The Solvay Councils and the Birth of Modern Physics PDF
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Science Networks. Historical Studies 22 Pierre Marage Grégoire Wallenborn Editors The Solvay Councils and the Birth of Modern Physics Science Networks · Historical Studies Volume 22 Edited by Erwin Hiebert and Hans Wussing Editorial Board: K. Anderson, Aarhus R. Halleux, Liege D. Barkan, Pasadena S. Hildebrandt, Bonn H.J.M. Bas, Utrecht E. Knobloch, Berlin U. Bottazzini, Roma D. Laugwitz, Muhltal J.Z. Buchwald, Cambridge, Mass. Ch. Meinel, Regensburg K. Chemla, Paris J. Peiffer, Paris S.S. Demidov, Moskva W. Purkert, Leipzig E.A. Fellmann, Basel D. Rowe, Mainz M. Folkerts, Munchen A.l. Sabra, Cambridge, Mass. P. Galison, Cambridge, Mass. E. Scholz, Wuppertal I. Grattan-Guinness, London R.H. Stuewer, Minneapolis J. Gray, Milton Keynes V.P. Vizgin, Moskva The Solvay Councils and the Birth of Modern Physics Editors: Pierre Marage Gregoire Wallenborn Springer Basel AG Editors: Dr. Pierre Marage Dr. Gregoire Wallenborn Faculte des Sciences·-CP 230 Institut de Philosophie-CP 175 Universite Libre de Bruxelles Universite Libre de Bruxelles Boulevard du Triomphe 50 av. F. D. Roosevelt B-1 050 Bruxelles B-1 050 Bruxelles Belgium Belgium Published with support of the Comite National de Logique de Philosophie et d'Histoire des Science, Bruxelles. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington D.C, USA Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Solvay councils and the birth of modern physics 1 ed.: Pierre Marage; Gregoire Wallenborn. (Science networks ; Voi. 22) ISBN 978-3-0348-7705-3 ISBN 978-3-0348-7703-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-0348-7703-9 This work is subject to copyright. Ali rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained. © 1999 SprinQer Basel AG Originally published by Birkhăuser Verlag Basel, Switzerland in 1999 Cover design: Micha Lotrovsky, Therwil, Switzerland Camera-ready copy prepared by the editors Printed on acid-free paper produced from chlorine-free pulp. TCF = ISBN 978-3-0348-7705-3 987654321 v THE SOLVAY COUNCILS TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS FIRST PART BACKGROUND TO THE SOLVAY COUNCILS FOREWORD VII (P. Marage & G. Wallenborn) PREFACE: WHEN PHYSICISTS HELD A "WITCHES' SABBATH" XI (1. Stengers) ERNEST SOLVAY: THE SYSTEM, THE LAW AND THE COUNCIL 1 (D. Devriese & G. Wallenborn) • ERNEST SOLVAY AND THE SOLVAY PROCESS: BIOGRAPlllCAL, lllSTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT • SOLVAY'S VISION OF SCIENCE: AN INDEPENDENT AND ALL-EMBRACING SYSTEM OF THINKING • FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: CREATING A CENTRE FOR SCIENCE • STEPS TOWARDS THE FIRST COUNCIL • CONCLUSION: WHAT REMAINS OF THE "SOLVAY SYSTEM"? RUTHERFORD, THE CAVENDISH LABORATORY AND THE SOLVAY COUNCILS 24 (J. Hughes) • INTRODUCTION • RUTHERFORD AND THE SOLVAY COUNCILS-THE MANCHESTER YEARS • THE CAVENDISH LABORATORY AND THE SOLVAY COUNCILS IN THE INTERWAR YEARS • CONCLUSION PAUL LANGEVIN AND THE FRENCH SCIENTISTS AT THE SOLVAY CONFERENCES 35 (B. Bensaude-Vincent) • THE FRENCH DELEGATION • MAGNETISM THEORETICIAN AND COUNCIL SECRETARY • AFTER THE WAR • INTERNATIONAL AND COLLECTIVE PHYSICS • COUNCILS THAT NEVER HAPPENED VI THE SOLVAY COUNCILS TABLE OF CONTENTS THE SOLVAY COUNCILS AND THE NOBEL INSTITUTION 48 (E. Crawford) • INTERNATIONSALISM IN SCIENCE • NERNST LOOKS FOR HIS NOBEL THE ORGANISATION OF SCIENCE IN THE 19TH CENTURY 55 (G. Vanpaemel) • THE CENTURY OF SCIENCE • THE SEARCH FOR A PROGRAMME • THE ORGANISATION OF RESEARCH •FUNDING • PHYSICS AROUND THE YEAR 1900 PHYSICS PRIOR TO THE FIRST COUNCIL 70 (P. Marage & G. Wallenborn) • "A SUBJECT THAT IS ALMOST COMPLETE'': CLASSICAL PHYSICS • THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER: DO ATOMS EXIST? • RAYS, AND STILL MORE RAYS! • SPACE AND TIME-RELATIVITY SECOND PART THE BIRTH OF MODERN PHYSICS (P. Marage & G. Wallenborn) THE FIRST SOLVAY COUNCIL 95 • BLACK BODY RADIATION • THE DISCUSSION AT THE FIRST SOLVAY COUNCIL • "THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CONSTANT h" • THE PROBLEM OF SPECIFIC HEATS • "TRULY MEMORABLE MEETINGS", "SHEER DELIGHT TO DIABOLICAL JESUITS" 1913-1921: FROM THE SECOND TO THE THIRD COUNCIL 112 • THE NATURE OF X-RAYS • THE STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM • BOHR'S ATOM THE SOLVAY COUNCILS VII TABLE OF CONTENTS 1927: THE FIFTH COUNCIL 134 • NEW RESULTS • LIGHT: WAVE OR CORPUSCLE? • WAVE MECHANICS • MATRIX MECHANICS AND NON-COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA • THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE AND THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPLEMENTARITY • THE BRUSSELS DEBATES THE DEBATE BETWEEN EINSTEIN AND BOHR, OR HOW TO INTERPRET QUANTUM MECHANICS 161 • FROM CLASSICAL TO QUANTUM MECHANICS • HOW TO UNDERSTAND A THEORY • EINSTEIN'S ARGUMENTS • QUANTUM MECHANICS: A TOOL? 1933: THE SEVENTH COUNCIL 175 • THE BIRTH OF A NEW PHYSICS • THE NEUTRON AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS • THE POSITRON AND DIRAC'S RELATIVISTIC THEORY • ARTIFICIAL RADIOACTIVITY • THE NEUTRINO ANEW ERA 196 • THE WAR YEARS • PEACE RETURNS ... NOTES 203 THE FIRST TWELVE SOLVAY COUNCILS OF PHYSICS 214 THE PARTICIPANTS TO THE FIRST SEVEN SOLVAY COUNCILS OF PHYSICS 215 INDEX 218 PHOTOGRAPHS CREDIT 223 AUTHORS 224 VIII THE SOLVAY COUNCILS FOREWORD FOREWORD This book came about as a result of two events: an exhibition on the Solvay Physics Councils, held in Brussels in May 1995, and a conference on the same theme which took place