Pauli was born inVienna to achemist,Wolfgang Josef Pauli [de] (né Wolf Pascheles, 1869–1955), and his wife, Bertha Camilla Schütz; his sister wasHertha Pauli, a writer and actress. Pauli's middle name was given in honor of hisgodfather, physicistErnst Mach. Pauli's paternal grandparents were from prominent Jewish families ofPrague; his great-grandfather was the Jewish publisherWolf Pascheles.[8] Pauli's mother, Bertha Schütz, was raised in her mother's Roman Catholic religion; her father was Jewish writerFriedrich Schütz. Pauli was raised as aRoman Catholic.[9]
Sommerfeld asked Pauli to review thetheory of relativity for theEncyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften (Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences). Two months after receiving his doctorate, Pauli completed the article, which came to 237 pages. Einstein praised it; published as amonograph, it remains a standard reference on the subject.[11]
At the end of 1930, shortly after his postulation of theneutrino and immediately after his divorce and his mother's suicide, Pauli experienced a personal crisis. In January 1932 he consulted psychiatrist and psychotherapistCarl Jung, who also lived nearZürich. Jung immediately began interpreting Pauli's deeplyarchetypal dreams and Pauli became a collaborator of Jung's. He soon began to critique theepistemology of Jung's theory scientifically, and this contributed to a certain clarification of Jung's ideas, especially aboutsynchronicity. A great many of these discussions are documented in the Pauli/Jung letters, today published asAtom and Archetype. Jung's elaborate analysis of more than 400 of Pauli's dreams is documented inPsychology and Alchemy. In 1933 Pauli published the second part of his book on physics,Handbuch der Physik, which was considered the definitive book on the new field of quantum physics.Robert Oppenheimer called it "the only adult introduction to quantum mechanics."[14]
TheGerman annexation of Austria in 1938 made Pauli a German citizen, which became a problem for him in 1939 after World War II broke out. In 1940, he tried in vain to obtain Swiss citizenship, which would have allowed him to remain at the ETH.[15]
In 1940, Pauli moved to the United States, where he was employed as a professor of theoretical physics at theInstitute for Advanced Study. In 1946, after the war, he became anaturalized U.S. citizen and returned to Zürich, where he mostly remained for the rest of his life. In 1949, he was granted Swiss citizenship.
In 1958, Pauli was awarded theMax Planck medal. The same year, he fell ill withpancreatic cancer. When his last assistant, Charles Enz, visited him at the Rotkreuz hospital in Zürich, Pauli asked him, "Did you see the room number?" It was 137. Throughout his life, Pauli had been preoccupied with the question of why thefine-structure constant, adimensionless fundamental constant, has a value nearly equal to 1/137.[16] Pauli died in that room on 15 December 1958.[17][18]
Pauli made many important contributions as a physicist, primarily in the field ofquantum mechanics. He seldom published papers, preferring lengthy correspondences with colleagues such asNiels Bohr from theUniversity of Copenhagen in Denmark andWerner Heisenberg, with whom he had close friendships. Many of his ideas and results were never published and appeared only in his letters, which were often copied and circulated by their recipients. In 1921 Pauli worked with Bohr to create theAufbau Principle, which described building up electrons in shells based on the German word for building up, as Bohr was also fluent in German.
Pauli proposed in 1924 a new quantum degree of freedom (orquantum number) with two possible values, to resolve inconsistencies between observed molecular spectra and the developing theory of quantum mechanics. He formulated the Pauli exclusion principle, perhaps his most important work, which stated that no two electrons could exist in the same quantum state, identified by four quantum numbers including his new two-valued degree of freedom. The idea of spin originated withRalph Kronig. A year later,George Uhlenbeck andSamuel Goudsmit identified Pauli's new degree of freedom aselectronspin, in which Pauli for a very long time wrongly refused to believe.[19]
In 1926, shortly after Heisenberg published thematrix theory of modernquantum mechanics, Pauli used it to derive the observedspectrum of thehydrogen atom. This result was important in securing credibility for Heisenberg's theory.
