02 Rajinder Singh.Pmd

ARTICLE ALBERT EINSTEIN’S INTERACTION WITH INDIAN PHYSICISTS - THEORY OF RELATIVITY AND INDIA’S REACTION RAJINDER SINGH* About hundred years ago, British astrophysicists confirmed Albert Einstein’s hypothesis that sun’s gravitational field deflects light. Indian English daily “The Statesman” in its Nov. 12, 1919 edition reported the results. Publication of the news is often mentioned in M.N. Saha’s biographies, who with S.N. Bose, in those days was translating A. Einstein’s and Hermann Minkowski’s papers in English, which were later published in the form of a book titled “The principle of relativity”. Einstein’s correspondence with Indian men of science are available. Results of its analysis will be explored in a forthcoming book. In the present communication, the exchange of ideas between Indian scientists and Einstein on the theory of relativity, and reception of the theory by Indian scientific community are explored. Also, it is argued that in the beginning of the 20th century Indian men of science were well equipped, and did not work in isolation. Introduction s far as the research related to the theory of relativity is concerned, India is a global player, Aas is evident from different articles.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 One of the well-known works in the post independent India is the equation given by Indian physicist Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri9; which describes the motion of nearby bits of matter. “The Raychaudhuri equation is central to the understanding of gravitational attraction in astrophysics and cosmology, and in particular underlies the famous singularity theorems of general relativity theory.”10 There are a number of biographies and articles, which deal with various aspects of Albert Einstein’s life.11,12,13,14,15,16 However, to the best of my knowledge, his interaction with Indian men of science remains unexplored. This will be done in future. The present article deals with the following: z The working condition of Indian scientists in the Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri. Credit: INSA. beginning of the 20th century. z Einstein’s communication and connections with some of the Indian scientists, and * Research Group: Physics Education and History of Physics, Physics Institute, University of Oldenburg, Germany. E-mail: z Reception of the theory of relativity by the Indian [email protected] scientific community. VOL. 85, NOS. 3–4 71 In order to understand the background, in the In his paper on ‘Special Theory of Relativity’, Einstein following section a short review of the origin of the theory did not refer to the previous research work. In 1914, L. of relativity is given. Silberstein, in the “Preface” of his book “The theory of relativity” stated that “Einstein’s theory of relativity was The Origin of Albert Einstein’s Theory of directly derived” from Lorentz work.22 About two months Relativity before his death, Einstein confessed that before he wrote Most of the physics textbooks give an impression that his own paper in 1905, he had read two papers of the Einstein waved the magic stick and theory of relativity was Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz from the year 1892 and 23 born. Study of historical literature shows that it was not 1895; but they had no influence on his work. the case. For instance, it is: (i) the British physicist James It is well known that after finishing his education at C. Maxwell, for the first time in 1877, used “the doctrine the university, Einstein did not get an appointment at a of relativity of all physical phenomena’ in the sense in university. Due to his friend Michele Besso, an Engineer, which we understand” today.17(ii) The French he got a position at a patent office in Bern, where he mathematician J.H. Poincare in 1898 proposed that “There worked from 1902 to 1909. During this period he continued is no absolute time”, and two years later, in an article he his research career. In 1914, before he came to Berlin, he used the words; “The principle of relative motion (emphasis had taught at different universities such as Zürich and in original), to signify that it is possible to ascertain only Prague. Einstein’s diary shows that he worked hard to give the relative motions of bodies.”18 final form to the theory of relativity. More importantly, his In 1905, without referring to any article, Einstein friends Marcel Grossmann (Mathematician) and Michele wrote the ‘Special Theory of Relativity’, which dealt with Besso helped him. For instance, “In collaboration with his electrodynamic phenomenon based on the following lifelong friend Michele Besso, Einstein studied the hypotheses. (a) Principle of constancy of light in a moving perihelion motion of Mercury on the basis of the “Entwurf” 24 as well as stationary medium. (b) Principle of invariance [Draft] theory.” of physical laws. With the hypotheses he questioned the Special theory of relativity, applied to the phenomenon absoluteness of