at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) on May 1Oth 1995. A book was published in French in conjunction with the exhibition, and much of the present publication is taken from that book. In addition, we have included some of the papers presented at the conference, as we believe they add a further dimension to the history of the Councils. The French term, Conseil Solvay, is usually translated into English as Solvay Conference or Congress. We have elected to retain the particular connotations of the French word Conseil by translating it instead as Council. The Councils were, after all, no ordinary conferences. Only a limited number of participants was invited, hand picked by a scientific committee, who for five to six days took an active part in the sessions and the long discussions that followed. Each day, one or two physicists would present a paper on a subject that had been chosen by the committee to fit in with the overall theme of the Council. The word Conseil expressly implies the gathering of an elite to engage in debate. The Solvay Councils were something of a ritual. They were organised to take place every three years (during peace time) at a time when there were no regular international conferences for physicists, and provided the perfect occasion for an impressive group of prestigious scientists to meet. The banquet at the Royal Palace was graced by toasts both erudite and distinguished. Each Council is captured for eternity in a group photo. It is this sort of detail, as well as the decisive role the Solvay Councils played in the development of quantum mechanics, that have made them the stuff of legend. The Solvay Councils, like the Nobel prizes, illustrate not only the significance attached to specific problems by a scientific community at a given moment, but also the influence of individuals and of the socio-political conditions upon the history of science. The first Council demonstrated the need for a new theory of physics which would include the hypothesis of quanta. The themes of all the ensuing Councils, at least until the Second World War, were at the very forefront of physics at the time; the structure of matter, its components and its theories. This was the golden age for THE SOLVAY COUNCILS IX FOREWORD the pioneers of the world of quanta, and the famous debate between Bohr and Einstein had its finest hours at the Solvay Councils. The organisation of the Solvay Councils was complemented by the publication of both the papers and the details of the sometimes long discussions that followed them. It was the reading of these fascinating Rapports et discussions which provided the inspiration for writing this book. In them, we found hesitation, timidity, arguments that were legitimate but ultimately fruitless-but we also found moments of enlightenment, sudden reconciliations in points of view, matters of disconcerting simplicity and others of incredible subtlety, complete submission to the facts in some cases and utter indifference to them in others. In short, the very development of a whole new way of thinking unfolded before us, permitting a greater understanding of the way in which the new physics was created. Following the history of each Council in tum reveals the development of quantum mechanics as it happened. It bore little resemblance then to the clear-cut subject taught at university today. One cannot help but wonder at how different science might have been today if particular meetings, people and historical circum stances had never coincided. This is not to say that scientific theory is purely arbi trary; it is of course bound by the strictest of constraints. But the reports of the Solvay Councils do give the reader a sense of the freedom that exists to slant, to accentuate, to emphasise, to bring to the foreground or leave in the shadows - the freedom to interpret, to construct new intuitions. The science of mankind is inevitably also a science made up of human experiences, communications and feel ings. We hope that in following the accounts of the first Solvay Councils, readers will also get a sense of this stuff of humankind. Our aim in writing this book is to provide the lay reader with an account of the birth of modem physics including its political and institutional context. Popularising science seems to us to be a democratic duty, an attempt to actively understand science as it is created. There is a tendency nowadays for a kind of intellectual terrorism to stop "laypeople" from making their voices heard on technological, economic and scientific issues, even though it is they and their children who feel the direct impact of choices in these areas. While it is true that an education and highly specialised training as an engineer are needed to calculate the diameter of the pipes in a nuclear power station, it is not the case that the average person should be excluded from debates about energy simply because he or she has no technical knowledge of the subject. The "experts" in today's society wield such enormous power - think of the "experts" in the International Monetary Fund - that citizens must have the right to ask questions about their legitimacy. In going right back to the mixture of clarity and obscurity that marks the birth of modem physics, we hope that this book will be of interest to scientists, researchers and teachers who do not often have the opportunity to go back to original texts and compare their own experiences to those of the "greats". Notwithstanding that it will doubtless find an educated audience, the book is honest
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