Burkhard Heim

Burkard Heim (February 9 1925–January 14 2001) was a German theoretical physicist. He devoted a large portion of his life to the pursuit of his unified field theory. The inspiration for Heim theory is from general relativity and quantum mechanics, both of which were considered fundamental to a physical understanding of the universe. One of his childhood ambitions was to develop a method of space travel, which contributed to his motivation to find such a theory.

Academic and work history

A large proportion of the 76 years of Heim's life was spent on theoretical physics and the formulation of his Heim theory.

Related Topics:
76 - Heim theory

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1940s and 1950s

In 1943 he met Heisenberg who was involved in German atom bomb research at that time and told him of his plan to use chemical implosion to facilitate an atomic explosion. This design was based on his idea he developed for a 'clean' hydrogen bomb when he was 18. Heisenberg was impressed by Heim's knowledge, but thought the approach would be impractical. 10 years later, Heim's design was used in the first such bomb.

Related Topics:
1943 - Heisenberg - Atom bomb - Chemical implosion - Hydrogen bomb

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At that point Heim had to do military service in the German airforce. He sent a paper on explosives to the Chemical-Technical 'Reichsanstalt' in Berlin, whereupon he was summoned to work there on the development of the proposed new explosives. It was here that he met with the accident that handicapped him for life.

Related Topics:
Military service - Airforce

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In 1946, Heim registered at the University of Goettingen to study physics. He fulfilled his academic degree requirements with the help of companions. Afterwards, he continued to study a variety of topics including medicine, psychology, electronics, history and theology.

Related Topics:
1946 - University of Goettingen - Physics - Medicine - Psychology - Electronics - History - Theology

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In 1954 he began to study under Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in Göttingen. He wrote his diploma thesis on physical processes in the Crab Nebula Supernova. After this, he began to work at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Göttingen. However, he soon found it extremely difficult to work in a team due to his handicaps. Von Weizsäcker also did not want to burden Heim with the development of a unified field theory. However, this was essentially the only thing that Heim was interested in.

Related Topics:
1954 - Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker - Göttingen - Crab Nebula - Supernova - Max Planck Institute - Astrophysics - Unified field theory

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1960s

Heim decided that it was best that he worked from home as a result of these circumstances. By the 1960s, he worked almost exclusively in isolation—obsessively, often unceasingly for days on end. The magazine le Figaro remarked (January 15 1969) that he was an "inhuman robot". Heim was very mindful of keeping his work from others and worried about plagiarism. In particular, he saw some colleagues as possible plagiarists, e.g., Anderson and Ahner (see http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v1/i2/p488_1?qid=cce4f97514f6368f&qseq=3&show=10 for a related paper by these authors with a higher dimensional theory reminiscent of Heim's). One other reason for his distrust of others was due to a colleague who embezzled donations from a society he founded in 1959. (The Institut für Kraftfeldphysik e.V. was intended to develop test models of his propulsion concepts.)

Related Topics:
Le Figaro - January 15 - 1969 - Embezzle - 1959

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Some of his first publications were written during this period. This included a series of anticipated papers published in the Zeitschrift für Flugkörper (1959). Heim discussed "the principle of the dynamic Kontrabarie" in which he examined how a field drive would be more effective than the best chemical drive for rockets. These papers remained ambiguous on the fundamental concepts underlying his theory of the field drive, likely due to the necessity to complete the calculations on the extra fields of his field theory. These calculations were not performed until a few years later.

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In the late '50s and early '60s there were a number of reports on Heim in magazines and tabloids such as Le Figaro, Bunte Illustrierte, Quick and Stern. Also the main German TV station, ARD, ran reports and interviews with Heim. It was widely publicised that Heim was likely to make a breakthrough, either in fundamental physics or propulsion theory.

Related Topics:
Magazines - Tabloids - Stern - ARD

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The aerospace company Bölkow was prepared to finance Heim's effort to develop a field drive, but were unable to obtain adequate financing. The firm's chief executive Ludwig Bölkow suggested to Heim that he concentrate on deriving as many concrete predictions from his theory as possible.

Related Topics:
Bölkow - Chief executive

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With this suggestion, Heim decided to turn from an experimentalist back to a theorist. It would be almost 20 years before Heim's predictions materialised into anything concrete—in the end, part of this resulted in what is known today as his mass formula for elementary particles, the values of the fine structure constant, and the force coupling coefficients.

Related Topics:
Mass formula - Elementary particle - Fine structure constant

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Heim was known to a few top physicists in the 1940s and 50s. He was known to Werner Heisenberg, who recognized his potential, and also to the relativist Pascual Jordan. Heim was also keenly aware of the theories of Einstein. In particular, his works reference the book The Meaning of Relativity by Albert Einstein, published in 1950.

Related Topics:
1940s - 50s - Werner Heisenberg - Potential - Pascual Jordan

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1970s

It would not be until the 1970s that Heim would publish his first work. He did not submit his work to scientific peer review. Instead, he chose to publish with a little known publishing house, resulting in errors in the presentation of his theory. Many of those errors are only now undergoing correction.

Related Topics:
1970 - Peer review - Publishing house - Presentation - Correction

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His only peer reviewed paper was in 1977 in Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, a publication of the Max Planck Institute for physics. The publication of this paper followed on a visit to Hans-Peter Dürr, then director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics & Astrophysics near Munich and successor to Heisenberg. Duerr, after initial scepticism, became fascinated when he realised that Heim's was a structure theory leading to mass predictions from first principles. After an intense session of questioning over several hours, Duerr convinced Heim to break with his habit of non-publication. The resulting paper was schematic, as he had been asked to avoid too many equations. Nevertheless, it excited great interest in letters from physicists of all calibres eager to learn more of the theory (though it is not known if any actually referred to Heim's paper in a formal publication).

Related Topics:
Peer review - Max Planck Institute - Hans-Peter Dürr - Physics - Astrophysics - Munich - Heisenberg

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1980s

In 1982 Heim's mass formula was programmed on a computer at DESY at his discretion. The task was completed at this, the main centre for elementary particle research in Hamburg, Germany, with the assistance of some resident scientists.

Related Topics:
1982 - Mass formula - DESY - Hamburg, Germany

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The results were surprisingly accurate when compared with empirically measured values current at that time. It is important to observe that this was the first time a physics theory had achieved this—no other physics theory has reproduced a comparable result since. Although astonished at the accuracy, the DESY experimental physicists wanted to have corroboration from other theorists before publishing the results of the test.

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Up to this point, Heim had not yet confided in other theoretical physicists on the details of the mass formula derivation. Hence, the DESY results were not widely published and disseminated for academic scrutiny. Fortuitously in the same year, Walter Droescher, a theorist at the Vienna Patent Office, began to work with Heim. The first result of their collaboration cumulated into the second volume of Heim's major work, appearing in 1984. It is almost error-free, in contrast to the first volume which was not reviewed to this extent.

Related Topics:
Theoretical physicist - Walter Droescher

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1990s to 2001