space, time and mass. That is, they vary of gravitation led to the introduction of the General Theory depending on, whether the observer is at rest or in motion.19 of Relativity in 1916.25 The three cardinal points of Also, he established the equivalence of mass and energy; Einstein’s theory were: (a) the determination of the and change of mass with velocity.20,21 perihelion precession of Mercury’s orbit by the concept that the gravitation was mediated by the curvature of space and time. (b) Prediction of the deflection of stars’ light by the Sun and (c) the gravitational redshift of light in heavenly bodies like stars.26,27 Even before Einstein, J. Soldner in 1804 in his paper “On the deflection of a light ray from its rectilinear motion, by the attraction of a celestial body at which it nearly passes” had discussed the concept of deflection of light by celestial bodies.28 Einstein showed that the deflection value given by Soldner was only half than as it should be.29 In May 1919, the British astronomers, F.W. Dyson, A.S. Eddington, C. Davidson and their colleagues performed experiments; and published their results in 1920. They showed the correctness of Einstein’s prediction. However, they suggested the repetition of experiments in future.30 As far as the discovery of the theory of relativity is concerned, historical researches show that Poincare gave credit to H.A. Lorentz and Lorentz to A. Einstein.31 Now, the question to be asked is: What was Einstein’s contribution in the creation of the theory of relativity? Albert Einstein. Credit: “Wiki-Public domain.” According to the physicist, Wolfgang Pauli: “The formal 72 SCIENCE AND CULTURE, MARCH-APRIL, 2019 gaps left by Lorentz’s work were filled by Poincare. He London“, “Physikalische Berichte“, “Zeitschrift für Physik“, stated the relativity principle to be generally and rigorously “Physikalische Zeitschrift“ and “Annalen der Physique”. valid. It was Einstein, finally, who in a way completed the The library of the IACS possesses the acquisition basic formulation of this discipline.’”32 record of different books, journals and proceedings. Einstein’s geniality lies in the fact that he combined Unfortunately, date of buying the literature is missing the previous experimental and theoretical knowledge from (Figure 1). It can be assumed that the books procured are various fields to give “The fundamentals of the general from the 19th century or beginning of the 20th century. theory of relativity.”33 Figure 1 shows that the IACS possessed almost all newly published books on the theory of relativity. Some of them Indian Physicists and the Early Phase of the to be mentioned are: Theory of Relativity 1. Einstein A., Die Grundlagen der allgemeinen Research Facilities - Availability of literature on Relativitätstheorie (The fundamentals of general relativity : The report of the Indian Association for the theory of relativity), Verlag Johann Ambrosius Cultivation of Sciences (IACS) from the year 1915 (which Barth, Leipzig 1916. was published in 1917, thus contained information from 2. Silberstein L. The theory of relativity, Macmillan the year 1916) shows that the Association, which was still and Co. Ltd. London 1914. not a center of science (as after 1920s), was getting scientific journals from Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Japan, 3. Cunningham E., Relativity and the electron theory, U.S.A. and Hungary.34 There was no German Journal at Longmans, Green and Co., London 1915. the Association in the said year. G. Prasad, a professor of 4. Max von Laue, Vol. 1. Das Relativitätsprinzip der mathematics at the University of Calcutta, in his lecture at Lorentztransformation (The relativity principle of the IACS referred to Einstein’s article from the year 1916. Lorentz transformation. Vol. 2. Die allgemeine This leaves no doubt that the University subscribed German Relativitätstheorie und Einsteins Lehre von der journals. Schwerkraft (The general theory of relativity and In 1917, C.V. Raman reported the working at the Einstein’s doctrine of gravity), Druck und Verlag Physics Department, University College of Science. In the von Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig 1921 report we find that S.N. Basu taught “Elasticity and Molecular Physics, & Theory of Relativity”; whereas M.N. Saha “Thermodynamics and Quantum Theory”. Bose himself later recalled that Asutosh Mookherjee asked him to teach theory of relativity. “There were some books in English on relativity – we got hold of them.”35 In 1920, the library of the Association was getting important international journals, especially German journals like “Physikalische Zeitschrift”.36 According to the Annual Report – IACS of 1921, library bought several important books and 18 periodicals for the library. The list contains important international journals from the U.S.A., U.K., Germany and France. A few of them to be mentioned are: “American J. Sci.”, “Physical Review”, “Nature”, “Phil.

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