DOCSLIB.ORG

Planck's Law As a Consequence of the Zeropoint Radiation Field

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Planck's Law As a Consequence of the Zeropoint Radiation Field REVISTA MEXICANA DE FISICA´ 48 SUPLEMENTO 1, 1 - 8 SEPTIEMBRE 2002 Planck’s law as a consequence of the zeropoint radiation field L. de la Pena˜ and A.M. Cetto Instituto de F´ısica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma´ de Mexico´ Apdo. Post. 20-364, 01000 Mexico,´ D.F., Mexico Recibido el 19 de marzo de 2001; aceptado el 3 de julio de 2001 In this paper we show that a strong link exists between Planck’s blackbody radiation formula and the zeropoint field. Specifically, the hypothesis that the equilibrium field (including the zeropoint term) follows a canonical distribution, in combination with the requirements that its specific heat remain finite as the temperature T ! 0 and that it behave classically as T ! 1, implies that the energy of the zeropoint field has a fixed value and leads to Planck’s law for the equilibrium distribution at arbitrary T ; this in turn implies quantization of the energy of the field oscillators. There is no need to introduce any quantum property or ad hoc assumption for the purpose of the present derivation. Keywords: Zeropoint field; Planck’s law; blackbody radiation; energy quantization. En este trabajo se exhibe la existencia de una estrecha relacion´ entre la formula´ de Planck para la radiacion´ de cuerpo negro y el campo de punto cero. Espec´ıficamente, la hipotesis´ de que el campo de equilibrio (incluido el termino´ de punto cero) sigue una distribucion´ canonica,´ junto con las demandas de que su calor espec´ıfico se mantenga finito conforme T ! 0 y de que se comporte clsicamente para T ! 1, implica que la energ´ıa del campo de punto cero tiene un valor fijo y conduce a la ley de Planck para la distribucion´ de equilibrio a temperatura arbitraria; esto a su vez implica la cuantizacion´ de la energ´ıa de los osciladores del campo. No hay necesidad de introducir propiedades cuanticas´ o supuestos ad hoc para el proposito´ de la presente derivacion.´ Descriptores: Campo de punto cero; ley de Planck; radiacion´ de cuerpo negro; cuantizacion´ de la energ´ıa. PACS: 02.50.Ey; 03.65.Ta; 05.40.+j To our colleague Leopoldo Garc´ıa Col´ın, with whom we have the fortune to share a long and warm friendship —and a common interest in the fundamentals of physics. 1. Introduction The proposal of Planck and Nernst, appealing as it sounds, remained idle for decades in an obscure corner of As has been repeatedly recalled on occasion of its centen- physics until it was finally revived by Boyer [9], after some nial, the first problem to find an answer in terms of quantum previous attempts, notably those by Park and Epstein [10] and physics was the determination of the spectrum of blackbody Surdin et al. [11] In a first attempt to put to the proof the fea- radiation. Planck noted right from the start [1; 2] —and Eins- sibility of the idea, Boyer showed that a classical treatment of tein elaborated on it briefly afterwards [3]— that the correct the radiation field including a random zeropoint component formula for the spectral distribution of the blackbody radia- of average energy ~!=2 per normal mode, along with some tion field in thermal equilibrium was obtained by introducing assumptions on the role of the container walls in restoring a discrete element; this led to a picture that is now a funda- and maintaining equilibrium, leads to Planck’s distribution mental part of quantum theory. law. This work aroused interest in the subject and triggered What has not been so clearly established, however, is the a whole series of efforts (see e.g. Refs. 12–22), several of link between the Planck distribution (with the ensuing ener- which contain significant positive results; however, what is gy quantization) and the zeropoint field. Planck discovered still wanting is a definitive derivation of the blackbody spec- the latter only in 1911, while formulating his so-called se- trum as a direct result of the presence of the zeropoint field cond theory [4], in which the total mean energy of the matter free of ad hoc assumptions. oscillators contains a zeropoint term ~!=2. The possibility of a direct relationship between quantization as revealed by Planck’s law, and the zeropoint energy of matter oscillators, In the present paper, which is a revision and updating of was envisaged for the first time, still in a classical context, an earlier work [23], we turn back to this problem, carefully by Einstein and Stern in 1913 [5]. However, it was Nernst [7] avoiding the use of any ad hoc assumption but maintaining who a few years later suggested to read Planck’s complete at the same time the simplicity of the reasoning. A couple of blackbody radiation formula as saying that also the electro- elementary and customary statistical and thermodynamic ar- magnetic field possesses such zeropoint fluctuations, and to guments are here used to demonstrate that the quantization consider these fluctuations as the source of quantization. A of the radiation field as implied by Planck’s law, and this law nice discussion of some of these and related points can be itself, follow indeed from the hypothesis of the existence of seen in Milonni’s book [8], where also the case is made for a real fluctuating zeropoint field with energy ~!