Essays on Einstein's Science And
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Hendrik Antoon Lorentz's Struggle with Quantum Theory A. J
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz’s struggle with quantum theory A. J. Kox Archive for History of Exact Sciences ISSN 0003-9519 Volume 67 Number 2 Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. (2013) 67:149-170 DOI 10.1007/s00407-012-0107-8 1 23 Your article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works, as long as the author of the original work is cited. You may self- archive this article on your own website, an institutional repository or funder’s repository and make it publicly available immediately. 1 23 Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. (2013) 67:149–170 DOI 10.1007/s00407-012-0107-8 Hendrik Antoon Lorentz’s struggle with quantum theory A. J. Kox Received: 15 June 2012 / Published online: 24 July 2012 © The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract A historical overview is given of the contributions of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz in quantum theory. Although especially his early work is valuable, the main importance of Lorentz’s work lies in the conceptual clarifications he provided and in his critique of the foundations of quantum theory. 1 Introduction The Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853–1928) is generally viewed as an icon of classical, nineteenth-century physics—indeed, as one of the last masters of that era. Thus, it may come as a bit of a surprise that he also made important contribu- tions to quantum theory, the quintessential non-classical twentieth-century develop- ment in physics. The importance of Lorentz’s work lies not so much in his concrete contributions to the actual physics—although some of his early work was ground- breaking—but rather in the conceptual clarifications he provided and his critique of the foundations and interpretations of the new ideas. -
Einstein's Washington Manuscript on Unified Field Theory
Einstein’s Washington Manuscript on Unified Field Theory Tilman Sauer∗ and Tobias Schütz† Institute of Mathematics Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz D-55099 Mainz, Germany Version of August 25, 2020 Abstract In this note, we point attention to and briefly discuss a curious manu- script of Einstein, composed in 1938 and entitled “Unified Field Theory,” the only such writing, published or unpublished, carrying this title without any further specification. Apparently never intended for publication, the manuscript sheds light both on Einstein’s modus operandi as well as on the public role of Einstein’s later work on a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism. arXiv:2008.10005v1 [physics.hist-ph] 23 Aug 2020 ∗[email protected] †[email protected] 1 1 The “Washington manuscript” In July 1938, the Princeton based journal Annals of Mathematics published a paper On a Generalization of Kaluza’s Theory of Electricity in its Vol. 39, issue No. 3 (Einstein and Bergmann, 1938). The paper was co-authored by Albert Einstein (1879–1955) and his then assistant Peter Gabriel Bergmann (1915– 2002). It presented a new discussion of an approach toward a unified theory of the gravitational and electromagnetic fields based on an extension of the number of physical dimensions characterizing space-time. Such five-dimensional theories had been discussed already a number of times, notably by Theodor Kaluza in 1921, and then again in the late twenties by Oskar Klein and others (Goenner, 2004). Einstein had contributed to the discussion already in 1923 and in 1927, but had given up the approach in favor of another one based on distant parallelism (Sauer, 2014). -
Einstein's Equations for Spin $2 $ Mass $0 $ from Noether's Converse
