Citizendia

Carl Henry Eckart (May 4, 1902 in St. Louis, Missouri – October 23, 1973 in La Jolla, California) was an American physicist, physical oceanographer, geophysicist, and administrator. Events 1256 - The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV Year 1902 ( MCMII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Missouri ( or) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee Events 4004 BC - Creation of the world begins according to the calculations of Archbishop James Ussher 42 BC - Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. La Jolla (ləˈhɔɪə "luh-HOY-uh") is a wealthy Seaside resort community of up to 42808 residents within the city of San Diego, California California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the He co-developed the Wigner-Eckart theorem and is also known for the Eckart conditions in quantum mechanics. The Wigner-Eckart theorem is a Theorem of Representation theory and Quantum mechanics. The Eckart conditions, named after Carl Eckart, sometimes referred to as Sayvetz conditions, simplify the nuclear motion (rovibrational Schrödinger equation that [1]

Contents

Education

Eckart began college in 1919 at Washington University in St. Louis where he received his B. Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common S. and M. S. degrees with a major in engineering. However, due to Arthur Holly Compton, a physics faculty member and latter Chancellor, Eckart was influenced to continue his education in physics at Princeton, where he went in 1923 on an Edison Lamp Works Research Fellowship. Arthur Holly Compton (September 10 1892 &ndash March 15 1962 was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Eckart was awarded his Ph. D. in 1925. Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [2] [3] [4]

During his graduate studies, Eckart co-authored a paper with Karl Compton,[5] brother of Arthur Compton on low-voltage arcs, particularly the oscillatory phenomena arising in the diffusion of electrons against low-voltage fields. Karl Taylor Compton ( September 14, 1887 &ndash June 22, 1954) was a prominent American Physicist and president of He continued this line of work after receipt of his Ph. D. on a National Research Council Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) during the period 1925 to 1927. The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [6] Max Born, Director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Georg-August University of Göttingen and co-developer of the matrix mechanics formulation of quantum mechanics with Werner Heisenberg,[7] came to Caltech in the winter of 1925 and gave a lecture on his work. Max Born (11 December 1882 &ndash 5 January 1970 was a German Physicist and Mathematician who was instrumental in the development of Quantum The University of Göttingen ( German: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) is a University in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Matrix mechanics is a formulation of Quantum mechanics created by Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan in 1925 Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the Atomic scale such as Molecules Atoms Electrons Werner Heisenberg (5 December 1901 in Würzburg &ndash1 February 1976 in Munich) was a German theoretical physicist best known for enunciating the Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Born’s lecture gave Eckart the impetus to investigate the possible general operator formalism for quantum mechanics. Working into early 1926, Eckart developed the formalism. When Erwin Schrödinger’s first paper[8] in the series of four[9] [10] [11] on the wave mechanics formulation of quantum mechanics was published in January, Eckart soon realized that the matrix formulation and wave formulation of quantum mechanics were equivalent; he submitted his paper[12] to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America for publication. In Physics, especially Quantum mechanics, the Schrödinger equation is an equation that describes how the Quantum state of a Physical system The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United However, it was communicated on May 31, 1926, and Schrödinger’s paper[13] on the equivalence was received on March 18, 1926, thus giving him credit for the realization. [14] In 1927 Eckart received a Guggenheim Fellowship to do postdoctoral study and research with Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, one of the three main centers for the development of quantum mechanics, the others being Göttingen under Born and the University of Copenhagen under Niels Bohr. Year 1927 ( MCMXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (5 December 1868 &ndash 26 April 1951 was a German theoretical Physicist who pioneered developments in atomic The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München also known as LMU, is a University in Munich and with more The University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet is the oldest and largest University and research institution in Denmark. Niels Henrik David Bohr (nels ˈb̥oɐ̯ˀ in Danish 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962 was a Danish Physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding Also at Munich simultaneous with Eckart were Rudolf Peierls, and two other Guggenheim Fellows, Edwin C. Kemble and William V. Houston. Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, ( June 5 1907, Berlin &ndash September 19 1995, Oxford) was a German -born British Edwin Crawford Kemble ( January 28, 1889 in Delaware, Ohio &ndash March 12, 1984) was an American Physicist William Vermillion Houston (January 19 1900 in Mount Gilead, Ohio, U [15] [16] In Munich, Eckart worked on the quantum mechanical behavior of simple oscillators using the Schrödinger equation and on operator calculus related to the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics. In Physics, especially Quantum mechanics, the Schrödinger equation is an equation that describes how the Quantum state of a Physical system He also applied his work to the theory of electrons and the conductivity of metals using Fermi statistics, and he co-authored a paper[17] on the subject with Sommerfeld and William V. Houston. Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (5 December 1868 &ndash 26 April 1951 was a German theoretical Physicist who pioneered developments in atomic William Vermillion Houston (January 19 1900 in Mount Gilead, Ohio, U [18]

