Helmut Rauch (22 January 1939 – 2 September 2019) was an Austrian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. He was especially known for his pioneering experiments on neutron interference. Rauch studied

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien () is a public research university in Vienna, Austria. The university's teaching and research are focused on engineering, computer science, and natural sciences. It currently has about 28,100 students (29% women), eight faculties, and ...

and worked at the there. He was also affiliated with the

Forschungszentrum Jülich Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ; “Jülich Research Centre”) is a German national research institution that pursues interdisciplinary research in the fields of energy, information, and bioeconomy. It operates a broad range of research infrast ...

and the

Institut Laue-Langevin An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

. In his

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

Lecture in 2022,

Anton Zeilinger Anton Zeilinger (; born 20 May 1945) is an Austrian quantum physicist and Nobel laureate in physics of 2022. Zeilinger is professor of physics emeritus at the University of Vienna and senior scientist at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Qu ...

spoke about what his mentor, Helmut Rauch taught him. In a part of his speech, he said: "From my mentor, I learnt that you can have ideas. Which are wrong in a sense that the arguments are wrong but the idea is right. That intuition can be much stronger than a logic argument".

Neutron interference experiments

In 1974, Rauch, together with Ulrich Bonse and Wolfgang Treimer, demonstrated the first

matter wave Matter waves are a central part of the theory of quantum mechanics, being half of wave–particle duality. At all scales where measurements have been practical, matter exhibits wave-like behavior. For example, a beam of electrons can be diffract ...

interference of

neutrons The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, the f ...

. This demonstrated the wave-like nature of neutrons for the first time and was another experimental proof that not only

photons A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that ...

can be described by waves, but also massive particles. Further they demonstrated the fundamental symmetry of

spin-1/2 In quantum mechanics, spin is an intrinsic property of all elementary particles. All known fermions, the particles that constitute ordinary matter, have a spin of . The spin number describes how many symmetrical facets a particle has in one f ...

particles under rotation.

Death

Rauch died on 2 September 2019, aged 80, following a short illness in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

References

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External links

Wittgenstein-Preis für Helmut Rauch
7 October 2006 in ORF Wien (in German), last visited 25 April 2009

on the Homepage of the Austrian Research Agency (in German), last visited 25 April 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rauch, Helmut 1939 births Austrian physicists 2019 deaths TU Wien alumni