Herbert Fröhlich: A Physicist Ahead of His Time

283 Pages·2015·14.33 MB·English

by  G. J. Hyland (auth.)

Springer Biographies
G.J. Hyland
Herbert
Fröhlich
A Physicist Ahead of His Time
Springer Biographies
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13617
G.J. Hyland
ö
Herbert Fr hlich
A Physicist Ahead of His Time
ö
With a foreword by Fanchon Fr hlich
123
G.J.Hyland
ex-University of Warwick
Coventry
UK
Springer Biographies
ISBN 978-3-319-14850-2 ISBN 978-3-319-14851-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-14851-9
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015931922
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
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This work is dedicated with esteem
and gratitude to
Fanchon Fröhlich,
philosopher and artist—friend for 50 years
Foreword
It gives me very great pleasure to write a few words of introduction to this biog-
raphy of my late husband, Herbert Fröhlich.
When my good friend of many years, Gerard Hyland, a former student of
Herbert(infacthislastPh.D.student)sharedwithmetheideaforthisbook,Iwas
very happy to give him every assistance in piecing together all the available doc-
umentation and photographs relating to Herbert’s career. It has been a longer
journey than expected—books usually are!—but the result is a work that goes far
beyondasimplenarrativeofoneman’slife.Thisbooktouchesuponawholeeraof
physics research in Europe, setting it in the context of the dramatic political and
military circumstances of the time. Herbert’s experiences, some of which I shared,
clearly reveal how science and scientific curiosity are not to be extinguished by
mere national enmities; how scientists—then as now—form a mutually self-sup-
portingglobalcommunitythatisoftenabletoovercomethewhimsofdictatorsand
other political exigencies in their pursuit of scientific progress.
This biography also details the many interactions Herbert and I had with other
active scientists and their families. (My strongest memories are of Richard Feyn-
man, S.W. Hayter, Maurice Marois, and Erwin Schrödinger). I am filled with
nostalgia as I look at the collected photos, read the anecdotes, and remember not
only the many good times described herein, but also the sometimes more difficult
ones. For the outsider they will be informative rather than emotive, but still a
wonderfulrecordofadecisiveperiodoftwentieth-centuryscienceandsomeofthe
people involved.
Iamnotascientist,andmyunderstandingofHerbert’sworkisnotofatechnical
kind, but rather conceptual, having had the benefit of many discussions with him
after our marriage in 1950, particularly when his ideas about a particular problem
were still being crystallized—discussions that often included a philosophical
dimension.Thereceptionofhisworkandtherespectaccordedhimbythosebetter
qualified than myself to judge its technical merit are ample testimony to its
importance. The reader with a basic education in science will learn more in these
pages about his many and varied contributions. These reveal that Herbert was—
rather like Feynman, some of whose correspondence with my husband is
vii
viii Foreword
reproducedinthisbook—amanofbroadinterests.Hefrequentlybegantoaddress
one topic, which, having achieved some new insights and recorded these for
publication, he would then drop in order to move on to another more challenging
problem.Thesubtitleofthisbiography“APhysicistAheadofHisTime”resonates
withmyimpressionthathefrequentlyleftthejigsawunfinished,butinaformthat
allowed others to come along and complete it at a later date.
IthankGerardforundertakingthisbiography,andforthemarvellousbookthat
has resulted, in which I trust the reader will find enjoyment and inspiration.
December 2014 Fanchon Fröhlich
Acknowledgments
It is a pleasure to fulsomely acknowledge the unstinting help I have received over
very many years from Fröhlich’s widow, Fanchon, in the course of my docu-
mentation of her late husband’s life and work, for providing me with valuable
information and insights into his life and work, and for making available the
photographs included in this biography. I am also indebted to former members of
Fröhlich’s department in Liverpool for sharing their reminiscences with me—in
particular,thelateDr.BrianHolland,thelateDr.RonaldHuby,Dr.HarryNewns,
Dr.CharlesTerreaux—andtootherformercolleagueselsewhere,especiallyDr.Jiri
Pokorný (Prague), Prof. Dr. Fritz Popp (Neuss), and Prof. Geoffrey Sewell
(London).
Thegenealogical assistanceofBarbara Staudacher(Rexingen),andthearchival
assistance of Adrian Allen (former Librarian of Liverpool University), Alan
Franklin (Manx National Heritage), Joanna McManus (Royal Society Librarian),
Dr. Jagdish Mehra (Professor of Science and Humanities at the University of
Houston), Angelika Mundorff (Museum Fürstenfeldbruck), Dr. Gerhard Neumeier
(Stadtarchiv,Fürstenfeldbruck),andJosephineZilberkweit(Liverpool)isgratefully
acknowledged. In addition, I wish to thank Helen Ireland, Peter Larkin, and
Geoffrey Lewis (Warwick University Library), Prof. John Dainton, F.R.S. and
Dr. Peter Rowlands (University of Liverpool), Dr. Brian Pollard (University of
Bristol), and especially Dr. Laurence Caves (Southam), Dr. Mario Micallef
(University of Warwick) and Anthony Teeluck (Hook) for their assistance in
various ways.
I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of the Department of Special Col-
lections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in making available material from the
archivesoftheSocietyfortheProtectionofScienceandLearning,andtothankits
successor organization, the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA), for
permission to reproduce some of the material in this book.
LiberalusehasbeenmadeofunpublishedinterviewswithFröhlich,recordedby
Profs. Haken and Wagner in Stuttgart, during the 1980s, which Fröhlich made
ix
x Acknowledgments
available to me to supplement those recorded by myself in Liverpool around the
same time.
The collaboration during the 1970s with Prof. George Rowlands, a fellow
memberoftheDepartmentofPhysicsattheUniversityofWarwick,andwithProf.
Fred Cummings of the University of California at Riverside in extending some
aspects of Fröhlich’s work on superfluid He4 is remembered with pleasure.
It is a particular pleasure to thank my old friend and former colleague Claudio
Ronchi for encouraging me to approach Springer Verlag, and to gratefully
acknowledge the invaluable editorial assistance of Dr. Angela Lahee (Springer
Verlag, Heidelberg) and of Charles Rayappan and Gajalakshmi Sundaram (Scien-
tific Publishing Services, Chennai, India).
Finally, I wish to sincerely thank my wife, Mercedes, for her help with proof-
reading, the compilation of the index, and general word-processing matters.