Einstein’s Equations for Spin 2 Mass 0 from Noether’s Converse Hilbertian Assertion November 9, 2016 J. Brian Pitts Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge [email protected] forthcoming in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics Abstract An overlap between the general relativist and particle physicist views of Einstein gravity is uncovered. Noether’s 1918 paper developed Hilbert’s and Klein’s reflections on the conservation laws. Energy-momentum is just a term proportional to the field equations and a “curl” term with identically zero divergence. Noether proved a converse “Hilbertian assertion”: such “improper” conservation laws imply a generally covariant action. Later and independently, particle physicists derived the nonlinear Einstein equations as- suming the absence of negative-energy degrees of freedom (“ghosts”) for stability, along with universal coupling: all energy-momentum including gravity’s serves as a source for gravity. Those assumptions (all but) imply (for 0 graviton mass) that the energy-momentum is only a term proportional to the field equations and a symmetric curl, which implies the coalescence of the flat background geometry and the gravitational potential into an effective curved geometry. The flat metric, though useful in Rosenfeld’s stress-energy definition, disappears from the field equations. Thus the particle physics derivation uses a reinvented Noetherian converse Hilbertian assertion in Rosenfeld-tinged form. The Rosenfeld stress-energy is identically the canonical stress-energy plus a Belinfante curl and terms proportional to the field equations, so the flat metric is only a convenient mathematical trick without ontological commitment. Neither generalized relativity of motion, nor the identity of gravity and inertia, nor substantive general covariance is assumed. -
Einstein's Mistakes
Einstein’s Mistakes Einstein was the greatest genius of the Twentieth Century, but his discoveries were blighted with mistakes. The Human Failing of Genius. 1 PART 1 An evaluation of the man Here, Einstein grows up, his thinking evolves, and many quotations from him are listed. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein at 14 Einstein at 26 Einstein at 42 3 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein at age 61 (1940) 4 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Born in Ulm, Swabian region of Southern Germany. From a Jewish merchant family. Had a sister Maja. Family rejected Jewish customs. Did not inherit any mathematical talent. Inherited stubbornness, Inherited a roguish sense of humor, An inclination to mysticism, And a habit of grüblen or protracted, agonizing “brooding” over whatever was on its mind. Leading to the thought experiment. 5 Portrait in 1947 – age 68, and his habit of agonizing brooding over whatever was on its mind. He was in Princeton, NJ, USA. 6 Einstein the mystic •“Everyone who is seriously involved in pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man..” •“When I assess a theory, I ask myself, if I was God, would I have arranged the universe that way?” •His roguish sense of humor was always there. •When asked what will be his reactions to observational evidence against the bending of light predicted by his general theory of relativity, he said: •”Then I would feel sorry for the Good Lord. The theory is correct anyway.” 7 Einstein: Mathematics •More quotations from Einstein: •“How it is possible that mathematics, a product of human thought that is independent of experience, fits so excellently the objects of physical reality?” •Questions asked by many people and Einstein: •“Is God a mathematician?” •His conclusion: •“ The Lord is cunning, but not malicious.” 8 Einstein the Stubborn Mystic “What interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world” Some broadcasters expunged the comment from the soundtrack because they thought it was blasphemous. -
Science Education and Our Future
Welcome to Frontiers Page 1 of 10 Science Education and Our Future Yervant Terzian ACCORDING TO CURRENT theory, matter was created from energy at the time of the Big Bang, at the beginning of cosmic history. As the hot, early universe expanded and cooled, it separated into pieces that later formed the hundreds of millions of galaxies we now see. One such galaxy was the Milky Way, which in turn spawned some 200 billion stars, of which the sun is one. Around the sun, a small planet was formed on which biological evolution has progressed during the last few billion years. You and I are part of the result and share this cosmic history. Now here we are, atoms from the Big Bang, an intelligent and technological civilization of about 6 billion, fast multiplying, and largely unhappy human beings. This long evolution has now given us the wisdom to ask what is it that we want. We all want survival, of course, but survival on our own terms, for ourselves and generations to come. 1, and probably you, would want those terms to be comfortable, happy, and democratic. If our most fundamental wish is a happy and democratic survival, this can be achieved only by an informed society. To be informed we must be educated, and in today's world no one ignorant of science and technology can be considered educated. Hence, science education appears fundamentally important to our happy future. During the past decades people have been asking me what was the value of science when during the Apollo mission inspired by President John E Kennedy, we spent $24 billion to visit the moon. -
