Crossing borders in the 19th century and now -- two examples of weaving a scientific network
Crossing borders in the 19th century and now — twoexamples of weaving a scientific network
R. Folk , Yu. Holovatch Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4040 Linz, Austria Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 79011 Lviv, Ukraine L Collaboration & Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems,Leipzig-Lorraine-Lviv-Coventry, Europe Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, United Kingdom
Received January 19, 2020, in final form February 17, 2020
Scientific research is and was at all times a transnational (global) activity. In this respect, it crosses several bor-ders: national, cultural, and ideological. Even in times when physical borders separated the scientific commu-nity, scientists kept their minds open to the ideas created beyond the walls and tried to communicate despite allthe obstacles. An example of such activities in the field of physics is the travel in the year 1838 of a group of threescientists through the Western Europe: Andreas Ettingshausen (professor at the University of Vienna), AugustKunzek (professor at the University of Lviv) and P. Marian Koller (director of the observatory in Chremsminster,Upper Austria). years later a vivid scientific exchange began between physicists from Austria and Ukraine, inparticular, between the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukrainein Lviv and the Institute for Theoretical Physics of Johannes Kepler University Linz. This became possible due tothe programs financed by national institutions, but it had its scientific background in already knotted historicscientific networks, when Lviv was an international center of mathematics and in Vienna the ‘School of Statis-tical Thought’ arose. Due to the new collaboration, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became thefirst country to join the Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics (MECO) founded in the early 1970swith the aim of bridging the gap between scientists from the Eastern and Western parts of Europe separated bythe iron curtain. In this paper, we discuss the above examples of scientific cooperation pursuing several goals:to record the less known facts from the history of science in a general culturological context, to trace the riseof studies that in due time resulted in an emergence of statistical and condensed matter physics as well as tofollow the development of multilayer networking structures that join scientists and enable their research. It isour pleasure to submit this paper to the Festschrift devoted to the 60th birthday of a renowned physicist, ourgood colleague and friend Ihor Mryglod. In fact, his activities contributed a lot into strengthening the networkswe describe in this paper.
Key words: history of science, history of physics, statistical physics
1. Introduction
Science is rooted in conversation.
Werner Heisenberg [1].
Knowledge propagates.
Stuart Kauffman [2].Apart from exceptional, nevertheless famous examples in the history of scientists trying to hide their research, nowadays the community of scientists would agree with Heisenberg’s opinion cited above [3].However, private communication is only one (maybe the most intimate) of the ways to spread the
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Further distributionof this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. a r X i v : . [ phy s i c s . h i s t - ph ] M a y . Folk, Yu. Holovatch ideas and knowledge. There are other networks permitting propagation of knowledge, the most relevantbeing the educational networks at different levels. An important one here is the academic geneologicalnetwork, then come the networking due to publications, talks on conferences, free or forced migrationsof scientists during their carrier, connections due to national and international programs, organizing thetransfer between disciplines and between research and application. Each of these processes is nowadaysthe object of interdisciplinary research field of the science of science , see for example [4] and [5].Moreover, as far as the creation of networks cost money their supporters are interested in the evaluationof these networks [6, 7].Here, we will consider two examples separated by a time period of 155 years. Both of them are takenfrom the field of physics and concern the communication between scientists from the regions of the originof the authors of this paper. Doing so, we pursue several goals: to record the less known facts from thehistory of science in a general culturological context, to trace the rise of studies that in due time resultedin an emergence of statistical and condensed matter physics, to follow the development of multilayernetworking structures that join scientists and enable their research. It is our pleasure to submit this paperto the Festschrift devoted to the 60th birthday of a renowned physicist, our good colleague and friendIhor Mryglod. In fact, his activities contributed a lot into strengthening the networks we will speak aboutin this paper.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section 2 we describe more in detailthe above two examples of scientific cooperation: a travel of three scientists (from Vienna, Lviv andChremsminster near Linz) in 1838 through the leading centers of European scientific thought and a collaboration between the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Johannes Kepler University in Linzand the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics in Lviv that started 155 years later. Section 3 collectssome facts about the developments in statistical physics related to the above collaboration and section 4contains some general reflections.
2. Scientific travelling and research cooperation
The authors of this paper are from two different institutions: the Institute of Theoretical Physics(ITP) of the Faculty of Engineering & Natural Sciences of the Johannes Kepler University Linz inAustria and the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine(ICMP) in Lviv. It so happened that in 2019 both institutions celebrate their jubilees: both ITP as oneof the Faculty institutions and the first department of ICMP were founded in 1969. In the meantime, atight collaboration in the field of statistical and condensed matter physics has been established betweenour institutions. This was initiated by our first common projects back in 1993 and became possibledue to the programs financed by national institutions. Obviously, such a collaboration has its scientific
Figure 1.
