London, Fritz

London was born in Breslau , Silesia , Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) in 1900 in the family of Franz London (1863-1917). After the Nazis came to power, he loses his post at the University of Berlin due to Jewish descent. Occupying temporary positions in England and France, he finally emigrated to the United States in 1939. In 1945, he received US citizenship. Later, until the end of his life, he was a professor at Duke University . In 1953 he was awarded the Lorenz medal . London died in 1954 in the city of Durham , North Carolina.

The early work of London ^[4] , written in collaboration with Walter Heitler , was the first article in quantum chemistry in the world. The article was the first to correctly explain the bond in homonuclear molecules such as H ₂ . It is not surprising that the work of Heitler-London appeared shortly after the creation of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg and Schrödinger , because quantum mechanics was a key theory in their description of covalent bonds . Another principle necessary for this theory was the principle of the indistinguishability of electrons.

Another early work in London concerned the field of intermolecular interaction . He introduced the concept of “dispersion effect” for the attraction between atoms of two rarefied gases at large (about 1 nm ) distances from each other. Currently, these forces of attraction are called " London forces ." In 1930, he (together with R. Ezenschitz ^[5] ) gives an explanation of the interaction between the atoms of two inert gases , which consists in attraction at large distances, and in repulsion - at small. Esenschitz and London showed that such a repulsion is caused by the antisymmetry of the wave function to the permutation of electrons. The presence of such antisymmetry is required by the Pauli principle and is a consequence of the fact that electrons are fermions .

For atoms and non-polar molecules , London dispersion forces are the only intermolecular forces. They are responsible for the existence of matter in liquid and solid states. For polar molecules, the London force is one of the constituents of the van der Waals forces, along with the forces between the constant dipole moments of the molecules.

Fritz London was the first theoretical physicist to make the fundamental and controversial assumption at the time that superfluidity was inherently related to Einstein boson condensation, an effect now known as Bose-Einstein condensation . Bose showed that the statistics of massless photons can also be applied to massive particles, however, he did not consider the theory of boson condensation.

London is also among the first authors (including Schrödinger ) to correctly describe the principle of gauge invariance in the context of the then new quantum mechanics

London predicted the effect of quantization of magnetic flux in superconductors and in 1935, together with his brother Heinz, proposed a description of the electrodynamics of superconductors. The additional equation they introduced was called the equation of London . London has also developed a theory of the behavior of a rotating superconductor - such a superconductor generates a magnetic field (London moment). This effect is used in models of rotational dynamics of neutron stars .

Since 1956, lectures in memory of Fritz London have been held at Duke University , and a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of low-temperature physics is awarded a prize in his name. In 1972, two-time Nobel Prize winner in physics, John Bardin established a foundation to support the Fritz London lectures and prizes ^{[6] [7]} .

• Heitler W., London F. Wechselwirkung neutraler Atome und homöopolare Bindung nach der Quantenmechanik (German) // Zeitschrift für Physik : Journal. - 1927. - H. 44 . - S. 455-472 .
• Über das Verhältnis der van der Waalsschen Kräfte zu de homöopolaren Bindungskräften (German) // Zeitschrift für Physik: journal. - 1930 .-- H. 60 . - S. 491 .
• London F., London. H. The electromagnetic equations of the supraconductor // Proc. Roy. Soc. : magazine. - 1935. - Iss. 149 . - P. 71-88 .
• London F. Macroscopical interpretation of supraconductivity (English) // Proc. Roy. Soc. : magazine. - 1935. - Iss. 152 . - P. 24-24 .
• London F. A new conception of supraconductivity (English) // Nature : Journal. - 1937. - Iss. 140 . - P. 793-7 .
• London F. Superfluids. - Wiley and Sons , 1950. - T. I.
• London F. Superfluids. - Wiley and Sons , 1954. - T. II.

• Gavroglu K. Fritz London: A Scientific Biography. - Cambridge University Press, 1995. - ISBN 0-521-43273-1 .
• Matricon J., Waysand G. The cold wars: A history of Superconductivity = La guerre du froid: Une histoire de la superconductivite. - Rutgers University Press. - 2003.
• Publications of Fritz London (inaccessible link) . Duke University . Date of treatment December 3, 2012. Archived December 12, 2012.

• Temples Yu.A. London Fritz // Physicists: Biographical Reference / Ed. A.I. Akhiezer . - Ed. 2nd, rev. and add. - M .: Nauka , 1983 .-- S. 169. - 400 p. - 200,000 copies. (in per.)