Talk by Douglas Stone at ASC (Apr 30)

[Dardashti, Radin]

Speaker: A. Douglas Stone (Yale)
Wednesday 30th Apr 2014
Location: Room A348/349, Theresienstr. 37/III
Time: 16:15 - 17:45

Title: Einstein and Quantum Mechanics: Its Not What You Think

Abstract:
Einstein is well known for his rejection of quantum mechanics in the 
form it emerged from the work of Heisenberg, Born and Schrodinger in 
1926. Much less appreciated are the many seminal contributions he made 
to quantum theory prior to his final scientific verdict, that the theory 
was at best incomplete. In this talk I present an overview of Einsteins 
many conceptual breakthroughs and place them in his- torical context. I 
argue that Einstein, much more than Planck, in- troduced the concept of 
quantization of energy in atomic mechanics. Einstein proposed the 
photon, the first force-carrying particle dis- covered for a fundamental 
interaction, and put forward the notion of wave-particle duality, based 
on sound statistical arguments 14 years before De Broglies work. He was 
the first to recognize the intrinsic randomness in atomic processes, and 
introduced the notion of tran- sition probabilities, embodied in the A 
and B coefficients for atomic emission and absorption. He also preceded 
Born in suggesting the interpretation of wave fields as probability 
densities for particles, pho- tons, in the case of the electromagnetic 
field. Finally, stimulated by Bose, he introduced the notion of 
indistinguishable particles in the quantum sense and derived the 
condensed phase of bosons, which is one of the fundamental states of 
matter at low temperatures. His work on quantum statistics in turn 
directly stimulated Schrodinger towards his discovery of the wave 
equation of quantum mechanics. It was only due to his rejection of the 
final theory that he is not gener- ally recognized as the most central 
figure in this historic achievement of human civilization.