The three travelling companions: P. Marian Koller, Prof. August Kunzek and Prof. AndreasEttingshausen. ©Bildarchiv Austria ÖNB. rossing borders in the 19th century and now — two examples of weaving a scientific network
Figure 2. (Colour online) Positions at different institutions: arrows denote followers in the position (chair atuniversities); lines: temporary migration, dashed lines: not all followers are named; red line: participantsin the scientific journey 1838 (see figure 1 and the text). background in the already knotted historic scientific networks, when Lviv was an international center ofmathematics [8–10] and when the ‘School of Statistical Thought’ arose in Vienna [11].To shed more light on the origin, development and possible prospects of common scientific inquiries,we decided as a case study to consider more scrupulously two examples of cooperation between scientistsfrom our regions. The first example is the travel in the year 1838 of a group of three scientists throughWestern Europe. These were Andreas Ettingshausen (professor at the University of Vienna), AugustKunzek (professor at the University in Lviv) and Pater Marian Koller (director of the observatory inChremsminster, near Linz in Upper Austria). The second example is given by the above mentionedcooperation between the ITP and the ICMP that began 155 years later.As it becomes apparent from the further account, heroes of our stories had connections to differentinstitutions, that emerged and disappeared in the course of their life (see figure 2). Moreover, thecountries disappeared and reappeared too, eliminating old borders and establishing new ones. The cityof Lviv (Lwów in Polish and Lemberg in German) had its university since 1661, presently the IvanFranko National University of Lviv. Linz attained its university in 1966 first as a University of Socialand Economic Sciences, later being enlarged by further faculties. Earlier, in Linz at the protestant“Landschaftsschule” Johannes Kepler taught mathematics, and afterwards in 1777 the catholic Lyceumwas founded here (both schools are considered as forerunners of the university). Moreover, the nearbymonastery of Chremsminster was an important educational center with its schools and a research centerof astronomy and natural sciences. Its astronomical and geophysical observatory (“Mathematical Tower”)was built in 1749–1756 and was well connected to other observatories in Europe.There is no direct connection between the two examples of cooperation of the scientists that wediscuss in this section. The common feature, however, is the openness to new ideas and the basis of acommon network apart from the specific topic. This could be seen, regarding the first example, as anacademic network in the Habsburg university landscape to which the scientists belonged and, regardingthe second case, the European academic background which developed during the period of cooperation.
The field of critical phenomena, properties of condensed systems and the theory of statistical mechanicswere developed during the time frame in between the two examples. . Folk, Yu. Holovatch
The plan for this journey [12] came from Andreas v. Ettingshausen (1796–1878) professor forphysics at the University of Vienna and should include Pater Marian Koller (1792–1866) director ofthe observatory of the monastery Chremsminster and Andreas Baumgartner (1793–1865) also professorof the University of Vienna. The main purpose was to collect maximum information on the currentscientific projects, new instruments and teaching facilities. The ranges of interests were quite broadaccording to the different inclinations of the participants. The preparation started almost a year earlierin order to get an official permission and financing for the journey. Due to the health problems, AndreasBaumgartner was forced already in 1833 to reduce his teaching activities, therefore he had to withdrawhis participation in the journey and was replaced by August Kunzek (1795–1865), professor of physics atthe University of Lviv. In figure 2 we show a diagram sketching the succession and mobility of scientistsin the institutions under discussion and displaying in this way the continuity of academic tradition andknowledge propagation.The journey of three colleagues-scientists through Europe took place in 1838. P. Koller regularlyreported pieces of news from different places to his assistant in the observatory, P. Reslhuber [13]. Adetailed description of the journey can be found in P. Reslhuber’s biography of P. Koller [14]. The stayof these scientists in Berlin is also documented in the recollections of Rudolf Wolf [15]. We collect somedata about the journey in table 1, presenting the time-table, names of the cities visited as well as of thescientists and instrument makers they met there. When the journey was over, the Austrian newspaper
Der Adler of November 6, 1838 wrote (p. 1045): “. . . A few days ago, the professor of physics inLemberg, Dr. August Kunzek, returned from his scientific journey through Germany, Belgium, Englandand France, which he undertook with the professors of physics A. von Ettingshausen and Marian Koller.The professors of the local philosophical school arranged a feast in the casino pub to receive him, in orderto testify their participation in the great scientific exploitation of the learned travellers, and the promotionof science thereby effected. . . ”. Kunzek travelled abroad at his own expense, especially to Germany, France, and England, where heexpanded his knowledge by visiting scientific institutes, museums, and laboratories. Many achievementsin Lviv had their basis on these visits. When the technical academy was to be established in Lviv, hewas also entrusted by the Government with the drafting of a plan to organize it, and in the following hisproposals were indeed realized. When in 1844, the k. & k. Technical Academy with technical and tradedepartments was opened in Lviv, August Kunzek was beneath 14 persons, who applied for the positionof its director, but the position went to Florian Schindler, teacher at the Joanneum in Graz ([16] p. 103).In 1847 Kunzek obtained the chair of physics and applied mathematics at the University of Vienna [17].Boltzmann visited the following lectures by Kunzek: WS 1863/64 Light and heat; SS 1864 Statics ofliquid bodies; WS 1864/65 Magnetism [18].One of the priorities of the journey was to visit the observatories to get information in the field ofastronomy, but also other fields of research such as