=2. There is the need to recognize the reality of the zeropoint radiation no need to introduce any explicit quantum property or ad hoc field. assumption for the purpose of the present derivation. 2 ENGLISHL. DE LA PENA˜ AND A.M. CETTO 2. Inconsistency between the zeropoint field For f = Er, r = 0; 1; 2;:::, one obtains in particular and equipartition of energy 0 Er = EEr ¡ Er+1: (8) Let us consider the equilibrium radiation field inside a cavi- ty at temperature T . The field is made of independent modes This result is a generalization of the well-known Einstein for- characterized by a given frequency !, so that we may fo- mula for the thermal energy fluctuations, obtained for r = 1, cus on one frequency in particular. Irrespective of whether dE 2 the system is classical or quantum, the energy is distributed = E ¡ E2: (9) among the modes of a given frequency within the energy in- d¯ terval between E and E + dE following a canonical distribu- Another useful formula derived from Eq. (5) is tion, r r r 1 d Z 1 E = (¡) r ; (10) W (E) dE = g(E)e¡¯E dE; (1) Z d¯ Z of which Eq. (6) is a particular case and Eq. (8) is an imme- where ¯ = 1=kT and g(E) represents the intrinsic probabi- diate consequence. We recall that Eqs. (5)–(10) hold for any lity for the states with energy around E. This is our central function g(E), including of course the classical value g = 1. assumption. In classical physics one has From Einstein’s formula, rewritten as @E 2 g(E) = 1; (2) kT 2 = E2 ¡ E ´ σ2 ; (11) @T E while in quantum physics g(E) takes the form of a discrete a simple relation between the energy fluctuations σ2 and the distribution. The main task of the present investigation is to E specific heat of the field c = @E=@T follows, namely, derive the function g(E) from the assumption of the existence V of the zeropoint radiation field [see Eq. (48)]. 2 2 kT cV = σE : (12) Given their relevance for the present discussion, we recall a couple of (classical) results that are obtained for g(E) = 1. This result holds in principle for any temperature, includ- Firstly, the average energy of every field oscillator is given by ing T = 0 [21; 24]. Hence, since according to the third law Z of thermodynamics c approaches zero as T ! 0, also the 1 1 V E = EW (E) dE = ; (3) energy variance of the field must go to zero as T ! 0. More ¯ 2 0 specifically, it must go to zero as rapidly as T cV (below we see that this means exponentially rapid). and the higher-order moments are given by 2 In classical physics, with E2 = 2E according to Eq. (4), r Er = r!E : (4) this demand on the energy fluctuations implies that E ! 0 as T ! 0, which is automatically satisfied by the equipartition As we see, g(E)=1 leads to equipartition of energy E =kT formula E = kT and leads to the Rayleigh-Jeans distribution among the radiation oscillators and thus it is in contradiction when the result is inserted into the Planck formula for the with experiment, as is well known after a century of quan- equilibrium spectral energy density, ½(!) = (!2=¼2c3)E. tum physics. Thus, results such as Eq. (4) obviously require Things are different in the presence of the zeropoint field, revision. however. Let us denote by E0 the average value of the energy For the general case with arbitray g(E), the partition of this field. Equation (12) tells us that even if E0 > 0, the function is given by variance of the zeropoint energy must vanish, which means Z that ¡¯E Z = g(E)e dE; (5) 2 E2 = E at T = 0; (13) so that its derivative with respect to ¯ is contrary to the (classical) equation [Eq. 4]. This result will play an important role in what follows. In fact, the present 0 Z = ¡Z E: (6) derivation of Planck’s law differs from all previous attempts (except for that of Ref. 23) by this crucial point. Going back Further, for an arbitrary function f(E) one has to Eq. (1), it means that the function g(E) must indeed be a Z 1 non trivial function of the energy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Otto Sackur's Pioneering Exploits in the Quantum Theory Of
