Einstein and the Quantum

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Einstein and the Quantum Page 35

by Stone, A. Douglas

158In Brussels, too: Einstein to Besso, 26 December 1911, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 331, p. 241.

  158the h-disease looks ever more hopeless: Einstein to Lorentz, 23 November 1911, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 313, p. 227.

  158I took as my starting point: Marage and Wallenborn, eds., Solvay Councils, 11.

  158I’m working at full speed: Einstein to Alfred Stern, 17 March 1912, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 374, p. 275.

  158I assure you that I have nothing: Einstein to Sommerfeld, 29 October 1912, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 421, p. 324.

  159My letter to Einstein proved useless: Sommerfeld to Hilbert, 1 November 1912, in Hermann, Genesis of Quantum Theory, 69.

  159his sense of humor: Frank, Einstein, 76.

  159There are the madmen: Ibid., 98.

  CHAPTER 19. A COSMIC INTERLUDE

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  160Scientific endeavors are quite extraordinary: Einstein to Walter Dallenbach, 31 May 1915, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 87, p. 103.

  161The question arises whether this statement: Folsing, Albert Einstein, 339.

  162one of the highest achievements: Ibid., 444.

  162probably the greatest scientific discovery: Isaacson, Einstein, 223.

  162the greatest feat of human thinking: Ibid., 223–224.

  162The theory is of incomparable beauty: Einstein to Zangger, 26 November 1915, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 152, p. 151.

  162my boldest dreams: Einstein to Besso, 10 December 1915, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 162, p. 160.

  163enchanted me: Einstein to Sommerfeld, 8 February 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 189, p. 192.

  163among my finest experiences: Einstein to Sommerfeld, 3 August 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 246, p. 241.

  163A brilliant idea has dawned: Einstein to Besso, 11 August 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 250, p. 241.

  165I can’t even begin to tell: Einstein to Elsa, 30 April 1912, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 389, p. 291.

  165the chances of my getting a call: Ibid.

  165it will not be good: Einstein to Elsa, 21 May 1912, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 399, p. 300.

  166tear of joy: Folsing, Albert Einstein, 332.

  166The undersigned are aware (quoted in footnote): 12 June 1913, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 445, p. 38.

  167because it would not make me happy: Frank, Einstein, 109.

  167I couldn’t resist the temptation: Einstein to Lorentz, 14 August 1913, in Folsing, Einstein, 331.

  167I accepted this odd sinecure: Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, undated, 1913, ibid.

  167howled unceasingly: Highfield and Carter, Private Lives, 164.

  167In personal respects: Einstein to Zangger, 7 July 1915, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 94, p. 110.

  CHAPTER 20. BOHR’S ATOMIC SONATA

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  168Europe in its madness: Einstein to Ehrenfest, 19 August 1914, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 34, p. 41.

  168unworthy of what until now: Folsing, Albert Einstein, 346.

  169the international catastrophe: Ibid., 347.

  170Bohr is different: William Cropper, Great Physicists: The Life and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to Hawking (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 245.

  170full of characters from all parts: Ibid.

  171I got a vivid account: Marage and Wallenborn, eds., Solvay Councils, 110.

  173I really think you should abbreviate: Jagdish Mehra and Helmut Rechenberg, The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, vol. 1, part 1 (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982), 190. (Cited hereinafter as Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT.)

  173in an attempt to explain: N. Bohr, “On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules” [original article no. 14 in References], reprinted in Haar, The Old Quantum Theory, pp. 132–133.

  174The general importance: Ibid., 137.

  174For me the only difficulty: Einstein to Lorentz, 23 May 1909, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 163, p. 122.

  177How much the above interpretation: Bohr, “On the Constitution,” 149.

  178obviously, we get in this way: Ibid., 150.

  179we came to speak of Bohr’s theory: Stachel, Einstein from B to Z, 369–370.

  179I told him [the explanation …]: Ibid.

  180All my attempts, however, to adapt: Albert Einstein, “The Advent of Quantum Theory,” Science, vol. 113, pp. 82–84 (1951).

  CHAPTER 21. RELYING ON CHANCE

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  181Fundamental as [the relativity theory] of Einstein: CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 445, pp. 337–338.

  181Why Planck and I engaged him: Barkan, Walther Nernst, 186.

  182One cannot seriously believe: Einstein to Wilhelm Wien, 17 May 1912, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 395, p. 298.

  182the process of absorption: Einstein to Michele Besso, 11 September 1911, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 283, p. 204.

  183Einstein always wracked his brain: Woolf, ed., Some Strangeness in Proportion, 254.