meteorology, and primarily geomagnetism, wereof interest. Meteorological and geomagnetic measurements were made since the 18th century in theobservatory and in the year 1839, due to the cooperation with Karl Kreil (1798–1862) (in Prague), themeasurement station of the observatory became a part of the international network of the ‘GöttingerMagnetischen Vereins’ [19]. In addition, in his publication Ueber den Gang der Wärme in Österreichob der Enns [20] P. Marian Koller “. . . imparted the farsighted lesson that the future of climatologicalresearch would require cooperation on a large scale, following the example set by Humboldt (whom hemet in Paris, see table 1) and Gauss for geomagnetism. . . ” (see [21] chapter 3, p. 68). He was pupil of the gymnasium at the monastery Chremsminster. He also taught physics at the monasterial gymnasium and was director of the Physical Cabinet at the observatory [13]. Both Baumgartner and Kunzek taught at the Lyceum in Olomouc before they became professors at the respective universities. Translated from German by R.F. The k. & k. (kaiserlich und königlich, i.e., Imperial and Royal) Real School was opened in Lviv in 1816. In 1825, accordingto the Royal Decree of the Austrian Emperor Franz I, the three-level k. & k. Real School was reorganized into the k. & k. Schoolof Technical Sciences and Trade. In 1835 it turned into the k. & k. Real-Trade Academy, it was one of the first academic technicalschools in Europe and the first in Ukraine. The academy was renamed as Polytechnic School and included in the academic schoolsof the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A Gauss’ magnetometer was purchased. rossing borders in the 19th century and now — two examples of weaving a scientific network
Table 1. (Colour online) Map and time-table of the scientific journey and the scientist and instrumentmakers met at different stations. In blue, the travel to Vienna, in black and red, different stages of thejourney.
Date Place Persons18.07 Prague F. Hessler, K. Wersin, Ch. DopplerJ.G. Galle, J.H.A. Oertling, F.W. Schiek,25.07 Berlin W. Hirschmann, J.H. Mädler,E. Mitscherlich, R. Rieß, G. Magnus27.07 Hamburg K. Rümker, H.Ch. Schuhmacher, J. Herschel,H. Kessels, Repsold, A.C. PetersenJ. Herschel, F. Baily, Ch. Babage,03.08 London J.D. Roberton, G. Dollond, M. Faraday,S.W. Stratford, G. AiryAntwerpen visit to town only21.08 Brüssel J. QueteletH.-P. Gambey, L.C. Breguet, F. Arago,A. Bouvard, F. Savary, S.D. Poisson,24.08 Paris Ch.-F. Sturm, E. Chevreul, A. Dumeril,A. Brogniart, J.B.B. St. Vincent, J. Babinet,
Ch.C. de la Tour , A. Humboldt, J. Péclet,C. Pouillet, A. Cauchy, Ch. ChevalierL. von Buch, W. Buckland, K.F. Martius,16.09 Freiburg Ch.F. Schönbein, G.W. Munke,G. Osann, W. Eisenlohr21.09 Augsburg Stark27.09 München Steinheil, LamontLet us point out another French scientist they met in Paris, connected to the research, which was155 years later a common topic of cooperation between University of Linz and the ICMP in Lviv. Thiswas at the meeting of the Academy where they got to know Charles Cagniard de la Tour (1777–1859),who in 1822 discovered special effects in the liquids at a certain point (in the temperature–pressureplane), later named as a critical point [22, 23]. The behaviour of matter near such a peculiar point wasthen named a critical phenomenon and opened up a large field of the research in physics spreading out to other fields even outside natural sciences such as economics, sociology or even humanities [24, 25].However, at the time of the journey of the three scientists, other topics were in discussion from such fields . Folk, Yu. Holovatch
Figure 3. (Colour online) Natterer tube with CO used in lectures to show critical opalescence.© Collection in the Observatory of the Monastery Chremsminster. as astronomy, meteorology, and most notably optical, electrical and magnetic phenomena. In 1865 theyled to Maxwell’s electrodynamics unifying those three phenomena in one field theory.In 1854 in Vienna Johannes Natterer tried to liquefy the air by increasing the pressure but failed. Thereason was that he was unaware of the concept of the critical point, an explanation was first given byDmitri Mendeleev theory of the absolute boiling point of liquids and Thomas Andrews experiments withCO gas [26, 27]. In order to liquefy, the temperature of the gas should be below the critical temperature.It happened only by chance to succeed by increasing the pressure, while for the cases where the methodfailed, the gases were named permanent gases. In 1858 a device of Natterer for demonstrating criticalphenomena arrived at Chremsminster. The famous Natterer tube (see figure 3) was mentioned in the publications of Andrews in 1869 and Smoluchowski in 1911. It shows the disappearance of the meniscusbetween the gaseous and liquid phase at the critical temperature by increasing the temperature from lowertemperatures and the critical opalescence by reducing the temperature coming from higher temperaturesto the critical one. Organization of scientific research changed considerably in between the period of Koller’s, Kunzek’sand Ettingshausen’s travel and the beginning of the Linz-Lviv cooperation in 1993. Derek J. de SollaPrice characterized it shortly [28] as a change from
Little Science to Big Science or, as one may say, from the study room to large-scale research . The main changes began about 1900 but especially afterthe two World Wars: (1) an increase in the number of researchers and publications , (2) an increaseof publications with coauthors, (3) a change in the local organization of research from individuals toteams, (4) globally, an increased cooperation in common research programs between different countriesand (5) a spread of knowledge due to displacement of scientists because of political reasons but aboveall because of antisemitism. Together with this, the possibilities of individual communication betweenscientists were speeded up from sending letters to sending emails in the mid-1980-ies.On the one hand, the development was supported in Europe by the formation of the Europeancommunity, on the other hand, it was hindered by the Cold War and its manifestation, the
Iron Curtain .Nevertheless, scientists tried to overcome these obstacles and to make the most of keeping in touch over theborders. Among numerous initiatives and forms of support for scientific collaboration, we would like to emphasize several initiatives that helped a lot in establishing and strengthening Linz-Lviv collaboration.