Wolfgang Pauli Niels Bohr Paul Dirac Max Planck Richard Feynman
Wolfgang Pauli Niels Bohr Paul Dirac Max Planck Richard Feynman Louis de Broglie Norman Ramsey Willis Lamb Otto Stern Werner Heisenberg Walther Gerlach Ernest Rutherford Satyendranath Bose Max Born Erwin Schrödinger Eugene Wigner Arnold Sommerfeld Julian Schwinger David Bohm Enrico Fermi Albert Einstein Where discovery meets practice Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology IQ ST in Baden-Württemberg . Introduction “But I do not wish to be forced into abandoning strict These two quotes by Albert Einstein not only express his well more securely, develop new types of computer or construct highly causality without having defended it quite differently known aversion to quantum theory, they also come from two quite accurate measuring equipment. than I have so far. The idea that an electron exposed to a different periods of his life. The first is from a letter dated 19 April Thus quantum theory extends beyond the field of physics into other 1924 to Max Born regarding the latter’s statistical interpretation of areas, e.g. mathematics, engineering, chemistry, and even biology. beam freely chooses the moment and direction in which quantum mechanics. The second is from Einstein’s last lecture as Let us look at a few examples which illustrate this. The field of crypt it wants to move is unbearable to me. If that is the case, part of a series of classes by the American physicist John Archibald ography uses number theory, which constitutes a subdiscipline of then I would rather be a cobbler or a casino employee Wheeler in 1954 at Princeton. pure mathematics. Producing a quantum computer with new types than a physicist.” The realization that, in the quantum world, objects only exist when of gates on the basis of the superposition principle from quantum they are measured – and this is what is behind the moon/mouse mechanics requires the involvement of engineering. -
25 Years of Quantum Hall Effect
S´eminaire Poincar´e2 (2004) 1 – 16 S´eminaire Poincar´e 25 Years of Quantum Hall Effect (QHE) A Personal View on the Discovery, Physics and Applications of this Quantum Effect Klaus von Klitzing Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Festk¨orperforschung Heisenbergstr. 1 D-70569 Stuttgart Germany 1 Historical Aspects The birthday of the quantum Hall effect (QHE) can be fixed very accurately. It was the night of the 4th to the 5th of February 1980 at around 2 a.m. during an experiment at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Grenoble. The research topic included the characterization of the electronic transport of silicon field effect transistors. How can one improve the mobility of these devices? Which scattering processes (surface roughness, interface charges, impurities etc.) dominate the motion of the electrons in the very thin layer of only a few nanometers at the interface between silicon and silicon dioxide? For this research, Dr. Dorda (Siemens AG) and Dr. Pepper (Plessey Company) provided specially designed devices (Hall devices) as shown in Fig.1, which allow direct measurements of the resistivity tensor. Figure 1: Typical silicon MOSFET device used for measurements of the xx- and xy-components of the resistivity tensor. For a fixed source-drain current between the contacts S and D, the potential drops between the probes P − P and H − H are directly proportional to the resistivities ρxx and ρxy. A positive gate voltage increases the carrier density below the gate. For the experiments, low temperatures (typically 4.2 K) were used in order to suppress dis- turbing scattering processes originating from electron-phonon interactions. -
CV Klaus Von Klitzing
