Hanno Essén
Universitetslektor (retired), Department of Mechanics, KTH
Docent, Theoretical
Physics, Stockholm University
I am a retired, but still active in research, senior lecturer (associate professor) at the Department of Mechanics,
KTH, Stockholm, Sweden. Former Director of undergraduate studies
(studierektor) 1990-2012 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 the aim is often
an improvment of 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.
I have also participated in empirical and experimental studies of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)