These are the Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics (MECO) and European Cooperationin Science and Technology (COST).An idea to organize regular meetings of scientists from both sides of the Iron Curtain, where alsoyoung scientists could take part, emerged in the early 1970s [32]. Very soon MECO became one of themost influential meeting places where the state-of-the-art ideas in statistical and condensed matter physicswere born and discussed. The topics of ferroelectricity and structural phase transitions, the soft modeconcept and the problem of a central peak, new theoretical aspects of renormalization group and muchmore were subjects of vivid and fruitful discussions at the first MECO meetings. These were exactly Apart from a short reduction due to the boycott against central scientists [29, 30]. It is the task of the science of science to quantify this development and create models to give predictions regarding the successof these processes [31]. rossing borders in the 19th century and now — two examples of weaving a scientific network
Figure 4. (Colour online) The map shows the countries that hosted MECO meetings in 1975–2019. Thenumbers show the order of the country coming to the advisory board. The black line indicates the borderbetween Western and Eastern countries; apart from the border between the former states of Yugoslavia,it formed the iron curtain. the topics that comprised a core of Linz-Lviv collaboration. With a span of time, due to more and moreactive participation of Ukrainian scientists, Lviv became the first city in the former Soviet Union thathosted the MECO meeting too, see the sketch of widening of the MECO network in figure 4.The main goal of COST is to enable researchers from different fields and different countries to worktogether in open networks that transcend borders. In particular, COST is funding Actions — a networkdedicated to scientific collaboration, complementing national research funds.The first action in Physics was COST P1 — Soft condensed matter which started in 1997 and ranuntil 2001. The set of subsequent Actions centered upon applications of physical ideas in the fields farbeyond physics in its traditional sense, essentially contributed to maintaining and strengthening Linz-Lvivcooperation too. In particular, these were: Physics of Risk (P10, 2005–2007), Physics of Competitionand Conflicts (MP0801, 2008–2013), Analyzing the dynamics of information and knowledge landscapes(TD1210, 2013–2017).The first contacts between ITP and ICMP (see figure 5 where we show current locations of theseinstitutions) started by personal visits in 1992–93 and were further developing during the Ukrainian-French Symposium ‘Condensed Matter: Science & Industry’ (February 20–27, 1993, Lviv), Ukrainian-Polish and East-European Workshop on Ferroelectricity and Phase Transitions (September 18–24, 1994,Uzhhorod-V. Remety) and many more meetings that were commonly attended or organized. The firstcommon paper was written in 1995 [33] and since then we have a good hundred of common publicationsboth reporting original research, reviewing it and making it popular to a wider community. Of course, a measure for cooperation of two institutions, which is visible to all the community, is the number of papers with coauthorship from both institutions. However, there is, in addition, a less visible cooperation just fromthe exchange of information privately, in discussions sometimes visible in papers by acknowledgements.Moreover, authors of the common papers are themselves embedded in coauthorship networks leadingto a larger network which is the basis for possible flow of information. All these we encountered in ourcollaboration.All cooperations were financed by grants from of the Austrian ‘Wissenschaftsfonds’ (FWF) , oneproject by The Anniversary Fund of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) , one by the Ministry P19583-N20
Critical phenomena in pure and disordered systems (2007–2011), P18592-N20
Phase transitions and correlationsin complex fluids (2006–2008), P16574-N08
Critical phenomena in disordered systems (2003–2007), P15247-N03
Dynamics ofcomplex fluids (2001–2004), 12422-PHY (1997–2000). No.7694
Critical phenomena (1999–2003). . Folk, Yu. Holovatch
Figure 5. (Colour online) (a) The Physics building of the Johannes Kepler University, 69 Altenberger St.,Linz, containing the ITP was erected with the participation of the architect Artur Perotti (1920–1992).