Einstein and the Quantum (49 page)

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

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

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

198
It has to be assumed
: Ibid.

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

201
it 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.

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

202
One notices immediately
: Ibid., 440.

203
The 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

Page

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

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

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

205
Lights 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.

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

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

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

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

207
sound common sense
: Ibid., 465.

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

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

208
It cannot be our task
: Ibid.

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

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

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

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

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

211
I … 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

213
The 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

Page

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

216
I do not know sufficient German
: Ibid.

216
In 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.

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

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

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

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

218
Disappointed, I came away
: Ibid.

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

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

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

220
could be deduced only
: Ibid.

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

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

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

223
I 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.

225
contradicts 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

226
what the statistics of light quanta
: Ibid.

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

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

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

227
On my return
: Ibid., 142.

CHAPTER 25. QUANTUM DICE

Page

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

230
A 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.

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

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

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

235
When 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.

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER 26. THE ROYAL MARRIAGE:
E
=
mc
²
=
hν

Page

241
I 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.)

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

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

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

242
at 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.

243
this 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.

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

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

243
between several intellectual directions
: Ibid., 29.

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

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

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

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

244
regretted the interruption
: Ibid.

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

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

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

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

245
a 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.

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

246
atoms of light
: Ibid., 6.

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

247
Well, all this must be very similar
: Mehra and Rechenberg,
HDQT
, vol. 1, part 2, p. 586.

247
developed rapidly in the summer
: De Broglie, AHQP interview, 25.

247
I got the idea that one had to extend
: Mehra and Rechenberg,
HDQT
, vol. 1, part 2, p. 587.

248
a meta law of Nature
: De Broglie, PhD thesis, 8.