Pauli introduced the 2×2Pauli matrices as a basis of spin operators, thus solving the nonrelativistic theory of spin. This work, including thePauli equation, is sometimes said to have influencedPaul Dirac in his creation of theDirac equation for therelativistic electron, though Dirac said that he invented these same matrices himself independently at the time. Dirac invented similar but larger (4x4) spin matrices for use in his relativistic treatment offermionic spin.
In 1930, Pauli considered the problem ofbeta decay. In a letter of 4 December toLise Meitneret al., beginning, "Dear radioactive ladies and gentlemen", he proposed the existence of a hitherto unobserved neutral particle with a small mass, no greater than 1% the mass of a proton, to explain the continuous spectrum of beta decay. In 1934,Enrico Fermi incorporated the particle, which he called aneutrino, "little neutral one" in Fermi's native Italian, into his theory of beta decay. The neutrino was first confirmed experimentally in 1956 byFrederick Reines andClyde Cowan, two and a half years before Pauli's death. On receiving the news, he replied by telegram: "Thanks for message. Everything comes to him who knows how to wait. Pauli."[20]
In 1940, Pauli re-derived thespin-statistics theorem, a critical result of quantum field theory that states that particles with half-integer spin arefermions, while particles with integer spin arebosons.
In 1949, he published a paper onPauli–Villars regularization: regularization is the term for techniques that modify infinite mathematical integrals to make them finite during calculations, so that one can identify whether the intrinsically infinite quantities in the theory (mass, charge, wavefunction) form a finite and hence calculable set that can be redefined in terms of their experimental values, which criterion is termedrenormalization, and which removes infinities fromquantum field theories, but also importantly allows the calculation of higher-order corrections in perturbation theory.
Paul Drude in 1900 proposed the first theoretical model for aclassicalelectron moving through a metallic solid. Drude's classical model was also augmented by Pauli and other physicists. Pauli realized that the free electrons in metal must obey theFermi–Dirac statistics. Using this idea, he developed the theory ofparamagnetism in 1926. Pauli said, "Festkörperphysik ist eine Schmutzphysik"—solid-state physics is the physics of dirt.[24]
ThePauli effect was named after his anecdotal bizarre ability to break experimental equipment simply by being in its vicinity. Pauli was aware of his reputation and was delighted whenever the Pauli effect manifested. These strange occurrences were in line with his controversial investigations into the legitimacy ofparapsychology, particularly his collaboration withC. G. Jung onsynchronicity.[26]Max Born considered Pauli "only comparable to Einstein himself... perhaps even greater". Einstein declared Pauli his "spiritual heir".[27]
Pauli was famously a perfectionist. This extended not just to his own work, but also to that of his colleagues. As a result, he became known in the physics community as the "conscience of physics", the critic to whom his colleagues were accountable. He could be scathing in his dismissal of any theory he found lacking, often labelling itganz falsch, "utterly wrong".
But this was not his most severe criticism, which he reserved for theories or theses so unclearly presented as to be untestable or unevaluatable and thus not properly belonging within the realm of science, even though posing as such. They were worse than wrong because they could not be proved wrong. Famously, he once said of such an unclear paper: "It isnot even wrong!"[1]
His supposed remark when meeting another leading physicist,Paul Ehrenfest, illustrates this notion of an arrogant Pauli. The two met at a conference for the first time. Ehrenfest was familiar with Pauli's papers and quite impressed with them. After a few minutes of conversation, Ehrenfest remarked, "I think I like your Encyclopedia article [on relativity theory] better than I like you," to which Pauli retorted, "That's strange. With me, regarding you, it is just the opposite."[28] The two became very good friends from then on.
