Einstein…John D. Norton

Department of History andPhilosophy of Science

Center for Philosophy of ScienceUniversity of Pittsburgh

http://www.pitt.edu

Rotman Institute of PhilosophyMarch 14, 2013

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December 31, 1999

A Well-Deserved Honor

1902-1904 Independent discovery of Gibbs framework of statistical mechanics.

1905Brownian motion, the reality of molecules.Special relativity. E=mc2.The light quantum

1907-1915 The general theory of relativity

1916 A and B coefficients. Basic principles for LASERs.

1917 Relativistic cosmology.

1924 Bose-Einstein statistics

1919-1955 Attempts at a unified field theory.

1935 EPR: Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen critique of completeness of quantum theory.

…and a lot more.

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Cornelius Lanczos

“…if somebody asked: “Who is the greatest modern physicist after Einstein?” the answer would be: Einstein again. And why? Because although the theory of relativity in itself would have established him fame forever, had somebody else discovered relativity, his other discoveries would still make him the second greatest physicist of his time.”

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But his thought lives on...18 April 1955

Einstein as a Cultural Icon

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Advertisement for GMC Terrain SUV in “Sexiest Man Alive” issue of People Magazine, November 30, 2009.

Einstein is No.7 in Forbes magazine’s list of top-earning dead celebrities.$10 million for October 2010 – October 2011.http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mfl45hggm/no-7-albert-einsetin/#gallerycontent Downloaded April 27, 2012

$$$$$$$$

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Huffington PostMay 27, 2010

Einstein as an Icon among Scientists

“Einstein was right.”

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Gravity Probe B vindicates geodetic and frame dragging predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

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Neutrinos do not travel faster than light.

BUT…

Tachyons are compatible with special relativity (Einstein’s theory).They are just odd.

Tachyons are not compatible with (relativistic) quantum field theory(not Einstein’s theory).

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BUT…

Einstein’s 1917 cosmology was not expanding.

Cosmological constant (“dark energy’) introduced to enable matter in a static cosmology.

1918: “gravely detrimental to the beauty of the theory.”

1932: retracted with discovery of the expansion of the galaxies.

(to Gamow) his “greatest blunder”

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Historically the term containing the “cosmological constant” was introduced into the field equations in order to enable us to account theoretically for the existence of a finite mean density in a static universe.

It now appears that in the dynamical case this end can be reached without the introduction of .

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String theory is Einstein’s nightmare,antithetical to his program:a fundamentally quantum theory on a Minkowski spacetime background.

…fulfillment of Albert Einstein’s lifelong dream of a Theory of Everything, uniting the laws of physics into a single description…

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BUT…

Einstein was an outspoken critic of standard quantum theory and urged that the non-locality of the theory was an illusion deriving from its incompleteness.

…coincidentally proves that Albert Einstein was right when he thought he was wrong…

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Albert Einstein, who liked to make bold claims (often wrong), famously said that “if the bee disappears off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live.

What Einstein has become…

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This Talk

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A proposal that we recalibrate our understanding of Einstein’s work and achievement.

!!!

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Major Parts of Einstein’s…

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…are 19th Century.

science the reality of atomsspecial relativity

methods finding quantageometrizing physics

outlook unificationcausation

Science

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Science: Reality of Atoms

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19th CenturyMaxwell-Boltzmann’s statistical physics.

The behavior of thermal systems IS explained by their consisting of very many components (atoms, molecules, modes…) that tend towards the most probable.

Einstein1905 Brownian motion.

The thermal motion of microscopically visible particles can ONLY be explained if thermal systems consist of very many molecules.

Science: Special Relativity

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19th CenturyMaxwell-Boltzmann’s electrodynamics.

The first theory to give reliable results on how things behave when they are moving at or near the speed of light.

Einstein1905 special relativity.

The kinematics that extends up to speeds near or close to the speed of light.

Einstein extracts the kinematics as an independent theory.

Lorentz transformation is already “in” the electrodynamics.

Methods

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Methods: Constitution of Thermal System

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19th CenturyEinstein’s method for vindicating a 19th century result

Fluctuation phenomena reveal the discrete components (molecules) that comprise ordinary thermal systems.

Einstein1905 The light quantum.

Fluctuation phenomena reveal the discrete components (quanta) that comprise systems of thermal radiation.

Einstein1912-15 General Relativity…

…results when these new geometric and other methods are applied to gravity.

Methods: Geometry

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19th CenturyThe century of new discoveries in geometry

Non-Euclidean geometry, projective geometry, Klein’s Erlangen Program, group theory,Ricci and Levi-Civita’s absolute differential calculus (“tensor calculus”)

Lobachevsky geometry

Outlook

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Outlook: Unity of Forces

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19th CenturyUnity of Forces

Light, electricity, magnetism are not distinct but manifestations of different states of an underlying electromagnetic ether.

EinsteinUnified Field Theory

Electromagnetism and gravity are not distinct but manifestations of different states of an underlying spacetime geometry (Einstein’s new “ether”).

Aether und Relativitätstheorie. Rede gehalten am 5. Mai 1920 an der Reichs-Universität zu Leiden.

Faraday’s magnetic rotation apparatus

Outlook: Causation

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19th CenturyCausation is Determinism

"...the laws of the external world were also taken to be complete, in the following sense: If the state of the objects is completely given at a certain time, then their state at any other time is completely determined by the laws of nature. This is just what we mean when we speak of 'causality.' Such was approximately the framework of the physical thinking a hundred years ago."

Albert Einstein, "Physics, Philosophy, and Scientific Progress," International Congress of Surgeons, Cleveland, Ohio, 1950; printed in Physics Today, June 2005, pp.46-48.

Probabilities arise from ignorance of the complete state, just as in Maxwell and Boltzmann’s 19th c. physics.

EinsteinAgainst the Completeness of Quantum Theory

“The theory yields much, but it hardly brings us closer to the Old One's secrets. I, in any case, am convinced that He does not play dice.”

“It is hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that he would choose to play dice with the world...is something I cannot believe for a single moment.” To Lanczos, Mar 21 1942

To Born, Dec 4, 1926

ConclusionThe Bend in the Road

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“belongs equally to both … or … to neither”

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“To ask whether his [Copernicus’] work is really ancient or modem is rather like asking whether the bend in an otherwise straight road belongs to the section of road that precedes the bend or to the portion that comes after it.

From the bend both sections of the road are visible, and its continuity is apparent. But viewed from a point before the bend. the road seems to run straight to the bend and then to disappear; the bend seems the last point in a straight road. And viewed from a point in the next section, after the bend, the road appears to begin at the bend from which it runs straight on.

The bend belongs equally to both sections, or it belongs to neither.”

T. S. Kuhn, Copernican Revolution, p. 182.

Read

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Finis

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