Career

University of Chicago

Returning to the United States in 1928, Eckart was appointed Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Chicago, where he continued his work on quantum mechanics for another 14 years. Year 1928 ( MCMXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The University of Chicago is a Private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Noteworthy was a paper co-authored with Helmut Hönl, who received his doctorate under Sommerfeld in 1926; the paper, on the foundations of quantum mechanics, dealt with the role of group theory in quantum dynamics in monatomic systems and comparisons of the nuclear theories of Werner Heisenberg and Eugene Wigner. Helmut Hönl (1903 in Mannheim, Germany &ndash 1981 was a German theoretical Physicist who made contributions to Quantum mechanics and the Werner Heisenberg (5 December 1901 in Würzburg &ndash1 February 1976 in Munich) was a German theoretical physicist best known for enunciating the Eugene Paul "EP" Wigner ( Hungarian Wigner Pál Jenő) ( November 17, 1902 &ndash January 1, 1995) was a During this period, Eckart developed his formulation of the Wigner-Eckart theorem – a link between symmetry transformation groups applied to the Schrödinger equation and the laws of conservation of energy, momentum, and angular momentum. The Wigner-Eckart theorem is a Theorem of Representation theory and Quantum mechanics. The theorem is particularly useful in spectroscopy. Spectroscopy was originally the study of the interaction between Radiation and Matter as a function of Wavelength (λ With F. C. Hoyt, Eckart translated[19] Heisenberg’s book on the physical principles of quantum mechanics. During the 1934-1935 academic year, Eckart took a sabbatical at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey, as he also did in the academic years 1952-1953 and 1960-1961. Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton New Jersey, United States is a center for theoretical research New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. Year 1952 ( MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [20] [21]

In December 1938 in Germany, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann conducted an experiment which pointed towards the fission of uranium. Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Otto Hahn (8 March 1879 &ndash 28 July 1968 was a German Chemist who received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering Nuclear fission Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Strassman ( February 22, 1902 - April 22, 1980) was a German chemist who with Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing Free neutrons and other smaller nuclei which may Uranium (jʊˈreɪniəm is a silvery-gray Metallic Chemical element in the They communicated their results to their former colleague Lisa Meitner, who had fled Germany earlier in the year. Lise Meitner (7 or 17 November 1878 &ndash 27 October 1968 was an Austrian born later Swedish physicist who studied Radioactivity and Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. In January 1939, Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch correctly interpreted the experimental results as the fission of uranium. Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Otto Robert Frisch ( 1 October 1904 &ndash 22 September 1979) Austrian British Physicist. News of the discovery spread very rapidly. With the potential of making a fission-based atomic weapon and the threat of war in Europe, this caused anxiety in many, Leó Szilárd for example, that Germany would develop an atomic weapon. Leó Szilárd (Szilárd Leó February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was an Hungarian - American Physicist who As a result of two meetings with Albert Einstein, the first with Szilárd and Eugene Wigner and the second with Szilárd and Edward Teller, Einstein signed the Einstein-Szilárd letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in August. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Eugene Paul "EP" Wigner ( Hungarian Wigner Pál Jenő) ( November 17, 1902 &ndash January 1, 1995) was a Edward Teller (original Hungarian name Teller Ede) (January 15 1908 &ndash September 9 2003 was a Hungarian -American theoretical Physicist The Einstein-Szilárd letter was a letter sent to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 2 1939 signed by Albert Einstein but largely written by Leó World War II broke out in Europe in September. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The letter was delivered to FDR in October by economist and banker Alexander Sachs. Alexander Sachs ( August 1, 1893 - June 23, 1973) was an American economist and banker In response to the letter, the Uranium Committee was formed that month. The S-1 Uranium Committee was a Committee of the National Defense Research Committee that superseded the Briggs Advisory Committee on Uranium and later evolved into The Committee was organized into subsections by topic. The Theoretical Aspects Subsection, chaired by Enrico Fermi, was located at the University of Chicago, and Eckart was a member of it. [22] However, in 1941, Eckart withdrew from the Committee because of his anti-atomic bomb sentiments. Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [23] [24]

University of California at San Diego

With the entry of the United States into WW II in December 1941, there was increased incentive for the scientific community to participate in the war effort. Axis submarines were exacting a toll on allied shipping, and university scientists were being approached by the U. S. Navy concerning optical and acoustical detection of submarines. B. O. Knudsen, director of the newly formed University of California Division of War Research, and his associate L. P. Delsasso approached Eckart for help. Eckart (an Associate Professor) took leave from the University of Chicago to work on the problem, thus beginning his 31-year stay in California. From 1942, he was assistant director of the Division of War Research, and eventually he was director, a position he held until 1946. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [25] [26]