  184My measurements … agree everywhere: Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT, vol. 1, part 1, p. 220.

  184Now I believe in relativity theory: Ibid., footnote 366, p. 231.

  184a revelation: Einstein to Sommerfeld, 8 February 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 189, p. 192.

  184your spectral analyses: Einstein to Sommerfeld, 3 August 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 246, p. 241.

  184his derivation was of unparalleled boldness: Albert Einstein, “Emission and Absorption of Radiation in Quantum Theory” [original article no. 15 in References], reprinted in CPAE, vol. 6, doc. 34, p. 212.

  186We shall distinguish here: Ibid., 214.

  187The simplicity of the hypotheses: Ibid., 215–216.

  187A brilliant idea has dawned: Einstein to Besso, 11 August 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 250, p. 243.

  188it can be demonstrated convincingly: Einstein to Besso, 24 August 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 251, p. 244.

  188this derivation deserves attention: Albert Einstein, “On the Quantum Theory of Radiation” [original article no. 16 in References], reprinted in CPAE, vol. 6, doc. 38, pp. 220–221.

  188The question arises: does the molecule: Ibid., p. 221.

  192If we were to modify: Ibid., p. 232.

  192[Einstein] himself, in his paper of [1917]: Werner Heisenberg, Encounters with Einstein: And Other Essays on People, Places, and Particles. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 115.

  192the molecule suffers a recoil: Einstein, “On the Quantum Theory of Radiation,” 232.

  192any such elementary process: Einstein to Besso, 6 September 1916, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 254, p. 246.

  CHAPTER 22. CHAOTIC GHOSTS

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  193I have firmly decided: Einstein to Elsa, 11 August 1913, CPAE, vol. 5, doc. 466, p. 348.

  193turnip winter: Thomas Levenson, Einstein in Berlin (New York: Bantam Books, 2003), 142.

  194famous complaint: Folsing, Albert Einstein, 406.

  194I am quite infirm: Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, 14 February 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 298, p. 295.

  194I have not been working much: Einstein to Lorentz, 3 April 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 322, p. 313.

  194raise the necessary superstition: Einstein to Besso, 8 May 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 335, p. 325.

  194I am committing myself: Einstein to Besso, 13 May 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 339, p. 330.

  194I have come to know: Einstein to Zangger, 10 March 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 309, p. 299.

  194My health is quite fair: Einstein to Zangger, 6 December 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 404, p. 412.

  195Elsa indefatigably cooking: Einstein to Besso, 28 June 1918, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 572, p. 598.

  196The quantum paper I sent: Einstein to Besso, 9 March 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 306, p. 292.

  196scientific life has dozed: Einstein to Zangger, 10 March 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 310, p. 300.

  197I am convinced that besides: Einstein to Arnold Sommerfeld, 9 October 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 261, p. 168.

  197Basic idea: … Upon: Lorentz to Einstein, 13 November, 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 298, p. 184.

  198quite fond of it: Abraham Pais, Inward Bound: Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World (New York: Clarendon Press, 1986), 259.

  198It has t
o be assumed: Ibid.

  201yesterday I presented a little thing: Einstein to Besso, 29 April 1917, CPAE, vol. 8, doc. 331, p. 322.

  201it still remains unsatisfying: Albert Einstein, “On the Quantum Theorem of Sommerfeld and Epstein” [original article no. 17 in References], reprinted in CPAE, vol. 6, doc. 45, p. 436.

  202we now come to a very essential point: Ibid., 439.

  202One notices immediately: Ibid., 440.

  203The framing of the quantum conditions: Erwin Schrödinger, “Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem, Part II,” in Collected Papers on Wave Mechanics, 2nd edition, 1928, translated 1978 (New York: Chelsea Publishing, 1978), 17.

  CHAPTER 23. FIFTEEN MILLION MINUTES OF FAME

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  204But now I’m just about fed up: Einstein to Elsa, 8 January 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 12, p. 3.

  205a Greek drama: Folsing, Albert Einstein, 442–443.

  205one of the highest achievements: Ibid., 444.

  205Lights All Askew: Digital facsimiles of the original New York Times article can be viewed online at, for example: Yeshiva University, Einstein and Yeshiva Digital Exhibit, http://yu.edu/libraries/digital_library/einstein/Einstein11-10-19nyt.pdf, accessed March 31, 2013.

  205At present every coachman: Folsing, Albert Einstein, 455.

  205from the intellectual work of a quiet scholar: Ibid.

  206the fragmentation of one’s intentions: Einstein to Zangger, 16 January 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 5, p. 9.

