[Weizsäcker's cosmogony, Farm Hall and the origin of modern turbulence theory].

Abstract

The modem statistical theory of turbulence was originated by Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903-1987), Lars Onsager (1903-1976), Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953), Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) und Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912-2007). With the exception of Kolmogorovs theory which was published in 1941 but became widely known only after the war, these contributions emerged largely independently from another in a "remarkable series of coincidences" (Batchelor 1946). Heisenberg and Weizäscker developed their theories during their detention at Farm Hall. Their work was motivated by von Weizsäcker's interest in astrophysics. Weizsäcker aimed at an understanding of the role of turbulence for the motion of interstellar matter for his theory about the origin of the planetary system which he had published in 1943. Weizsäcker's work on cosmogony and turbulence illustrates an early interaction between the disciplines of astronomy and fluid mechanics that became characteristic for astrophysics in the second half of the twentieth century.