(b) The main ICMP building, located at the address 1 Svientsitskii St., Lviv (the former Instytutsjka St.),was built in 1900 according to the project of Ludwik Wierzbicki (1834–1912). The ICMP moved intothis building in 1991. of Science, Research and Art shorter stays were supported by the OeAD. Mutual lecturing and guestprofessorships in Lviv and in Linz enabled a further development of our contacts and involved youngcolleagues to future collaboration. Besides lecturing, we initiated translation of textbooks written in a native language in one country in order to be used for students of other countries [34]. In table 2 we listthe names of the colleagues involved in this collaboration. Although we do not specify participationof each of them in the specific part of collaboration projects, we think it is proper to note that it wasIhor Mryglod who made the first visit from the ICMP to the ITP, followed by Yulian Vysochanskii fromUzhhorod University and by numerous subsequent contacts.The topics of our common research covered various fields of statistical and condensed matter physics.Beneath the objects of interest there were ferroelectrics, regular and structurally disordered magnets, mag-netic liquids, superconductors. We were interested in static and dynamic critical phenomena, crossovercritical behaviour, self-organization and emergence of new features in complex systems. And indeed,some of the phenomena that were in the core of our interest were the subject of discussion betweentravelling companions we spoke about in the former subsection. Moreover, the period in between gaverise to the new field of physics — statistical physics, that enabled a thorough theoretical analysis of theseand other phenomena that occur in systems of many interacting particles. In our research, we developedand learned the methods of renormalization group, non-equilibrium statistical operator, functional in-tegration and diagrammatic expansions, resummation of asymptotic series and creating algorithms forcomputer simulations. And again, some of the mathematics involved had to do with our predecessorsfrom the regions we discuss in this paper. In the next section we will give some references to the keypersons who created these fields and worked and lived in our regions.
3. What happened in between?
In this section, we do not give a thorough and comprehensive description of the rise and developmentof statistical physics ideas. We rather concentrate on some personalities mentioning their affiliations,mobility and/or institutional and intellectual connections. Doing so, we will emphasize here those factsthat are mostly linked to the ITP-ICMP collaboration.
The first severe regress in intensification of scientific connections was the breakdown of the HabsburgEmpire after the World War I. The developing academic network was destroyed and the survival of several Grant
Microscopic theory of dynamic properties of magnetic liquids (1994–1996). The poster below the table was produced by Olesya Mryglod, ICMP Lviv, to commemorate a benchmark in the collaboration. rossing borders in the 19th century and now — two examples of weaving a scientific network
Table 2. (Colour online) Group members involved in the collaboration from the ITP Linz and the ICMPLviv apart from two exceptions: ∗ from the University of Uzhhorod, ∗∗ from the Ivan Franko NationalUniversity of Lviv. The figure shows some of the travelling companions from Lviv that visited JohannesKepler University Linz in the course of this collaboration. ITP Linz ICMP Lviv ITP Linz ICMP LvivR. Folk Yu.M. Vysochanskii ∗ T.-C. Dinh M. DudkaG. Moser I.M. Mryglod I. Nasser V. Blavats’kaF. Schinagl Yu. Holovatch A. Abdel-Hady O. PrytulaH. Iro T. Yavors’kii ∗∗ G. Flossmann V. PalchykovW. Fenz I. Omelyan universities was questioned. It is interesting that together with the demand to build Ukrainian universityin Lviv in 1917, a similar application was placed for a German speaking university in Linz [35].Statistical physics, a science that uses probabilistic methods in solving physical problems of behaviourof many-particle interacting systems, as a separate field of research was born in the middle of 19th century.As noted by Mark Kac, a former student of Hugo Steinhaus in Lviv University, “About the middle ofthe nineteenth century, attempts were begun to unite the disciplines of mechanics and thermodynamics”[36]. He named Boltzmann besides Maxwell and Gibbs as roots of these far-reaching achievements inscience. Indeed, it is hard to overestimate the role of Vienna school in creating and developing statisticalphysics. Elliott W. Montroll noted on the AIP Conference
Random Walks and Their Applications in thePhysical and Biological Sciences [11] in 1982: “A remarkably large number of pioneers in the evolutionof the statistical style of thought in modern physical and indeed biological science may trace their familytree back to the Vienna school. . . I must confess that not a drop of Wienerblutt (sic!) flows in my veinsnor have any of my teachers been leaves on the Vienna Family Tree. However, my life has been very muchenriched by my friends and colleagues who are leaves identified or not identified on the tree.” Montroll’sfamily tree [37] follows some of the roots to the leaves. In figure 6, on the one hand, we have corrected ,reduced and, on the other hand, extended the tree with respect to the topics of collaboration between theITP and ICMP. Due to the fate of Jewish scientists like Ehrenfest and Herzfeld, the thought of this schoolwas scattered all over the world as far as USA and China. Moreover, the period of the Nazi-Regime after1938 further increased the brain drain to other countries.Many of the scientists named in the tree, contributed to the understanding of critical phenomenain liquids, later to the magnetic phase transition and to the understanding of ferromagnetism. Of great Corrections are the following: Stefan was not the supervisor of Smoluchowski but Lang and Exner [38]. Formally W. Thirringhad Ehrenhaft as supervisor, see Physics/Mathematics Tree and Wikipedia. . Folk, Yu. Holovatch
