Thermodynamic fluctuations and statistical physics
Albert Einstein's first paper
[86] submitted in 1900 to
Annalen der Physik was on
capillary attraction.
It was published in 1901 with the title "Folgerungen aus den
Kapillarität Erscheinungen," which translates as "Conclusions from the
capillarity phenomena". Two papers he published in 1902–1903
(thermodynamics) attempted to interpret
atomic phenomena from a statistical point of view. These papers were the foundation for the 1905 paper on
Brownian motion,
which showed that Brownian movement can be construed as firm evidence
that molecules exist. His research in 1903 and 1904 was mainly concerned
with the effect of finite atomic size on diffusion phenomena.
[86]
General principles
He articulated the
principle of relativity. This was understood by
Hermann Minkowski
to be a generalization of rotational invariance from space to
space-time. Other principles postulated by Einstein and later vindicated
are the
principle of equivalence and the principle of
adiabatic invariance of the quantum number.
Theory of relativity and E = mc²
Einstein's "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper" ("On the
Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies") was received on 30 June 1905 and
published 26 September of that same year. It reconciles
Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics, by introducing major changes to mechanics close to the
speed of light. This later became known as Einstein's
special theory of relativity.
Consequences of this include the
time-space frame of a moving body appearing to
slow down and
contract (in the direction of motion) when measured in the frame of the observer. This paper also argued that the idea of a
luminiferous aether – one of the leading theoretical entities in physics at the time – was superfluous.
[87]
In his paper on
mass–energy equivalence Einstein produced
E =
mc2 from his special relativity equations.
[88]
Einstein's 1905 work on relativity remained controversial for many
years, but was accepted by leading physicists, starting with Max Planck.
[89][90]
Photons and energy quanta
Main articles:
Photon and
Quantum
In a 1905 paper,
[91] Einstein postulated that light itself consists of localized particles (
quanta).
Einstein's light quanta were nearly universally rejected by all
physicists, including Max Planck and Niels Bohr. This idea only became
universally accepted in 1919, with
Robert Millikan's detailed experiments on the
photoelectric effect, and with the measurement of
Compton scattering.
Einstein concluded that each wave of frequency
f is associated with a collection of
photons with energy
hf each, where
h is
Planck's constant.
He does not say much more, because he is not sure how the particles are
related to the wave. But he does suggest that this idea would explain
certain experimental results, notably the photoelectric effect.
[92]
Quantized atomic vibrations
Main article:
Einstein solid
In 1907 Einstein proposed a model of matter where each atom in a
lattice structure is an independent harmonic oscillator. In the Einstein
model, each atom oscillates independently – a series of equally spaced
quantized states for each oscillator. Einstein was aware that getting
the frequency of the actual oscillations would be different, but he
nevertheless proposed this theory because it was a particularly clear
demonstration that quantum mechanics could solve the specific heat
problem in classical mechanics.
Peter Debye refined this model.
[93]
Adiabatic principle and action-angle variables
Throughout the 1910s, quantum mechanics expanded in scope to cover many different systems. After
Ernest Rutherford
discovered the nucleus and proposed that electrons orbit like planets,
Niels Bohr was able to show that the same quantum mechanical postulates
introduced by Planck and developed by Einstein would explain the
discrete motion of electrons in atoms, and the
periodic table of the elements.
Einstein contributed to these developments by linking them with the 1898 arguments
Wilhelm Wien had made. Wien had shown that the hypothesis of
adiabatic invariance of a thermal equilibrium state allows all the
blackbody curves at different temperature to be derived from one another by a
simple shifting process.
Einstein noted in 1911 that the same adiabatic principle shows that the
quantity which is quantized in any mechanical motion must be an
adiabatic invariant.
Arnold Sommerfeld identified this adiabatic invariant as the
action variable
of classical mechanics. The law that the action variable is quantized
was a basic principle of the quantum theory as it was known between 1900
and 1925.
[citation needed]
Wave–particle duality
Although the patent office promoted Einstein to Technical Examiner
Second Class in 1906, he had not given up on academia. In 1908, he
became a
privatdozent at the
University of Bern.
[94] In "über die Entwicklung unserer Anschauungen über das Wesen und die Konstitution der Strahlung" ("
The Development of Our Views on the Composition and Essence of Radiation"), on the
quantization of light, and in an earlier 1909 paper, Einstein showed that
Max Planck's energy quanta must have well-defined
momenta and act in some respects as independent,
point-like particles. This paper introduced the
photon concept (although the name
photon was introduced later by
Gilbert N. Lewis in 1926) and inspired the notion of
wave–particle duality in
quantum mechanics.
Theory of critical opalescence
Einstein returned to the problem of thermodynamic fluctuations,
giving a treatment of the density variations in a fluid at its critical
point. Ordinarily the density fluctuations are controlled by the second
derivative of the free energy with respect to the density. At the
critical point, this derivative is zero, leading to large fluctuations.
The effect of density fluctuations is that light of all wavelengths is
scattered, making the fluid look milky white. Einstein relates this to
Raleigh scattering, which is what happens when the fluctuation size is much smaller than the wavelength, and which explains why the sky is blue.
[95]
Einstein quantitatively derived critical opalescence from a treatment
of density fluctuations, and demonstrated how both the effect and
Rayleigh scattering originate from the atomistic constitution of matter.