Curriculum Vitae Professor Dr. Klaus von Klitzing Name: Klaus von Klitzing Born: 28 June 1943 Major Scientific Interests: Solid State Research, Experimental Solid Physics, Low Dimensional Electron Systems, Quantum Hall Effect Nobel Prize in Physics 1985 Academic and Professional Career since 1985 Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and Honorary Professor at Stuttgart University, Germany 1980 - 1984 Professor at the Technical University Munich, Germany 1978 Habilitation 1972 Ph.D. in Physics 1969 - 1980 University of Würzburg, Germany 1962 - 1969 Diploma in Physics Technical University Braunschweig, Germany Functions in Scientific Societies and Committees (Selection) 2011 Scientific Advisory Board Graphene Flagship 2008 Scientific Committee Bayer Climate Award Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina www.leopoldina.org 1 2007 EURAMET Research Council 2006 Board of Trustees “Institute of Advanced Studies” of TUM 2005 Jury Member START-Wittgenstein Program Austria 2005 Scientific Committee International Solvay Institutes 2000 NTT - Basic Research Laboratory Advisory Board 1992 Bord of Trustees of the German Museum Munich, Germany 1989 Bord of Trustees of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig Honours and Awarded Memberships (Selection) 2019 Member of Orden Pour le Mérite 2012 TUM Distinguished Affiliated Professor 2011 Honorary Degree of the National University of Mongolia 2011 Honorary Degree of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 2010 Honorary Member of the Deutsche Hochschulverband -
Einstein, Nordström and the Early Demise of Scalar, Lorentz Covariant Theories of Gravitation
JOHN D. NORTON EINSTEIN, NORDSTRÖM AND THE EARLY DEMISE OF SCALAR, LORENTZ COVARIANT THEORIES OF GRAVITATION 1. INTRODUCTION The advent of the special theory of relativity in 1905 brought many problems for the physics community. One, it seemed, would not be a great source of trouble. It was the problem of reconciling Newtonian gravitation theory with the new theory of space and time. Indeed it seemed that Newtonian theory could be rendered compatible with special relativity by any number of small modifications, each of which would be unlikely to lead to any significant deviations from the empirically testable conse- quences of Newtonian theory.1 Einstein’s response to this problem is now legend. He decided almost immediately to abandon the search for a Lorentz covariant gravitation theory, for he had failed to construct such a theory that was compatible with the equality of inertial and gravitational mass. Positing what he later called the principle of equivalence, he decided that gravitation theory held the key to repairing what he perceived as the defect of the special theory of relativity—its relativity principle failed to apply to accelerated motion. He advanced a novel gravitation theory in which the gravitational potential was the now variable speed of light and in which special relativity held only as a limiting case. It is almost impossible for modern readers to view this story with their vision unclouded by the knowledge that Einstein’s fantastic 1907 speculations would lead to his greatest scientific success, the general theory of relativity. Yet, as we shall see, in 1 In the historical period under consideration, there was no single label for a gravitation theory compat- ible with special relativity. -
Berlin Period Reports on Albert Einstein's Einstein's FBI File –
Appendix Einstein’s FBI file – reports on Albert Einstein’s Berlin period 322 Appendix German archives are not the only place where Einstein dossiers can be found. Leaving aside other countries, at least one personal dossier exists in the USA: the Einstein File of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).1036 This file holds 1,427 pages. In our context the numerous reports about Ein- stein’s “Berlin period” are of particular interest. Taking a closer look at them does not lead us beyond the scope of this book. On the contrary, these reports give a complex picture of Einstein’s political activities during his Berlin period – albeit from a very specific point of view: the view of the American CIC (Counter Intelligence Corps) and the FBI of the first half of the 1950s. The core of these reports is the allegation that Einstein had cooperated with the communists and that his address (or “office”) had been used from 1929 to 1932 as a relay point for messages by the CPG (Communist Party of Germany, KPD), the Communist International and the Soviet Secret Service. The ultimate aim of these investigations was, reportedly, to revoke Einstein’s United States citizenship and banish him. Space constraints prevent a complete review of the individual reports here. Sounderthegivencircumstancesasurveyofthecontentsofthetwomost im- portant reports will have to suffice for our purposes along with some additional information. These reports are dated 13 March 1950 and 25 January 1951. 13 March 1950 The first comprehensive report by the CIC (Hq. 66th CIC Detachment)1037 about Einstein’s complicity in activities by the CPG and the Soviet Secret Service be- tween 1929 and 1932 is dated 13 March 1950.1038 Army General Staff only submit- ted this letter to the FBI on 7 September 1950. -