Figure 6. (Colour online) Part of the genealogical diagram, according to the relation between PhDsupervisor and student indicated by an arrow, of the
Vienna School of Statistical Thought . The linewithout arrow indicates lecturing, see text. importance was the struggle to solve the Ising model suggested 1920 by Wilhelm Lenz and first attackedby Ernst Ising, although with a solution only for the one dimensional model. However, the success madeby Onsager 1944 by the solution of the two dimensional model was based on the results developed byWannier and Kramers, a leave of Montroll’s tree. These works considerably advanced the research incritical phenomena and in the related fields, see [25] and references therein.Scientists left Vienna and got new positions in other countries/institutions and thus enlarged thebranches (indicated at their names). Let us follow some branches in the tree in order to follow the propagation of the thoughts and see how they reached Linz and Lviv.After his thesis 1895, M. Smoluchowski went on a tour through Europe where he worked in Glasgowwith Lord Kelvin. After returning to Vienna he habilitated and looked for a permanent position and gotat the end of the year 1899 the chair of Mathematical (Theoretical) Physics at the University in Lviv.K.F. Herzfeld after a stay 1919 in Munich left Europe and got a visiting professorship 1926 atthe Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and 1933 a chair at The Catholic University ofAmerica in Washington, D.C. One of his descents, R.A. Ferrell made important contributions related tothe further development of statistical physics and critical phenomena and stimulated also the connectionswithin this field in Europe. This also leads to an example for the touch of two different leaves of thetree in later times in the coauthor network, when since 1967 a series of “United Nations papers” [43] byFerrell and visitors from Hungary (Nora Menyhard and Peter Szepfalusy), Germany (Hartwig Schmidt) and Austria (Franz Schwabl) on the scaling theory in critical dynamics appeared. Some of the authors were later involved in organizing the above mentioned MECO conferences. F. Schwabl was appointed achair at the University of Linz in 1973 and initiated these studies at the ITP.P. Ehrenfest left Vienna 1906 and became 1912 after stays in Göttingen, St. Peterburg the successorof H.A. Lorentz at the University of Leiden (see [44]). There his descendant made important contributions Less known is that Touschek, a Jewish student from Vienna lived in Nazi-time undercover in Hamburg in the flat of Lenz andlater 1957 taught Di Castro Statistical Physics using the textbook of Erwin Schrödinger [39]. Di Castro is one of the first advisoryboard members of MECO. His talk for this occasion had the title: “The energy distribution in the spectrum of a black body” [40, 41]. He was one of the first to comment E. Ising’s paper 1925. In the same year he published his book on kinetic theory andstatistical mechanics, which became a graduate-level textbook in German-speaking universities, see also [42]. During this stay he connected the Vienna school of statistical thought to the Lviv school shown in figure 7 in seminars togetherwith Ioffe. He also published at this time, together with his wife Tatyana Afanasyeva, the famous review about statistical physics. rossing borders in the 19th century and now — two examples of weaving a scientific network
Figure 7. (Colour online) Part of the genealogical diagram according to the relation between PhDsupervisor and student, as indicated by arrows, of the
Lviv School of Statistical Physics and the
LvivMathematical School . The line without arrow indicates other contacts between the scientists. to the understanding of critical phenomena. After he left Vienna, a meeting with Schrödinger is reported,where he introduced him to the work of Langevin and Weiss [45]. This stimulated Schrödinger’s
Studienüber Kinetik der Dielektrika, den Schmelzpunkt, Pyro- und Piezoelektrizität [46] where he coined theterm ferroelektrisch (ferroelectric). This type of phase transitions was one of the main topics in thefirst MECO conference 1974 and the topics, which lead to a cooperation with Prof. Yulian Vysochanskiifrom the Uzhhorod National University and lead to a common ‘European’ publication [47]. It was atthe Ukrainian, Polish and East-European Workshop on Ferroelectricity and Phase transitions 1994 inUzhhorod–V. Remety where the authors of this paper met first.E. Schrödinger considered himself a follower of Ludwig Boltzmann through his teacher Franz Exnerand foremost, Fritz (Friedrich) Hasenöhrl. “. . . His intention to extend the explanatory range of statisticaltheory guided his choice of topics” [48]. Although Schrödinger had the opportunity to stay at theUniversity of Vienna, he left Austria but returned 1936 to the University of Graz. After the ‘Anschluß1938’ he could not stay longer in Graz and fled to Dublin, where he stayed until his retirement in 1955and then returned again to Austria to the University of Vienna.