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Catalogo dei prodotti della ricerca Chapter 3 Putting the Quantum to Work: Otto Sackur’s Pioneering Exploits in the Quantum Theory of Gases Massimiliano Badino and Bretislav Friedrich After its appearance in the context of radiation theory, the quantum hypothesis rapidly diffused into other fields. By 1910, the crisis of classical traditions of physics and chemistry—while taking the quantum into account—became increas- ingly evident. The First Solvay Conference in 1911 pushed quantum theory to the fore, and many leading physicists responded by embracing the quantum hypoth- esis as a way to solve outstanding problems in the theory of matter. Until about 1910, quantum physics had drawn much of its inspiration from two sources. The first was the complex formal machinery connected with Max Planck’s theory of radiation and, above all, its close relationship with probabilis- tic arguments and statistical mechanics. The fledgling 1900–1901 version of this theory hinged on the application of Ludwig Boltzmann’s 1877 combinatorial pro- cedure to determine the state of maximum probability for a set of oscillators. In his 1906 book on heat radiation, Planck made the connection with gas theory even tighter. To illustrate the use of the procedure Boltzmann originally developed for an ideal gas, Planck showed how to extend the analysis of the phase space, com- monplace among practitioners of statistical mechanics, to electromagnetic oscil- lators (Planck 1906, 140–148). In doing so, Planck identified a crucial difference between the phase space of the gas molecules and that of oscillators used in quan- tum theory.
    [Show full text]
  • Design of Experiments for Light Speed Invariance to Moving Observers
    Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 24 February 2021 doi:10.20944/preprints202102.0547.v1 DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS FOR LIGHT SPEED INVARIANCE TO MOVING OBSERVERS Design of experiments for light speed invariance to moving observers Revised 2/22/2021 08:08:00 Qian Chen International Education Foundation 4667 Highland Ct, Grandville, MI, USA 49418 e-mail: [email protected] The principle of the constancy of the velocity of light, which stated that the light velocity is invariant to the motion of the emitter, was well established and directly proven by experiments. Interestingly, the further assumption that the light velocity is independent of the motion of the observer was, arguably, never directly proven by any experiment for a century. This paper proposed the design of two experiments to directly test this assumption, which tried to address some perceived technical difficulty in such experiments. One is to directly measure the light speed as to moving sensors. The experiment setup is designed in such a way that the concerns of time synchronization and dilation can be avoided. Another experiment is to test the isotropy of the light speed to a moving particle in the electromagnetic accelerator by measuring the momentum to acceleration ratio. The experiment result, if positive, will provide direct and solid proof of the assumption. Otherwise, it may imply a need for further investigation. Since the light speed invariance to moving observers is a key assumption of some fundamental physical theory, either way, the experiments will have significant meanings. Keywords: Light velocity, Special Relativity, Time dilation, Time synchronization, Sagnac effect, Mass- Energy relationship, Particle acceleration, Michelson-Morley experiment, Asymmetry Theory search for direct experimental proof is of significant I.
    [Show full text]
  • The Collaboration of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein
    Asian Journal of Physics Vol 24, No 4 (2015) March The collaboration of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein Estelle Asmodelle University of Central Lancashire School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Preston, Lancashire, UK PR1 2HE. e-mail: [email protected]; Phone: +61 418 676 586. _____________________________________________________________________________________ This is a contemporary review of the involvement of Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein’s first wife, in his theoretical work between the period of 1900 to 1905. Separate biographies are outlined for both Mileva and Einstein, prior to their attendance at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zürich in 1896. Then, a combined journal is described, detailing significant events. In additional to a biographical sketch, comments by various authors are compared and contrasted concerning two narratives: firstly, the sequence of events that happened and the couple’s relationship at particular times. Secondly, the contents of letters from both Einstein and Mileva. Some interpretations of the usage of pronouns in those letters during 1899 and 1905 are re-examined, and a different hypothesis regarding the usage of those pronouns is introduced. Various papers are examined and the content of each subsequent paper is compared to the work that Mileva was performing. With a different take, this treatment further suggests that the couple continued to work together much longer than other authors have indicated. We also evaluate critics and supporters of the hypothesis that Mileva was involved in Einstein’s work, and refocus this within a historical context, in terms of women in science in the late 19th century. Finally, the definition of, collaboration (co-authorship, specifically) is outlined.