Testing Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
Astron. Nachr. / AN 326 (2005), No. 7 – Short Contributions AG 2005 Köln 1 Testing Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity GUDRUN WOLFSCHMIDT1 1Universität Hamburg, Schwerpunkt Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Mathematik und Technik, Bundesstraße 55, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany [email protected] Albert Einstein (1879–1955) had already proposed three possibilities for testing his General Theory of Relativity: • An additional perihel motion of Mercury (4300/century), which could not be explained by Newton’s theory of gravity; this was already known since 1850. • Deflection of light from the Sun (1.7500): The angular position of the stars are more distant from the Sun during a total solar eclipse than half a year later during the night. • Gravitational redshift of the Sun (2 × 10−6 of the wave length or 0.01 Å): The spectral lines of the Sun are shifted to the red by one millionth of the wave length of the light; this corresponds to a Doppler shift of 0.6 km/s. Many astronomers were sceptical against the new theory (ART), but Erwin Finlay-Freundlich (1885–1964) be- came interested in the ART since 1913 and tried to verify the theory empirically. He started an solar eclipse expedition in 1914 with the help of the Academy of Sciences which was not successful due to the outbreak of World War II. Karl Schwarzschild (1873–1916) tried to measure the redshift in the solar spectrum in 1913–1914 in the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam. From these experiments it was clear that results could only be reached with much larger instruments. Arthur S. -
Copyrighted Material
ftoc.qrk 5/24/04 1:46 PM Page iii Contents Timeline v de Sitter,Willem 72 Dukas, Helen 74 Introduction 1 E = mc2 76 Eddington, Sir Arthur 79 Absentmindedness 3 Education 82 Anti-Semitism 4 Ehrenfest, Paul 85 Arms Race 8 Einstein, Elsa Löwenthal 88 Atomic Bomb 9 Einstein, Mileva Maric 93 Awards 16 Einstein Field Equations 100 Beauty and Equations 17 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Besso, Michele 18 Argument 101 Black Holes 21 Einstein Ring 106 Bohr, Niels Henrik David 25 Einstein Tower 107 Books about Einstein 30 Einsteinium 108 Born, Max 33 Electrodynamics 108 Bose-Einstein Condensate 34 Ether 110 Brain 36 FBI 113 Brownian Motion 39 Freud, Sigmund 116 Career 41 Friedmann, Alexander 117 Causality 44 Germany 119 Childhood 46 God 124 Children 49 Gravitation 126 Clothes 58 Gravitational Waves 128 CommunismCOPYRIGHTED 59 Grossmann, MATERIAL Marcel 129 Correspondence 62 Hair 131 Cosmological Constant 63 Heisenberg, Werner Karl 132 Cosmology 65 Hidden Variables 137 Curie, Marie 68 Hilbert, David 138 Death 70 Hitler, Adolf 141 iii ftoc.qrk 5/24/04 1:46 PM Page iv iv Contents Inventions 142 Poincaré, Henri 220 Israel 144 Popular Works 222 Japan 146 Positivism 223 Jokes about Einstein 148 Princeton 226 Judaism 149 Quantum Mechanics 230 Kaluza-Klein Theory 151 Reference Frames 237 League of Nations 153 Relativity, General Lemaître, Georges 154 Theory of 239 Lenard, Philipp 156 Relativity, Special Lorentz, Hendrik 158 Theory of 247 Mach, Ernst 161 Religion 255 Mathematics 164 Roosevelt, Franklin D. 258 McCarthyism 166 Russell-Einstein Manifesto 260 Michelson-Morley Experiment 167 Schroedinger, Erwin 261 Millikan, Robert 171 Solvay Conferences 265 Miracle Year 174 Space-Time 267 Monroe, Marilyn 179 Spinoza, Baruch (Benedictus) 268 Mysticism 179 Stark, Johannes 270 Myths and Switzerland 272 Misconceptions 181 Thought Experiments 274 Nazism 184 Time Travel 276 Newton, Isaac 188 Twin Paradox 279 Nobel Prize in Physics 190 Uncertainty Principle 280 Olympia Academy 195 Unified Theory 282 Oppenheimer, J.