The roots of theoretical physics in Lviv date back to 1850 [49]. An important step was an appoint-ment of M. Smoluchowski 1899 to the chair of Mathematical (Theoretical) Physics at the Universityof Lviv [38]. In the 1908 paper
Molekular-kinetische Theorie der Opaleszenz von Gasen im kritis-chen Zustande, sowie einiger verwandter Erscheinungen [50] he linked the critical density fluctuations,demonstrated near the critical point in Natter’s tube, to the fluctuations in the refraction index and thusto the scattering in the fluid. Mark Kac described Smoluchowski’s scientific output in the following-relying [51]: “. . . while directed toward the same goal how different the Smoluchowski approach is fromBoltzmann’s. There is no dynamics, no phase space, no Liouville theorem — in short, none of the usual underpinnings of Statistical Mechanics. Smoluchowski may not have been aware of it but he beganwriting a new chapter of Statistical Physics which in our times goes by the name of Stochastic Processes. . Folk, Yu. Holovatch
It is the probabilistic point of view in contradistinction to the statistico-mechanical one that is also clearlypresent in Smoluchowski’s first paper on Brownian motion and in a paper on the mean free path whichjust preceded it. . . . The underlying idea proved enormously fruitful and it gradually permeated muchof statistical physics; permeated it, in fact, so well that few of us realize today that much of modern problematics (notably that related to the so-called master equations) is directly traceable to ideas firstpromulgated by Smoluchowski in the early years of this century”. Indeed, as it was recognized later it isthe appearance of fluctuations and correlations of all sizes which make the liquid opaque for all opticalwavelength. This ‘loss of scale’ or better invariance of scale at T c is fundamental to scaling theory withall its consequences [52].Stanislaw Ulam characterized the situation of Smoluchovski in Lviv in the following way [53]: “It isinteresting to see how it was possible for a person of his exceptionally high ability, to get to the forefrontof European thought in physics, even though the milieu in which he worked as a young professor wasrelatively isolated and without tradition in science. Nevertheless, it was possible to start the pioneeringwork in a relatively new field (statistical mechanics) and get to the forefront of world science in it, oncea catalyzing contact with other minds had been made ”. And he immediately compared this with thesituation of the Lviv Mathematical School [8, 9] between the World Wars to which he, as well as theaforementioned Marc Kac belonged. Activity of the Mathematical School made Lviv a center of severalevolving fields, functional analysis and set theory being among them. Stanislaw Ulam invented a methodthat currently has grown up to a broad class of computational algorithms widely used in physics in generaland in statistical physics in particular: in 1940-ies together with John von Neuman he suggested a Monte
Carlo method. The application to the magnetic transition in the Ising model was presented by K. Binder1974 at the first MECO conference. K. Binder remembers [54]: “I was the only person studying Isingsystems in Europe at the time and he [David Landau] was the only one doing the same in the UnitedStates. So, he read my papers when they appeared and we agreed to meet in a conference, which was amagnetism conference in 1973 in Moscow”.In the year 1962 Mark Kac, G.E. Uhlenbeck, and P.C. Hemmer started a series of papers on van derWaals theory to make the theory less qualitative. The concept of a critical region in contrast to a critical point has often been discussed, especially in order to explain various anomalous critical phenomenawhich apparently were in conflict with the van der Waals equation. They also mentioned the effect ofgravity on critical phenomena and the attempt of G. Bakker [55, 56] to deduce a critical region insteadof just a critical point. Reasons for the controversial views are the interpretations of the disappearance ofthe meniscus around the critical temperature observed in Natterer’s tube. The shape of the coexistencecurve was also under discussion.Besides Lviv University and Polytechnic, physics has been developing in the Shevchenko ScientificSociety — a prototype of the first Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences [57, 58]. In this way, thescientists could create what nowadays is called a scientific community , a community with an own identityextending over national and cultural borders. It was first of all, for theoretical physicist, the time of creatingmodern quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. It was also the time of upcoming displacements andstrengthening the global identity of the scientists community. A more detailed description of this processis given by M. Desser in his book
Between Scylla and Charybdis: The ‘scientific community’ of physicists1919–1939 [59].