A somewhat warmer picture emerges from this story, which appears in the article on Dirac:
Werner Heisenberg [inPhysics and Beyond, 1971] recollects a friendly conversation among young participants at the 1927Solvay Conference, about Einstein andPlanck's views on religion. Wolfgang Pauli, Heisenberg, and Dirac took part in it. Dirac's contribution was a poignant and clear criticism of the political manipulation of religion, that was much appreciated for its lucidity by Bohr, when Heisenberg reported it to him later. Among other things, Dirac said: "I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest – and as scientists honesty is our precise duty – we cannot help but admit that any religion is a pack of false statements, deprived of any real foundation. The very idea of God is a product of human imagination. [ ... ] I do not recognize any religious myth, at least because they contradict one another. [ ... ]" Heisenberg's view was tolerant. Pauli had kept silent, after some initial remarks. But when finally he was asked for his opinion, jokingly he said: "Well, I'd say that also our friend Dirac has got a religion and the first commandment of this religion is 'God does not exist and Paul Dirac is his prophet'". Everybody burst into laughter, including Dirac.[29]
Many of Pauli's ideas and results were never published and appeared only in his letters, which were often copied and circulated by their recipients. Pauli may have been unconcerned that much of his work thus went uncredited, but when it came to Heisenberg's world-renowned 1958 lecture at Göttingen on their joint work on a unified field theory, and the press release calling Pauli a mere "assistant to Professor Heisenberg", Pauli became offended, denouncing Heisenberg's physics prowess. The deterioration of their relationship resulted in Heisenberg ignoring Pauli's funeral, and writing in his autobiography that Pauli's criticisms were overwrought, though ultimately the field theory was proved untenable, validating Pauli's criticisms.[30]
George Gamow wrote that "it is just as difficult to find the branch of modern physics in which the Pauli Principle is not used as to find a man as gifted, amiable, and amusing as Wolfgang Pauli was."[31]
In his discussions withCarl Jung, Pauli developed an ontological theory that has been dubbed the "Pauli–Jung Conjecture" and has been seen as a kind ofdual-aspect theory. The theory holds that there is "a psychophysically neutral reality" and that mental and physical aspects are derivative of this reality.[32] Pauli thought that elements of quantum physics pointed to a deeper reality that might explain the mind/matter gap and wrote, "we must postulate a cosmic order of nature beyond our control to whichboth the outward material objectsand the inward images are subject."[33]
Pauli and Jung held that this reality was governed by common principles ("archetypes") that appear as psychological phenomena or as physical events.[34] They also held thatsynchronicities might reveal some of this underlying reality's workings.[34][33]
He is considered to have been adeist and amystic. InNo Time to Be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli he is quoted as writing to science historianShmuel Sambursky, "In opposition to the monotheist religions – but in unison with the mysticism of all peoples, including the Jewish mysticism – I believe that the ultimate reality is not personal."[35][36]
In 1929, Pauli married Käthe Margarethe Deppner, a cabaret dancer.[37] The marriage was unhappy, ending in divorce after less than a year. He married again in 1934 to Franziska Bertram (1901–1987). They had no children.
Pauli W,General Principles of Quantum Mechanics,Springer, 1980.
Pauli W,Lectures on Physics, 6 vols,Dover, 2000. Vol 1:Electrodynamics Vol 2:Optics and the Theory of Electrons Vol 3:Thermodynamics and the Kinetic Theory of Gases Vol 4:Statistical Mechanics Vol 5:Wave Mechanics Vol 6:Selected Topics in Field Quantization
Pauli W,Meson Theory of Nuclear Forces, 2nd ed, Interscience Publishers, 1948.
^Charles Paul Enz:No Time to be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli, first published 2002, reprinted 2004,ISBN978-0-19-856479-9,p. 338
^Sherbon, M.A. Wolfgang Pauli and the Fine-Structure Constant. Journal of Science. Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 148–154 (2012).
