Hanno Essén
Universitetslektor, Department of Mechanics, KTH
Docent, Theoretical
Physics, Stockholm University
I am senior lecturer (associate professor) at the Department of Mechanics,
KTH, Stockholm, Sweden. I am also Director of undergraduate studies
(studierektor) and former chairman of the Swedish Skeptics (Föreningen Vetenskap och
Folkbildning, VoF).
Research and professional:
I have done research in many different areas over the years and remain
fairly unspecialized. A main theme in recent year has been the role of magnetic interaction energy in plasmas and superconductivity. I am interested in all areas of science but a main theme
has been to improve the clarity and conceptual simplicity of our understanding
of some areas of physics and theoretical chemistry. Here is a list of topics:
Theoretical chemistry: The Born-Oppenheimer separation, Vibration-Rotation
coupling, Electronic structure theory, Hund's rules, The Thomas-Fermi
approximation, the Periodic table.
General relativity: Scalar gauge theory of GR, Curvature, Kaluza-Klein ideas.
Classical mechanics: Non-holonomic dynamics, Angular velocity, Rotation of
non-rigid systems, Separability.
Electromagnetic theory: The nature of magnetism, The Darwin Hamiltonian with
applications to plasmas and superconductivity. See link below!
Pedagogical and popular accounts of physics.
You
can reach me by e-mail at: hanno@mech.kth.se
