Emil Rupp
Encyclopedia
Emil Rupp was a German physicist, regarded by many as a respectable and important experimentalist in the late 1920s. He was later forced to recant all five of the papers he had published in 1935, admitting that his findings and experiments had been fictions. There is evidence that most if not all of his earlier experimental results were forged as well.
In 1926 Rupp's canal ray
experiments seemed to corroborate Einstein
's theories on wave-particle duality. He published these results in a paper that was printed next to a theoretical paper on the same subject by Einstein, who evidently accepted Rupp's alleged findings as confirming his (Einstein's) theoretical model. Rupp's experimental results were later shown to have been falsified (although subsequent experimental work re-confirmed Einstein's model).
Although the validity of Rupp's experimental results had been challenged by other workers in the field repeatedly throughout his career, it wasn't until 1935 that his misdeeds were fully exposed. Some fellow physicists at the AEG labs grew suspicious of Rupp when he claimed having accelerated protons at 500 kV, something he couldn't have the technical facilities to achieve. Rupp had to publicly retract
five publications from the previous year. He attached a psychiatric diagnosis by Dr. Emil von Gebsattel that said he had written them under the influence of "dreamlike states" caused by psychasthenia
. Rupp never worked again as a physicist, and all other physicists ceased to refer to any of his alleged results.
In 1926 Rupp's canal ray
Anode ray
Anode rays are beams of positive ions that are created by certain types of gas discharge tubes. They were first observed in Crookes tubes during experiments by the German scientist Eugen Goldstein, in 1886. Later work on anode rays by Wilhelm Wien and J. J...
experiments seemed to corroborate Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
's theories on wave-particle duality. He published these results in a paper that was printed next to a theoretical paper on the same subject by Einstein, who evidently accepted Rupp's alleged findings as confirming his (Einstein's) theoretical model. Rupp's experimental results were later shown to have been falsified (although subsequent experimental work re-confirmed Einstein's model).
Although the validity of Rupp's experimental results had been challenged by other workers in the field repeatedly throughout his career, it wasn't until 1935 that his misdeeds were fully exposed. Some fellow physicists at the AEG labs grew suspicious of Rupp when he claimed having accelerated protons at 500 kV, something he couldn't have the technical facilities to achieve. Rupp had to publicly retract
Retraction
A retraction is a public statement, by the author of an earlier statement, that withdraws, cancels, refutes, diametrically reverses the original statement or ceases and desists from publishing the original statement...
five publications from the previous year. He attached a psychiatric diagnosis by Dr. Emil von Gebsattel that said he had written them under the influence of "dreamlike states" caused by psychasthenia
Psychasthenia
Psychasthenia is a psychological disorder characterized by phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or excessive anxiety. The term is no longer in psychiatric diagnostic use, although it still forms one of the ten clinical subscales of the popular self-report personality inventories MMPI-I and...
. Rupp never worked again as a physicist, and all other physicists ceased to refer to any of his alleged results.
Further reading
- French, A.P.: "The strange case of Emil Rupp", Physics in Perspective, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 3-21 (1999) (abstract)
- van Dongen, Jeroen: "Emil Rupp, Albert Einstein and the Canal Ray Experiments on Wave-Particle Duality: Scientific Fraud and Theoretical Bias", Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 37 Suppl. (2007), 73-120.
- van Dongen, Jeroen: "The interpretation of the Einstein-Rupp experiments and their influence on the history of quantum mechanics", Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 37 Suppl. (2007), 121-131.
- Facsimile of a letter (in German) from Arnold SommerfeldArnold SommerfeldArnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
to Rupp, requesting details of an experiment on electron refraction, 30 Jan 1930