Wolfgang Pauli

Short Description of Topic

Early Life and Education

Born April 25, 1900, Wolfgang Pauli was born and raised in Vienna. After completing his early education in Vienna, he studied under Arnold Sommerfield at the University of Munich. He earned his doctorate in 1921 and was an assistant to Max Born, Nobel Prize Winner in 1954 for Physics, at the University of Göttingen. In 1922, Pauli served as the assistant to Niels Bohr, another prominent physicist at the time, in Copenhagen. After serving as a lecturer at the University of Hamburg, Pauli was appointed as Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He soon progressed to the position of visiting professor at Princeton, University of Michigan, and Purdue University. After the end of World War II, Pauli returned to Zurich to continue his work at the university.

Research and discoveries

Described as one of the leaders of twentieth century physicists, even in his early twenties, Pauli's understanding of topics such as the theory of relativity, led him to early fame. The Pauli Exclusion Principle is his most recognized work, along other discoveries, such as being the first to recognize the existence of the neutrino.

Pauli Exclusion Principle

According to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, no two electrons in an atom can have the same quantum numbers. There are four electronic quantum numbers (n,l,m(l), and m(s)). The spin must always be different. The spin is formed by fermions and bosons. Fermions are particles of half-integer spin. Bosons are particles with integer spin. This means that if the fermions are identical, the bosons must be different, and vice versa.

History

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See also

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Further reading

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External links

For a more detailed explanation regarding fermions and bosons, the link below has a great visual! http://www.particleadventure.org/pauli.html

References

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/index.html http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1945/pauli-bio.html

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