Oscillations, Waves, and Interactions - GWDG

Preface
This year we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Dritte Physikalische Institut.
Professor Erwin Meyer, the first director, soon after the foundation formed the institute’s
own style. He established various groups which, headed by a senior scientist,
dealt with quite different fields of research. Based on an atmosphere of academic
freedom and confidence these groups did not just complement one another. Mutual
support with equipment and financial assistance among the groups went without
saying.
This spirit has been perpetuated by Erwin Meyers former students, in particular by
his successors Manfred R. Schroeder and Werner Lauterborn, but also by Reinhard
Pottel, Hans-Wilhelm Helberg, Dirk Ronneberger, and Dieter Guicking, who spent
their academic career in the institute. It has promoted a broad spectrum of research
topics which were and still are conjointly treated, bond by the concerted theme
“oscillations and waves”.
In this book some review articles by former and present members of the Dritte are
combined, indicating the broadness of the research interests which developed from
this theme. Unfortunately, such collection of articles allows only for a limited access
to the broad variety of different fields of interest that have been dealt with in the
past. The reviews are, therefore, complemented by a short overview which, again,
cannot show all aspects of successful work during the sixty years of existence of the
institute. Also, a short outlook is given at the end of the book on future research
objectives in complex systems and biophysics.
We would like to thank all colleagues who established by their activity to the
reputation of the institute and who thus rendered this book possible. We thank the
technicians who by their skilful constructions of new apparatus enabled many new and
more precise methods of measurements, and we thank the tracer, photographer, and
administration secretaries for their continual support. We are particularly indebted
to the authors who spent much time to contribute to this book.
Göttingen, September 2007
Thomas Kurz
Ulrich Parlitz
Udo Kaatze