Transcript Einstein… John D. Norton Department of History and Philosophy of Science Center for Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh http://www.pitt.edu Rotman Institute of Philosophy March 14, 2013

Einstein…
John D. Norton
Department of History and
Philosophy of Science
Center for Philosophy of Science
University of Pittsburgh
http://www.pitt.edu
Rotman Institute of Philosophy
March 14, 2013
December 31, 1999
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A Well-Deserved Honor
1902-1904 Independent discovery of Gibbs framework of statistical mechanics.
1905
Brownian 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.
1919-1955
1924
1935
Attempts at a unified field theory.
Bose-Einstein statistics
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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18 April 1955
But his thought lives on...
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Einstein as a
Cultural Icon
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Einstein is No.7 in Forbes
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$10 million for October
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Huffington Post
May 27, 2010
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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 l
(“dark energy’) introduced to
enable matter in a static
cosmology.
1918: l “gravely detrimental
to the beauty of the theory.”
1932: l 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” l 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 l.
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…fulfillment of Albert
Einstein’s lifelong
dream of a Theory of
Everything, uniting the
laws of physics into a
single description…
String theory is Einstein’s nightmare,
antithetical to his program:
a fundamentally quantum theory on a Minkowski spacetime background.
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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.
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What Einstein has become…
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This Talk
A proposal that we
recalibrate our
understanding of
Einstein’s work and
achievement.
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Major Parts of Einstein’s…
science
the reality of atoms
special relativity
methods
finding quanta
geometrizing physics
outlook
unification
causation
…are 19th Century.
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Science
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Science: Reality of Atoms
19th Century
Maxwell-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.
Einstein
1905 Brownian motion.
The thermal motion of
microscopically visible particles
can ONLY be explained if thermal
systems consist of very many
molecules.
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Science: Special Relativity
19th Century
Einstein
Maxwell-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.
1905 special relativity.
Lorentz
transformation is
already “in” the
electrodynamics.
The kinematics that extends up to
speeds near or close to the speed
of light.
Einstein extracts the kinematics as
an independent theory.
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Methods
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Methods: Constitution of
Thermal System
19th Century
Einstein’s method for
vindicating a 19th century result
Fluctuation phenomena reveal the
discrete components (molecules)
that comprise ordinary thermal
systems.
Einstein
1905 The light quantum.
Fluctuation phenomena reveal the
discrete components (quanta) that
comprise systems of thermal
radiation.
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Methods: Geometry
19th Century
The century of new discoveries
in geometry
Einstein
1912-15 General Relativity…
Non-Euclidean geometry,
projective geometry, Klein’s
Erlangen Program, group theory,
Ricci and Levi-Civita’s absolute
differential calculus (“tensor
calculus”)
Lobachevsky
geometry
…results when these new geometric
and other methods are applied to
gravity.
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Outlook
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Outlook: Unity of Forces
19th Century
Unity of Forces
Light, electricity, magnetism are
not distinct but manifestations of
different states of an underlying
electromagnetic ether.
Einstein
Unified 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
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19th Century
Causation 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.
Outlook: Causation
Einstein
Against 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.”
To Born, Dec 4, 1926
“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
Probabilities arise from
ignorance of the complete state,
just as in Maxwell and
Boltzmann’s 19th c. physics.
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Conclusion
The Bend in the Road
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“belongs equally to both … or … to neither”
“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.
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