    [Show full text]
  • Quantum Mechanics As a Theory of Relativistic Brownian Motion 3
    ANNALEN DER PHYSIK 7. FOLGE * BAND 27, HEFT 1 * 1971 Quantum Mechanics as a Theory of Relativistic 6RowNian Motion By Yu.A.RYLOV Abstract It is shown that non-relativistic quantum mechanics can be treated as a kind of relati- vistic statistical theory which describes a random motion of a classical particle. The theory is relativistic in the sense that for the description of the particle behaviour the relativistic notion of the state is used. This is very important because a statistics is a state calculus and the result depends on the definition of the notion of state. Attempts by different authors [1-1411) to treat quantum mechanics from the position of classical theory did not lead to full success2). Though it may seem paradoxical, the reason there of, in our opinion, lies in the fact that the attempts to understand non-relativistic quantum mechanics were based on non-relati- vistic classical mechanics. In this paper we shall show that quantum mechanics is a variety of the re- lativistic theory of BRowNian motion3). The difference of our approach from approaches of others lies in the fact that we treat non-relativistic quantum mechanics from the point of view of relativistic classical mechanics. New principles are not needed for understanding the quantum mechanics of a single particle in this approach. In particular, such specific quantum mechanical principles as the uncertainty and the correspondence principle may be under- stood from the classical position. The clue to such an approach is the relativistic notion of system state. 1. The notion of state In non-relativistic physics the state of a physical system is defined4) as a set of quantities which are given at a certain moment of time and determine these quantities at any subsequent moment of time.
    [Show full text]
  • Annalen Der Physik 17: 132–148,1905 (Received on March 18Th)
    A review of A new determination of molecular dimensions by Albert Einstein Fang Xu June 11th 2007 Hatsopoulos Microfluids Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Einstein’s Miraculous year: 1905 • the photoelectric effect: "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light", Annalen der Physik 17: 132–148,1905 (received on March 18th). • A new determination of molecular dimensions. This PhD thesis was completed on April 30th and submitted on July 20th, 1905. (Annalen der Physik 19: 289-306, 1906; corrections, 34: 591-592, 1911) • Brownian motion: "On the Motion—Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat—of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid", Annalen der Physik 17: 549–560,1905 (received on May 11th). • special theory of relativity: "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", Annalen der Physik 17: 891– 921, 1905 (received on June 30th ). Albert Einstein at his • mass-energy equivalence: "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", Annalen desk in the Swiss Patent der Physik 18: 639–641, 1905 (received September office, Bern (1905) 27th ). References for viscosity of dilute suspensions • Albert Einstein, A new determination of molecular dimensions. Annalen der Physik 19: 289-306, 1906; corrections, 34: 591-592, 1911 (English translation: Albert Einstein, Investigations on the theory of the Brownian movement, Edited with notes by R. FÜrth, translated by A.D. Cowper, Dover, New York, 1956) • G. K. Batchelor, An introduction to fluid dynamics, p246 Cambridge University press, Cambridge, 1993 • Gary Leal, Laminar Flow and Convective Transport Processes Scaling Principles and Asymptotic Analysis, p175, Butterworth-Heinemann, Newton, 1992 • William M.
    [Show full text]
  • Dualism of the Heisenberg and Schrödinger Approaches to the Quantum States Entering a One-Dimensional Electron Gas
    Journal of Modern Physics, 2020, 11, 475-485 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jmp ISSN Online: 2153-120X ISSN Print: 2153-1196 Dualism of the Heisenberg and Schrödinger Approaches to the Quantum States Entering a One-Dimensional Electron Gas Stanisław Olszewski Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences Kasprzaka, Warsaw, Poland How to cite this paper: Olszewski, S. Abstract (2020) Dualism of the Heisenberg and Schrödinger Approaches to the Quantum According to quantum mechanics, the commutation property of the energy States Entering a One-Dimensional Elec- Hamiltonian with the momentum operator should give the definite values not tron Gas. Journal of Modern Physics, 11, only for energy but also for the momentum quantum levels. A difficulty pro- 475-485. vided by the standing-like boundary conditions of the electron gas is that the https://doi.org/10.4236/jmp.2020.113030 Hamiltonian eigenfunctions are different than eigenfunctions of the momen- Received: February 19, 2020 tum operator. In results the electron momenta are obtained from the corres- Accepted: March 22, 2020 pondence rule between the classical and quantum mechanics given by Landau Published: March 25, 2020 and Lifshits. As a consequence the statistics of solutions representing not only the energy values but also the electron momenta should be taken into ac- Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. count. In the Heisenberg picture of quantum mechanics, the momenta are This work is licensed under the Creative easily obtained because the electron oscillators are there directly considered. Commons Attribution International In fact, the Hamiltonian entering the Heisenberg method can be defined in License (CC BY 4.0).