Zero-point energy
Einstein's physical intuition led him to note that Planck's
oscillator energies had an incorrect zero point. He modified Planck's
hypothesis by stating that the lowest energy state of an oscillator is
equal to
1⁄2hf, to half the energy spacing between levels. This argument, which was made in 1913 in collaboration with
Otto Stern, was based on the thermodynamics of a diatomic molecule which can split apart into two free atoms.
General relativity and the Equivalence Principle
General relativity (GR) is a
theory of gravitation that was developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915. According to
general relativity,
the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from the
warping of space and time by those masses. General relativity has
developed into an essential tool in modern
astrophysics. It provides the foundation for the current understanding of
black holes, regions of space where gravitational attraction is so strong that not even light can escape.
As Albert Einstein later said, the reason for the development of
general relativity was that the preference of inertial motions within
special relativity
was unsatisfactory, while a theory which from the outset prefers no
state of motion (even accelerated ones) should appear more satisfactory.
[96] So in 1908 he published an article on acceleration under
special relativity. In that article, he argued that
free fall
is really inertial motion, and that for a freefalling observer the
rules of special relativity must apply. This argument is called the
Equivalence principle. In the same article, Einstein also predicted the phenomenon of
gravitational time dilation. In 1911, Einstein published another article expanding on the 1907 article, in which additional effects such as the
deflection of light by massive bodies were predicted.
Hole argument and Entwurf theory
Main article:
Hole argument
While developing general relativity, Einstein became confused about the
gauge invariance
in the theory. He formulated an argument that led him to conclude that a
general relativistic field theory is impossible. He gave up looking for
fully generally covariant tensor equations, and searched for equations
that would be invariant under general linear transformations only.
In June 1913 the Entwurf ("draft") theory was the result of these
investigations. As its name suggests, it was a sketch of a theory, with
the equations of motion supplemented by additional gauge fixing
conditions. Simultaneously less elegant and more difficult than general
relativity, after more than two years of intensive work Einstein
abandoned the theory in November 1915 after realizing that the
hole argument was mistaken.
[97]
Cosmology
In 1917, Einstein applied the General theory of relativity to model
the structure of the universe as a whole. He wanted the universe to be
eternal and unchanging, but this type of universe is not consistent with
relativity. To fix this, Einstein modified the general theory by
introducing a new notion, the
cosmological constant. With a positive cosmological constant, the universe could be an
eternal static sphere.
[98]
Einstein believed a spherical static universe is philosophically preferred, because it would obey
Mach's principle. He had shown that general relativity incorporates Mach's principle to a certain extent in
frame dragging by
gravitomagnetic fields,
but he knew that Mach's idea would not work if space goes on forever.
In a closed universe, he believed that Mach's principle would hold.
Mach's principle has generated much controversy over the years.
Modern quantum theory
Einstein was displeased with quantum theory and mechanics, despite
its acceptance by other physicists, stating "God doesn't play with
dice." As Einstein passed away at the age of 76 he still would not
accept quantum theory.
[99] In 1917, at the height of his work on relativity, Einstein published an article in
Physikalische Zeitschrift that proposed the possibility of
stimulated emission, the physical process that makes possible the
maser and the
laser.
[100]
This article showed that the statistics of absorption and emission of
light would only be consistent with Planck's distribution law if the
emission of light into a mode with n photons would be enhanced
statistically compared to the emission of light into an empty mode. This
paper was enormously influential in the later development of quantum
mechanics, because it was the first paper to show that the statistics of
atomic transitions had simple laws. Einstein discovered
Louis de Broglie's
work, and supported his ideas, which were received skeptically at
first. In another major paper from this era, Einstein gave a wave
equation for
de Broglie waves, which Einstein suggested was the
Hamilton–Jacobi equation of mechanics. This paper would inspire Schrödinger's work of 1926.
Bose–Einstein statistics
In 1924, Einstein received a description of a
statistical model from Indian physicist
Satyendra Nath Bose,
based on a counting method that assumed that light could be understood
as a gas of indistinguishable particles. Einstein noted that Bose's
statistics applied to some atoms as well as to the proposed light
particles, and submitted his translation of Bose's paper to the
Zeitschrift für Physik. Einstein also published his own articles describing the model and its implications, among them the
Bose–Einstein condensate phenomenon that some particulates should appear at very low temperatures.
[101] It was not until 1995 that the first such condensate was produced experimentally by
Eric Allin Cornell and
Carl Wieman using
ultra-cooling equipment built at the
NIST–
JILA laboratory at the
University of Colorado at Boulder.
[102] Bose–Einstein statistics are now used to describe the behaviors of any assembly of
bosons. Einstein's sketches for this project may be seen in the Einstein Archive in the library of the Leiden University.
[81]
Energy momentum pseudotensor
General relativity includes a dynamical spacetime, so it is difficult to see how to identify the conserved energy and momentum.
Noether's theorem allows these quantities to be determined from a
Lagrangian with
translation invariance, but
general covariance makes translation invariance into something of a
gauge symmetry.
The energy and momentum derived within general relativity by Noether's
presecriptions do not make a real tensor for this reason.
Einstein argued that this is true for fundamental reasons, because
the gravitational field could be made to vanish by a choice of
coordinates. He maintained that the non-covariant energy momentum
pseudotensor was in fact the best description of the energy momentum
distribution in a gravitational field. This approach has been echoed by
Lev Landau and
Evgeny Lifshitz, and others, and has become standard.
The use of non-covariant objects like pseudotensors was heavily criticized in 1917 by
Erwin Schrödinger and others.