  207Everyone must, from time to time: Einstein to Max and Hedwig Born, 9 September 1920, in Folsing, Albert Einstein, 464.

  207sound common sense: Ibid., 465.

  207[he] has so far achieved nothing: Ibid.

  207I feel like a man lying: Ibid., 463; Einstein interview of August 29, 1920.

  208It cannot be our task: Ibid.

  208there is in me nothing: Ibid., 494.

  208The [religious Jewish] community: Einstein to Rabbi Warschauer, 8 March 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 86, p. 69.

  209I am not needed for my abilities: Einstein to Haber, 9 March 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 88, p. 71.

  210very interesting and quite simple: Einstein to Born, 22 August 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 211, p. 143.

  211Thanks to the excellent collaboration: Einstein to Born, 30 December 1921, CPAE, vol. 12, doc. 345, p. 211.

  211I … committed a monumental blunder: Einstein to Born, beginning of May 1922, in The Born-Einstein Letters, 1916–1955: Friendship, Politics and Physics in Uncertain Times, trans. Irene Born (New York: MacMillan, 1971), 68.

  211I suppose it is a good thing: Einstein to Ehrenfest, 15 March 1922, in Folsing, Albert Einstein, 512.

  212a downright normal human existence: Einstein to H. Anschuz-Kaempfe, 12 July 1922, ibid., 521.

  212I am constantly being warned: Einstein to M. Solovine, 16 July 1922, ibid., 522.

  212the opportunity of a prolonged absence: Einstein to Wilhelm Solf, 20 December 1922, ibid., 525.

  212it will probably be very desirable: Arrhenius to Einstein, 18 September 1922, ibid., 535.

  212quite unable to postpone: Einstein to Arrhenius, 20 September 1922, ibid.

  213I spent ten years: Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, 357.

  213The other great problem: Einstein recording for Preusssischen Staatsbibliothek, 1924, quoted in M. J. Klein, “No Firm Foundation: Einstein and the Early Quantum Theory,” in Woolf, ed., Some Strangeness in Proportion, 182.

  CHAPTER 24. THE INDIAN COMET

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  215Respected Sir: I have ventured: John Stachel, “Einstein and Bose,” in Einstein from B to Z, vol. 9, p. 524.

  216I do not know sufficient German: Ibid.

  216In my opinion Bose’s derivation: S. N. Bose, “Planck’s Law and the Light Quantum Hypothesis” [original article no. 18 in References], reprinted in O. Theimer and B. Ram, “The Beginning of Quantum Statistics,” American Journal of Physics, vol. 44, pp. 1056–1057 (1976), p. 1056.

  216about 300 words (quoted in footnote): Jurgen Neffe, Einstein: A Biography, trans. Shelley Frisch (New York: Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2007), 372.

  217a particularly brilliant lot: Stachel, “Einstein and Bose,” 520.

  218notorious for plain speaking: K. Wali, “The Man Behind Bose Statistics,” Physics Today, October 2006, p. 48.

  218you may have done well in the examination: Ibid.

  218Disappointed, I came away: Ibid.

  218spent many sleepless nights: W. Blanpied, “Satyendranath Bose: Co-founder of Quantum Statistics,” American Journal of Physics, September 1972, p. 1215.

  218As a teacher: Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT, vol. 1, part 2, p. 565.

  220Planck’s formula … forms the starting point: Bose, “Planck’s Law and the Light Quantum,” 1056.

  220could be deduced only: Ibid.

  220However I do not find your objection: Stachel, “Einstein and Bose,” 524.

  222the fourth and last: Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, 425.

  223It is now very simple: Bose, “Planck’s Law and the Light Quantum,” 1057.

  223I had no idea: Jagdish Mehra, “Satyendra Nath Bose,” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, November 1975, p. 128.

  224[the Bose] derivation is elegant: Einstein to Ehrenfest, 12 July 1924, in Pais, Subtle Is the Lord, 424.

  225contradicts the generally and rightly accepted: Albert Einstein, “ ‘Bose’s Second Paper: A Conflict with Einstein,’ Comment on ‘Thermal equilibrium in the radiation field in the presence of matter,’ by S. N. Bose,” Physikalische Zeitschrift, vol. 27, p. 384 (1924), reprinted in O. Theimer and B. Ram, American Journal of Physics, vol. 45, pp. 242–246 (1976), p. 246.

  225solved all problems: Stachel, “Einstein and Bose,” 525.

  225work under you: Bose to Einstein, 26 October 1924, ibid.

  225I am glad I shall have: Einstein to Bose, 2 November 1924, ibid., 525–526.