In 1946, Eckart officially resigned his position at the University of Chicago to become a professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), a position he held until 1971. Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography or just Scripps) in La Jolla California, is one of the The University of California San Diego (popularly known as UC San Diego or UCSD) is a public Research university in San Diego, California Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. In 1946 he also became the first director of the Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) of the University of California. Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The MPL was founded by Eckart, Roper Revelle, and Admiral Rawson Bennett to conduct geophysical research of common interest to the academic and naval communities. In 1948, the MPL became an integral part of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, with Eckart serving as director until 1952. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1952 ( MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Eckart contributed to geophysics by linking theoretical hydrodynamic exercises to actual physical properties of water. In the following decades he did research on thermal layering in the ocean and atmospheres on which he wrote a book, the transmission of sound in the sea, turbulence, air-sea interactions, the generation and structure of surface, and internal ocean waves. [27] [28]

After WW II, Eckart collected his work and the work of others on underwater detection and published it a classified volume entitled Principles and Applications of Underwater Sound, which was first published in 1946. It was declassified in 1954 and reprinted in 1968. Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It is a standard reference. [29]

During the period 1957 to 1959, Eckart was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s series on applied mathematics and mechanics. Year 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar) The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. From 1959 through 1970, he was also a consultant for commercial enterprises such as General Dynamics Corporation and the Rand Corporation. The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. General Dynamics Corporation ( is a defense conglomerate formed by Mergers and Divestitures and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest Defense contractor The RAND Corporation ( R esearch AN d D evelopment is a Nonprofit global policy Think tank first formed to offer research and analysis [30]

From 1965 to 1967, Eckart was vice-chancellor for academic affairs at the UCSD. Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. He then served the University of California, from 1967 to 1968, as alternate representative to the Institute for Defense Analyses, which was made up of 12 member universities and functioned as an independent source for studies and advice for the Department of Defense. Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA is a non-profit corporation that administers three Federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs to assist the United States The United States Department of Defense ( DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government [31]

Eckart contributed to the posthumous publication of some works by the mathematician John von Neumann. [32]

Personal

Eckart married Edith Louise nee Frazee in 1926; they were divorced in 1948. Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1958, he married Klara Dan von Neumann, the widow of the mathematician John von Neumann; Klara died in 1963 in a drowning accident. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [33] [34]

Honors

Books

Selected Literature

References

Notes

  1. ^ C. Eckart, Some studies concerning rotating axes and polyatomic molecules, Physical Review 47 552-558 (1935).
  2. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  3. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  4. ^ Author Catalog: Eckart – American Philosophical Society
  5. ^ K. T. Compton and Carl Eckart The Diffusion of Electrons Against an Electric Field in the Non-Oscillatory Abnormal Low Voltage Arc, Phys. Rev. 25 (2) 139 - 146 (1925). Palmer Physical Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, Received 29 October 1924.
  6. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  7. ^ Heisenberg was granted his doctorate under Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich in 1923 and completed his Habilitation under Max Born at the Georg-August University of Göttingen in 1924. Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (5 December 1868 &ndash 26 April 1951 was a German theoretical Physicist who pioneered developments in atomic Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and Asian countries
  8. ^ 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]
  9. ^ 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]
  10. ^ Erwin Schrödinger (From the German) Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem (Third Communication), Annalen der Physik 80 (13) 437-490, 1926.
  11. ^ 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]
  12. ^ Eckart Paper – Carl Eckart The Solution of the Problem of the Simple Oscillator by a Combination of the Schrödinger and the Lanczos Theories, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 12 473-476 (1926). Cornelius Lanczos ( Lánczos Kornél) (approximate pronunciation 'LAHNT-sawsh') born Löwy Kornél ( February 2, 1893 The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United California Institute of Technology. Communicated May 31, 1926.
  13. ^ Erwin Schrödinger Über das Verhältnis der Heisenberg-Born-Jordanschen Quantenmechanik zu der meinen (Translated from the German: On the Relationship of the Heisenberg-Born-Jordan Quantum Mechanics to Mine) Annalen der Physik 79 (8) 734-756, 1926. Received March 18, 1926. [English translation in Gunter Ludwig Wave Mechanics 127-150 (Pergamon Press, 1968) ISBN 08-103204-8]
  14. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  15. ^ Arnold Sommerfeld Some Reminiscences of My Teaching Career, American Journal of Physics 17 (5) 315-316 (1949)
  16. ^ Sommerfeld Biography – American Philosophical Society
  17. ^ A. Sommerfeld, W. V. Houston, and C. Eckart, Zeits. f. Physik 47, 1 (1928)
  18. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  19. ^ Werner Heisenberg, Translated by Carl Eckart and F. C. Hoyt The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (Dover, 1930)
  20. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  21. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  22. ^ Uranium Committee
  23. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  24. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  25. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  26. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  27. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  28. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  29. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  30. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  31. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  32. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  33. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  34. ^ Eckart Papers – Library of Congress
  35. ^ Eckart Biography – The National Academies Press
  36. ^ DTIC
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