^ab"By a 'cabalistic' coincidence, Wolfgang Pauli died in room 137 of the Red-Cross hospital at Zurich on 15 December 1958." – Of Mind and Spirit, Selected Essays of Charles Enz, Charles Paul Enz, World Scientific, 2009,ISBN978-981-281-900-0, p. 95.
^Enz, Charles; Meyenn, Karl von (1994). "Wolfgang Pauli, A Biographical Introduction".Writings on Physics and Philosophy. Springer-Verlag: 19.
^Pauli, W. (1954). "Naturwissenschaftliche und erkenntnistheoretische Aspekte der Ideen vom Unbewussten".Dialectica.8 (4):283–301.doi:10.1111/j.1746-8361.1954.tb01265.x.
^Harald Atmanspacher and Hans Primas (1996) "The Hidden Side of Wolfgang Pauli: An Eminent Physicist's Extraordinary Encounter With Depth Psychology'",Journal of Consciousness Studies 3: 112–126.
^Arthur I. Miller (10 December 2009)."The strange friendship of Pauli and Jung – Part 6"(flv).CERN. University College London. pp. 4–6:00, 8:10–8:50.Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. ... a press release that read, most offensively to Pauli, 'Professor Heisenberg and his assistant W. Pauli ...
^Gamow, George (1966).Thirty Years That Shook Physics. p. 79.
^abAtmanspacher, Harald and Primas, Hans (1995)The Hidden Side of Wolfgang Pauli. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, No. 2, 1996, pp. 112–26.
^Charles Paul Enz (2002).No Time to Be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-856479-9.At the same time Pauli writes on 11 October 1957 to the science historian Shmuel Sambursky whom he had met on his trip to Israel (see Ref. [7], p. 964): 'In opposition to the monotheist religions – but in unison with the mysticism of all peoples, including the Jewish mysticism – I believe that the ultimate reality is not personal.'
^Werner Heisenberg (2007).Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science. HarperCollins. pp. 214–215.ISBN978-0-06-120919-2.Wolfgang shared my concern. ... "Einstein's conception is closer to mine. His God is somehow involved in the immutable laws of nature. Einstein has a feeling for the central order of things. He can detect it in the simplicity of natural laws. We may take it that he felt this simplicity very strongly and directly during his discovery of the theory of relativity. Admittedly, this is a far cry from the contents of religion. I don't believe Einstein is tied to any religious tradition, and I rather think the idea of a personal God is entirely foreign to him."
^Shifman Misha (2017).Standing Together in Troubled Times: Unpublished Letters Of Pauli, Einstein, Franck And Others. World Scientific. p. 4.ISBN978-981-320-103-3.
Enz, Charles P. (2002).No Time to be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli. Oxford Univ. Press.ISBN978-0-19-856479-9.
Enz, Charles P. (1995). "Rationales und Irrationales im Leben Wolfgang Paulis". In H. Atmanspacher; et al. (eds.).Der Pauli-Jung-Dialog. Berlin:Springer-Verlag.
Enz, P.; von Meyenn, Karl, eds. (1994).Wolfgang Pauli – Writings on Physics and Philosophy. Translated by Schlapp, Robert. Berlin: Springer Verlag.ISBN978-3-540-56859-9.
Laurikainen, K. V. (1988).Beyond the Atom – The Philosophical Thought of Wolfgang Pauli. Berlin: Springer Verlag.ISBN978-0-387-19456-1.
Remo, F. Roth:Return of the World Soul, Wolfgang Pauli, C.G. Jung and the Challenge of Psychophysical Reality [unus mundus], Part 1: The Battle of the Giants. Pari Publishing, 2011,ISBN978-88-95604-12-1.
Remo, F. Roth:Return of the World Soul, Wolfgang Pauli, C.G. Jung and the Challenge of Psychophysical Reality [unus mundus], Part 2: A Psychophysical Theory. Pari Publishing, 2012,ISBN978-88-95604-16-9.
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