Bruno Touschek in Germany after the War: 1945-46

TL;DR

This paper explores Bruno Touschek's activities in Germany from 1945 to 1946, focusing on his studies and the post-war scientific environment that influenced his later move to the UK.

Contribution

It reconstructs a little-known period of Touschek's life, highlighting his education in Germany and the impact of post-war scientific restructuring on his career.

Findings

Touschek studied in Göttingen during 1945-46.

Post-war German science was influenced by Werner Heisenberg and others.

Decisions by Allied powers affected Touschek's move to the UK in 1947.

Abstract

Bruno Touschek was an Austrian born theoretical physicist, who proposed and built the first electron-positron collider in 1960 in the Frascati National Laboratories in Italy. In this note we reconstruct a crucial period of Bruno Touschek's life so far scarcely explored, which runs from Summer 1945 to the end of 1946. We shall describe his university studies in G\"ottingen, placing them in the context of the reconstruction of German science after 1945. The influence of Werner Heisenberg and other prominent German physicists will be highlighted. In parallel, we shall show how the decisions of the Allied powers towards restructuring science and technology in the UK after the war effort, determined Touschek's move to the University of Glasgow in 1947.