Helmuth Kulenkampff

Who was Helmuth Kulenkampff?

Helmuth Kulenkampff was a physicist notable for his studies of X-rays. He obtained his PhD in 1922 under Ernst Wagner at the University of Munich with a thesis entitled: Über das Kontinuierliche Röntgenspektrum.

In 1937, Alfred Ehmert made the surprising observation that comic ray absorption in water is less than in air for same effective thickness. In 1938, Kulenkampff was the first to correctly explain this effect in terms of meson decay, and this then enabled Hans Heinrich Euler and Werner Heisenberg to calculate an improved figure for meson decay time.