What is Arnold Sommerfeld?
[[File:Sommerfeld,Arnold 1935 Stuttgart.jpg|thumb|Arnold Sommerfeld (1935)]] '''Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld''' (December 5, 1868 in [[Königsberg]], East Prussia &ndash; April 26, 1951 in [[Munich]]) was a [[Germans|German]] [[mathematician]] and theoretical [[physicist]]. ==Education== Sommerfeld was the son of a practical physician. After finishing school in 1886, he started studying mathematics at the [[University of Königsberg]]. In 1891 he wrote his doctorate [[thesis]] about arbitrary functions in [[mathematical physics]]. Afterwards he had to serve in the [[army]]. Then he went to [[Göttingen]]. He became assistant at the institute for [[mineralogy]], but was still interested in mathematical physics. ==Works== In 1894 he became the assistant of [[Felix Klein]]. The year after he wrote his habilitation about the mathematical theory of optical [[diffraction]] and became docent for mathematics in Göttingen. In 1897 Sommerfeld married. In the same year he became ordinary professor for mathematics at the mining college of [[Clausthal]]. Three years later he got a professorship at the Technical University of [[Aachen]]. In 1906 he became professor for theoretical physics in [[Munich]], were he stood for his lifetime. While he was professor in Munich, he travelled twice around the world - in 1922/23 he was guest professor in [[Wisconsin]] and travelled afterwards through India, China and Japan, in 1928/29 he made a journey through the US as a university teacher. He started taking out a [[pension]] in 1935, but he still worked until 1940. There was a lot of trouble choosing the person who should follow him. Sommerfeld wanted to have [[Werner Heisenberg]] to follow him, but in the time of the Nazi regime the job could only go to a person who taught the so-called German Physics, which included a kind of mysticism. Sommerfeld tried to prevent that. Sommerfeld died in 1951 in a traffic accident. == Works == * ''Theorie des Kreisels''. 4 volumes (with Felix Klein), Leipzig 1897-1910 * ''Atombau und Spektral