was that he was recognized as the smartest of his era. A physicist, he did not make an epoch-making discovery. Throughout his life, he liked to comment on other people's things, and he often hit the mark. Unfortunately, he opposed the two most important things in his life, one was the electron spin, [1] and the other was wrong. Parity is not conserved. Maybe a person is too sensitive and has an instinctive resistance to some unconventional ideas.