    [Show full text]
  • International Year of Light Blog Einstein 1905
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided9/1 2by/2 Repositorio015 Institucional de laE Universidadinstein 19 0de5: Alicante From “Energy quanta” to “Light quanta” | International Year of Light BlogInternational Year of Light Blog International Year of Light Blog Einstein 1905: From “Energy quanta” to “Light quanta” NOVEMBER 23, 2015NOVEMBER 22, 2015 LIGHT2015 3 COMMENTS “The energy of a light ray spreading out from a point source is not continuously distributed over an increasing space [wave theory of light] but consists of a finite number of energy quanta which are localized at points in space, which move without dividing, and which can only be produced and absorbed as complete units.” With these words Albert Einstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein) (1879-1955) introduced his “heuristic point of view toward the emission and transformation of light” which was presented in his first Annus Mirabilis paper published in 1905, a year that Einstein himself referred to as “very revolutionary”. Einstein introduced the concept of “light quanta”, an indivisible packet, although it was not until 1926 when the term “photon” (coined by Gilbert Lewis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_N._Lewis) (1875-1946) in an article published in Nature) substituted Einstein’s “light quanta” forever. Of course, this year 2015 marks the centenary of the publication of Einstein’s papers on general relativity and –as the IYL 2015 Resolution points out – “the embedding of light in cosmology thorough general relativity”. However, perhaps it is not so well known that Einstein also made several seminal contributions to the science of light.
    [Show full text]
  • {How Sommerfeld Extended Bohr's Model of the Atom (1913–1916)}
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263003051 How Sommerfeld extended Bohr's model of the atom (1913-1916) Article in European Physical Journal H, The · December 2013 DOI: 10.1140/epjh/e2013-40052-4 CITATIONS READS 12 33,525 1 author: Michael Eckert Deutsches Museum 160 PUBLICATIONS 524 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Fluid mechanics View project History of Physics View project All content following this page was uploaded by Michael Eckert on 25 November 2014. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Eur. Phys. J. H 39, 141–156 (2014) THE EUROPEAN DOI: 10.1140/epjh/e2013-40052-4 PHYSICAL JOURNAL H How Sommerfeld extended Bohr’s model of the atom (1913–1916) Michael Eckerta Deutsches Museum, D-80306 Munich, Germany Received 13 December 2013 / Received in final form 17 December 2013 Published online 30 January 2014 c EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag 2014 Abstract. Sommerfeld’s extension of Bohr’s atomic model was moti- vated by the quest for a theory of the Zeeman and Stark effects. The crucial idea was that a spectral line is made up of coinciding frequencies which are decomposed in an applied field. In October 1914 Johannes Stark had published the results of his experimental investigation on the splitting of spectral lines in hydrogen (Balmer lines) in electric fields, which showed that the frequency of each Balmer line becomes decom- posed into a multiplet of frequencies. The number of lines in such a decomposition grows with the index of the line in the Balmer series.