  226because I was a teacher: Mehra, “Satyendra Nath Bose,” 136.

  226even more than forty years: Blanpied, “Satyendranath Bose,” 1217.

  226She was very nice … I wasn’t able: Mehra, “Satyendra Nath Bose,” 136.

  226the meeting was most interesting: Ibid., 141.

  226what the statistics of light quanta: Ibid.

  227I have made an honest resolution of: Stachel, “Einstein and Bose,” 527.

  227your senator McCarthy: Blanpied, “Satyendranath Bose,” 1217.

  227His indomitable will: Mehra, “Satyendra Nath Bose,” 145.

  227On my return: Ibid., 142.

  CHAPTER 25. QUANTUM DICE

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  228I … am convinced that [God]: Einstein to Born, 4 December, 1926, in Folsing, Albert Einstein, 585.

  230A quantum theory of the … ideal gas: Albert Einstein, “Quantum Theory of the Monatomic Ideal Gas” [original article no. 20 in References], reprinted in translation in, I. Duck and E.C.G. Sudarshan, eds., Pauli and the Spin-Statistics Theorem (Singapore: World Scientific, 1997), 82.

  231still obscure: Einstein to Ehrenfest, 12 July 1924, in Stachel, “Einstein and Bose,” 533.

  231the theory is pretty: Martin J. Klein, “Einstein and Wave-Particle Duality,” The Natural Philosopher, vol. 3, p. 31 (1964).

  231The thing with the quantum gas: Einstein to Ehrenfest, 2 December 1924, in Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT, vol. 5, part 2, p. 384.

  235When the Bose derivation: Albert Einstein, “Quantum Theory of the Monatomic Ideal Gas, Part Two” [original article no. 21 in References], reprinted in translation in I. Duck and E.C.G. Sudarshan, eds., Pauli and the Spin-Statistics Theorem (Singapore: World Scientific, 1997), 88.

  236I maintain that in this case: Ibid., 90.

  238Ehrenfest and others have reported: Ibid., 91.

  240your reproach is not unjustified: Einstein to Erwin Schrödinger, 28 February 1925, in Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT, vol. 5, part 2, p. 387.

  240only through your letter: Schrödinger to Einstein, 3 November 1925, ibid.

  CHAPT
ER 26. THE ROYAL MARRIAGE: E = mc2 = hν

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  241I said to myself that classical physics: Interview of Louis de Broglie, Archives for the History of Quantum Physics Collection, Niels Bohr Library and Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, www.aip.org/history/ohilist/LINK, p. 30, translated from French by the author. (Cited hereinafter as de Broglie, AHQP interview.)

  241A younger brother of: Einstein to Lorentz, 16 December 1924, in Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT, vol. 1, part 2, p. 604.

  241a bit strange, but after all: De Broglie, AHQP interview, 7.

  242Louis de Broglie’s work: Ioan James, Remarkable Physicists, from Galileo to Yukawa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 311.

  242at every stage of my life: B. R. Wheaton, The Tiger and the Shark: Empirical Roots of Wave-Particle Dualism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 274.

  243this little brother had become: A. Abragam, “Louis De Broglie,” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 34, pp. 22–41 (1988), p. 26.

  243continue and prepare the diploma: De Broglie, AHQP interview, 30.

  243I could see that to do that it was necessary: Ibid.

  243between several intellectual directions: Ibid., 29.

  243The hesitations are over: Abragam, “Louis De Broglie,” 27.

  243I began to think about quanta: De Broglie, AHQP interview, 22.

  244with the ardor of my age: Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT, vol. 1, part 2, p. 582.

  244his enthusiasm was returning: Abragam, “Louis De Broglie,” 28.

  244regretted the interruption: Ibid.

  244because that put me: De Broglie, AHQP interview, 28.

  244There was really no career: Mehra and Rechenberg, HDQT, vol. 1, part 2, p. 579.

  245I never had any doubt: De Broglie, AHQP interview, 22.

  245must be corpuscular: Wheaton, The Tiger and the Shark, 270.

  245a number of known results: Louis de Broglie, “Black Radiation and Light Quanta” [original article no. 23 in References], reprinted in Louis de Broglie and Leon Brillouin, Selected Papers on Wave Mechanics, 1–7 (London: Blackie and Sons, 1928), 1.

  245incomparable insight: Louis de Broglie, “Studies on the Theory of Quanta,” PhD thesis [original article no. 25 in References], 3.

  246atoms of light: Ibid., 6.

  246a mixture of monatomic, diatomic, triatomic (quoted in footnote): De Broglie, “Black Radiation,” 5.

 

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