Maria Goeppert Mayer: Atoms, Molecules and Nuclear Shells

SEP 01, 1986

The mathematical physicist’s early work in atomic and molecular physics, and her unfamiliarity with the “fashions” in nuclear physics, gave her the ideal preparation for solving the puzzle of the nuclear “magic numbers.”

DOI: 10.1063/1.881041

Karen E. Johnson

Maria Goeppert Mayer is frequently mentioned as an example of a woman who managed to make significant contributions to science in spite of tremendous obstacles. Robert Sachs, Mayer’s first graduate student, has given a personal account of her life and career (PHYSICS TODAY, February 1982, page 46). Joan Dash has written a longer biography of Mayer, focusing on her family life. In this article I look at the distinctive character of Mayer’s scientific accomplishments. As a mathematical physicist, she worked on a number of apparently unrelated topics during the years 1930–46. I will focus on her work during this period and show how it prepared her for the nuclear physics research for which she received the Nobel Prize in 1963.

References

1. J. Dash, A Life of One’s Own: Three Gifted Women and the Men They Married, Harper and Row, New York (1973).
2. K. E. Johnson, Maria Goeppert Mayer and the Development of the Nuclear Shell Model, dissertation, Univ. of Minnesota (1986).
3. M. G. Mayer, Phys. Rev. 75, 1226 (1949).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
4. M. Goeppert‐Mayer, Ann. der Phys. 9, 273 (1931).
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Archives for the History of Quantum Physics. Repositories of the archives are located at the Bohr Institute, Copenhagen; the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; the University of California, Berkeley; the Center for the History of Physics, American Institute of Physics New York; the University of Minnesota; the Accademia dei XL, Rome; the Science Museum, London; and the Deutsches Museum, Munich.
6. M. Goeppert‐Mayer, A. L. Sklar, J. Chem. Phys. 6, 645 (1950).https://doi.org/JCPSA6
7. Joseph Mayer Papers, Univ. of Calif., San Diego, library, special collections.
8. M. G. Mayer, Phys. Rev. 60, 184 (1941).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
9. Born Nachlass; Staatsbibliothek preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
10. Maria Goeppert Mayer Papers, Univ. of Calif., San Diego, library, special collections.
11. M. G. Mayer, Phys. Rev. 74, 235 (1948).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
12. E. Feenberg, K. C. Hammack, Phys. Rev. 75, 1877 (1949). https://doi.org/PHRVAO
L. Nordheim, Phys. Rev. 75, 1894 (1949).https://doi.org/PHRVAO
13. O. Haxel, J. H. D. Jensen, H. E. Suess, Naturwiss. 35, 376 (1948). https://doi.org/NATWAY
H. E. Suess, O. Haxel, J. H. D. Jensen, Naturwiss. 36, 153 (1949). https://doi.org/NATWAY
J. H. D. Jensen, H. E. Suess, O. Haxel, Naturwiss. 36, 155 (1949).https://doi.org/NATWAY

More about the Authors

Karen E. Johnson. Bates College, Lewiston, Maine.