    [Show full text]
  • Normal Typicality and Von Neumann's Quantum Ergodic Theorem
    Normal Typicality and von Neumann’s Quantum Ergodic Theorem Sheldon Goldstein,∗† Joel L. Lebowitz,∗‡ Christian Mastrodonato,§¶ Roderich Tumulka,∗k and Nino Zangh`ı§∗∗ April 15, 2010 Abstract We discuss the content and significance of John von Neumann’s quantum er- godic theorem (QET) of 1929, a strong result arising from the mere mathematical structure of quantum mechanics. The QET is a precise formulation of what we call normal typicality, i.e., the statement that, for typical large systems, every initial wave function ψ0 from an energy shell is “normal”: it evolves in such a way that ψt ψt is, for most t, macroscopically equivalent to the micro-canonical | ih | density matrix. The QET has been mostly forgotten after it was criticized as a dynamically vacuous statement in several papers in the 1950s. However, we point out that this criticism does not apply to the actual QET, a correct statement of which does not appear in these papers, but to a different (indeed weaker) state- ment. Furthermore, we formulate a stronger statement of normal typicality, based on the observation that the bound on the deviations from the average specified by von Neumann is unnecessarily coarse and a much tighter (and more relevant) bound actually follows from his proof. PACS: 05.30.?d; 03.65.-w. Key words: ergodicity in quantum statistical me- chanics, equilibration, thermalization, generic Hamiltonian, typical Hamiltonian, arXiv:0907.0108v3 [quant-ph] 19 Apr 2010 macro-state. ∗Department of Mathematics, Rutgers University, 110 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854- 8019, USA. †E-mail: [email protected] ‡E-mail: [email protected] §Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Universit`adi Genova and INFN sezione di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies
    ON THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES By A. EINSTEIN June 30, 1905 It is known that Maxwell’s electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the recipro- cal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phe- nomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighbour- hood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet. In the conductor, however, we find an electro- motive force, to which in itself there is no corresponding energy, but which gives rise—assuming equality of relative motion in the two cases discussed—to elec- tric currents of the same path and intensity as those produced by the electric forces in the former case. Examples of this sort, together with the unsuccessful attempts to discover any motion of the earth relatively to the “light medium,” suggest that the phenomena of electrodynamics as well as of mechanics possess no properties corresponding to the idea of absolute rest.
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Luke University of Toronto Particle Physicists Web More » (And Others)
    Particle Physics and the Theory of Nothing Michael Luke University of Toronto Particle Physicists Web more » (and others) like to talk about 1 10 171,000 "Theory of Everything" 0.20 finding a “theory of Theory Of Everything everything” ... ... ... ... theory of everything ... Theory of Everything ... THEORY OF EVERYTHING ... Theory of Everything Theory of Everything ... ... Theory of Everything Particle Physicists (and others) like to talk about finding a “theory of everything” ... ... but what we could really use is a theory of Nothing. Nothing (an experimental definition): - seal the box and pump out all the air - shield with 103 light-years of lead to keep out the neutrinos We do not understand what is in the box. But I can tell you some of the things it does: screens charges (~dielectric) superconducts makes electrons (and other elementary particles) massive determines the nature of beta decay confines quarks into hadrons “melts” when heated to 1012 K is the same stuff as ~70% of the energy in the Universe Understanding what is in an empty box is the central goal of particle physics! back to 1905 .... “On a Heuristic Point of View about the Creation Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 14, Supplement, 164 –181 (2005) and Conversion of Light” (Annalen der Physik. 17: 132, 1905) Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 14, Supplement (2005) / www.ann-phys.org 165 c 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim c 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 14, Supplement, 164 –181 (2005) (Annalen der Physik. 17:891, 1905) Ann. Phys.
    [Show full text]
  • Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy-Content?
    DOES THE INERTIA OF A BODY DEPEND UPON ITS ENERGY-CONTENT? By A. EINSTEIN September 27, 1905 The results of the previous investigation lead to a very interesting conclusion, which is here to be deduced. I based that investigation on the Maxwell-Hertz equations for empty space, together with the Maxwellian expression for the electromagnetic energy of space, and in addition the principle that:— The laws by which the states of physical systems alter are independent of the alternative, to which of two systems of coordinates, in uniform motion of parallel translation relatively to each other, these alterations of state are referred (principle of relativity). With these principles∗ as my basis I deduced inter alia the following result (§ 8):— Let a system of plane waves of light, referred to the system of co-ordinates (x, y, z), possess the energy l; let the direction of the ray (the wave-normal) make an angle φ with the axis of x of the system. If we introduce a new system of co-ordinates (ξ, η, ζ) moving in uniform parallel translation with respect to the system (x, y, z), and having its origin of co-ordinates in motion along the axis of x with the velocity v, then this quantity of light—measured in the system (ξ, η, ζ)—possesses the energy 1 − v cosφ l∗ = l c p1 − v2/c2 where c denotes the velocity of light. We shall make use of this result in what follows. Let there be a stationary body in the system (x, y, z), and let its energy— referred to the system (x, y, z) be E0.
    [Show full text]