World War II changed the academic landscape in Lviv, also in the field of theoretical physics. Ihor
Yukhnovskii recalls: “. . . Bogolyubov’s impact on the Lviv school of theoretical physics was inducedby his well-known book
Problems of dynamic theory in statistical physics that was published in 1946.It was a young scientist Abba Glauberman, a postgraduate from Leningrad (now St. Peterburg), whoin 1948 turned our attention upon this book here in Lviv . “Having hand-written my candidate dissertation in a nice big notebook, I brought it to Moscow University to find the seminar conducted byBogolyubov. . . This is how Bogolyubov directly entered my life and the life of theoretical physicists in Accentuation by the authors. His geneological path goes back to Ioffe, who is one of the founders of theoretical physics in the post-tsarist Russia (seefigure 7). 1966 he moved to Odesa [60]. For the development of theoretical physics of the “Landau school” see [61]. For Frenkel’srelation with Ioffe see [62]. I. Yukhnovskii PhD thesis entitled
Binary distribution function for the systems of interacting charged particles has beendefended under supervisorship of A. Glauberman [63]. rossing borders in the 19th century and now — two examples of weaving a scientific network
Lviv” [64]. This was the start of the new period in the development of statistical physics in Lviv, whichgave rise to the ICMP and to the Lviv-Linz collaboration. A detailed description of ICMP organizationaland intellectual development may be found in a recently published book [65].
4. Instead of conclusions
This very short and selected history of scientific cooperation between academic institutions in Austriaand Ukraine shows, in our opinion, several characteristics: (1) Historical roots of cooperation can surviveover long periods. (2) Common language (Latin in Europe and German in Habsburg Empire in the pastand English now) in publications, conferences facilitates to easily overcome the cultural differences .(3) Transnational activities by general European programs or created on a smaller scale are essential tointensify and enlarge such cooperations. However, at the beginning of such a process one always has apersonal decision to leave common paths and try new adventures in solving physical problems.So one of us (R.F.) thanks Ihor Mryglod for capturing the opportunity for a fruitful cooperationbetween ITP and ICMP, whereas the other one (Yu.H.) joins his thanks also for interesting discussionsand time spent together working and travelling. We thank Harald Iro and anonymous referees for usefulsuggestions, Yu.H. acknowledges OeAD scholarship ICM-2018-11442. References
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Р. Фольк , Ю. Головач Iнститут теоретичної фiзики, Унiверситет Йоганна Кеплера Лiнц, 4040 Лiнц, Австрiя Iнститут фiзики конденсованих систем НАН України, 79011 Львiв, Україна Спiвпраця L i Докторський коледж статистичної фiзики складних систем,Ляйпцiґ-Лотаринґiя-Львiв-Ковентрi, Європа Центр плинних i складних систем, Унiверситет Ковентрi, Ковентрi, CV1 5FB, Велика БританiяНаукове дослiдження є i було в усi часи транснацiональною (глобальною) дiяльнiстю. У цьому вiдношеннiвоно долає кiлька кордонiв: нацiональний, культурний, iдеологiчний. Навiть у часи, коли наукову спiль-ноту розмежовували фiзичнi кордони, ученi тримали розум вiдкритим для iдей, створених по iнший бiкмурiв i намагались спiлкуватися, незважаючи на всi перешкоди. Прикладом такої дiяльностi в галузi фiзи-ки є подорож 1838 року у захiдну Європу трьох вчених — Андреаса Еттiнґсгаузена (професора Вiденсько-го унiверситету), Августа Кунцека (професора Львiвського унiверситету) та о. Марiана Коллера (директо-ра обсерваторiї у мiстi Кремсмюнстер, Верхня Австрiя). 155 рокiв пiзнiше розпочався жвавий науковийобмiн мiж фiзиками Австрiї та України, зокрема мiж Iнститутом фiзики конденсованих систем НАН Укра-їни у Львовi та Iнститутом теоретичної фiзики унiверситету Йоганна Кеплера в Лiнцi. Такий обмiн ставможливим завдяки програмам, що фiнансуються нацiональними установами, але вiн мав свої науковiпередумови в уже iснуючих наукових мережах, коли Львiв був мiжнародним центром математики, а уВiднi виникла «Школа статистичної думки». Завдяки новiй спiвпрацi Україна стала першою державою пi-сля розпаду Радянського Союзу, яка приєдналась до iнiцiативи Середньоєвропейського спiвробiтництвазi статистичної фiзики (MECO), заснованої на початку 1970-х рокiв з метою подолання розриву мiж роздi-леними залiзною завiсою вченими схiдної та захiдної частин Європи. У цiй статтi, обговорюючи наведенiвище приклади наукової спiвпрацi, ми ставимо перед собою декiлька завдань: зафiксувати менш вiдо-мi факти з iсторiї науки в загальному культурологiчному контекстi, простежити розвиток дослiджень, щоспричинили появу статистичної фiзики та фiзики конденсованої речовини, прослiдкувати за розвиткомбагатошарових мережевих структур, що об’єднують науковцiв уможливлюючи їхнi дослiдження. Ми iз за-доволенням подаємо цю статтю у спецiальний випуск журналу, присвячений 60-рiччю вiдомого фiзика,нашого доброго колеги та друга Iгоря Мриглода. Своєю працею вiн зробив значний внесок у змiцненнямереж, про якi ми розповiдаємо у цiй роботi.
Ключовi слова: iсторiя науки, iсторiя фiзики, статистична фiзикаiсторiя науки, iсторiя фiзики, статистична фiзика