hide
Free keywords:
-
Abstract:
An international symposium entitled “Otto Stern’s Molecular Beam Research and its Impact
on Science” was held on 1–5 September 2019 on the historic premises of the former Institute
for Theoretical Physics of the University of Frankfurt. During the period 1919–1922, key
discoveries were made at this Institute, then headed by Max Born, that contributed decisively
to the development of quantum mechanics. In 1919, Otto Stern (1888–1969) launched there the
revolutionary molecular beam technique that made it possible to send atoms and molecules with
well-defined momentum through vacuum and to measure with high accuracy the deflections
they underwent when acted upon by transversal forces. Thereby, heretofore unforeseen quantum
properties of nuclei, atoms, and molecules could be revealed that became the basis for our current
understanding of quantum matter
