Theoretical physicist — Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (1868–1951) was a German theoretical physicist, born in Königsberg and active chiefly in Munich. He refined Bohr’s atomic model by introducing elliptical orbits and relativistic corrections, managing to explain the fine structure of atomic spectra and introducing the fine-structure constant. He was a legendary teacher of physics: his school produced numerous Nobel laureates, including Heisenberg and Pauli. He also contributed to the theory of metals with a quantum model of electrons. Although nominated many times, he never received the Nobel Prize, a case often cited as one of the great omissions in the history of the prize.
Fun fact
He is the physicist with the greatest number of students who went on to become Nobel laureates, despite never having won the prize himself in spite of dozens of nominations.
Theories and contributions
- Bohr-Sommerfeld atomic model — Extension of Bohr’s model with elliptical orbits and quantisation, able to explain the fine structure of spectra.
- Fine-structure constant — Dimensionless constant that measures the strength of the electromagnetic interaction: .
- Sommerfeld model of metals — Quantum treatment of the free-electron gas in metals, based on Fermi-Dirac statistics.
Featured in chapters
Linked atoms
1 linked atoms.