Why talk about Einstein? Why Einstein matters?

Two weeks ago I wrote a post of “Einstein: A brief introduction”.  This post talks about the impact of his theory of general relativity upon the frontier research in physics over the past 100 years.  I have lost counts of how many Nobel laureates it has produced; just two days ago (Feb. 11, 2016) an earth-moving event was announced, again, to prove he has been right all along.

 
A solution of Einstein’s equations led to the concept of black hole

Einstein formulated the two postulates of special relativity in 1905.  The most famous formula of E = mc² was also published in 1905.  He presented the equations of general relativity, adding gravity to it, before Prussian Academy of Science in March 1916 (announced in Nov. 1915).

While serving in the Eastern (Russian) front during WWI in 1916, Karl Schwarzschild derived the first exact solution of Einstein’s equation while calculating artillery trajectory.  This led to the initial concept of black hole.

1983 Nobel Prize in Physics: Mathematical theory of the structural evolution of the stars and black hole

There is no way I can understand Chandrasekhar’s Nobel Lecture, but I can tell it can be traced back to Einstein’s general theory of relativity.  In the section of “The mathematical theory of blacks holes," he said,

“. . . the conclusion is inescapable that black holes will form as one of the natural end products of stellar evolution of massive stars; and further that they must exist in large numbers in the present astronomical universe. In this last section I want to consider very briefly what the general theory of relativity has to say about them. . .”

This is how he concluded his Nobel Lecture,

The mathematical theory of black holes is a subject of immense complexity; but its study has convinced me of the basic truth of the ancient mottoes,

The simple is the seal of the true,

Beauty is the splendour of truth.

Chandrasekhar

Chandrasekhar (an Indian American) gave a Ryerson Lecture of “Shakespeare, Newton and Beethoven, or Patterns of Creativity” at the University of Chicago in 1975, eight years before he was awarded the Nobel Prize.  One of the most intellectual talks I ever encountered; it is saved in my FileMaker file.  He is truly a Renaissance Man.

Toward the end of the lecture, he said,

“May I allow myself at this point a personal reflection? In my entire scientific life, extending over forty-five years, the most shattering experience has been the realization that an exact solution of Einstein’s equations of general relativity, discovered by the New Zealand mathematician, Roy Kerr, provides the absolutely exact representation of untold numbers of massive black holes that populate the universe . . . this incredible fact that a discovery motivated by a search after the beautiful in mathematics should find its exact replica in Nature, persuades me to say that beauty is that to which the human mind responds at its deepest and most profound.  Indeed, everything I have tried to say in this connection has been stated more succinctly in the Latin mottos:

Simplex sigillum – The simple is the seal of the true

Pulchritudo splendor veritatis – Beauty is the splendor of truth.

2011 Nobel Prizes in physics: The discovery of accelerating expansion of the universe

In his Nobel Lecture, Saul Perlmutter (one of the three laureates) said,

“For most of human history, this sort of question [is the universe expanding?] was a truly philosophical question. It wasn’t until the 20th century that we began to have a scientific version of this question. This is partly because Einstein’s theory of general relativity gave us some new conceptual tools that made it possible to think about this topic in a more rigorous way. But it’s also because Edwin Hubble (1929) measured an expansion of the Universe, which meant that we started to see in more concrete terms what we could mean by the fate of the Universe.”

Edwin Hubble was the one first discovered the universe was expanding and the universe goes beyond our Milky Way galaxy.  It is of interest this discovery was first published in New York Times before presenting to his professional society meeting.  He was never awarded a Nobel Prize as the Nobel committee didn’t consider astronomy as worthy of its recognition during his lifetime.

The Big Bang theory and the theory of general relativity

To connect these two theories is beyond the scope of this post.  Einstein’s general relativity gave birth to modern cosmology.  Several Nobel Prizes in Physics are related to the Big Bang theory.

The 1978 was for “the cosmic microwaves background radiation,” considered a relic of the explosion at the beginning of the universe 18 billion years ago.

In his 2006 Nobel Lecture, John Mather began the statement of “In the beginning was the Big Bang. So we now say with great certainty.” 

The discovery of the gravitational waves confirms Einstein’s general relativity

Einstein first predicted gravitational waves based on his theory of general relativity in 1915-1916, although he did waffle on a few occasions.

Einstein went back and forth on whether his theory suggested gravitational waves. He wrote in early 1916 that, “there are no gravitational waves analogous to light waves.”  He had a different thought and published a paper about gravitational waves in late 1916. A colleague pointed out a miscalculation in the equation in that paper; he then published an improved version, “On Gravitational waves” in 1918.

In 1921, Einstein delivered a series of lectures at Princeton University, a comprehensive review of his special theory of relativity (1905) and general theory of relativity (2015), during which the gravitational waves were not mentioned at all.  Until his death in 1955, Einstein was never convinced the gravitational waves can be measured if it were indeed present. 

On September 14, 2015 the Lasr Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) picked up a faint signal that proved to be the unmistakable traces of the ever elusive gravitational waves.  It took two months for the scientists at LIGO to convince themselves it was real.  It was announced on Feb. 11, 2016.  This is an earth-moving (驚天動地) event; some said it is more important than the discovery of Higgs boson in 2012.  This is definitely a Nobel Prize work, if they can decide who (up to three persons are allowed the share the prizes) should get the most credits.

LIGO

The gravitational waves are supposedly generated by the collision of two humongous black holes about 1.3 billion years ago.  The existence of which was suggested by observing a pulsar circling neutron star in 1970s, resulting the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993. 

The Higgs boson (the elemental particle of the Standard Model of particle physics) was discovered by the scientists at the CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in July 2012.  Peter Higgs and Francois Englert were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics next year (2013).  They theorized the presence of this long-sought particle more than 50 years ago; Robert Brout should share the prizes, but he has since passed away. 

None of the scientists actually discovered the Higgs boson particle at the CERN shared the prizes.  The case of gravitational waves is different.  Einstein should get it, but Nobel Prize is not given posthumously (with one exception), so there is still hope for the scientists at LIGO.

Nobel Prize or not, right now the scientists are thrilled in exhilarating mood, one scientists said, “We are pretty much at the moment when Galileo was beginning to see the first objects around Earth.  It will have such a huge impact on the field.

Einstein: A brief introduction

Being a history buff and spending the first 15-20 years after coming to the States reading science and medicine only, I naturally was in love with history of science; that is why I am still subscribing the Scientific American with an access to all its 170-year content online.

There was a special issue of Scientific American celebrating 100 years of general relativity last September.

I have been talking about the life and science of many scientists (yes, medicine is 100% science. as Dr. Osler said, “the practice of medicine is an art, based on science"; i.e. medicine by or in itself is not an art; practice of medicine is.) Rarely did I ever mention Einstein in my blog, lest the mention of “general relativity” scaring the readers away.

Einstein took a great interest in the history of science; in fact, his last interview (done two weeks before his death, published in Scientific American 7/1/1955) was with a historian of science.  He wrote many articles about Newton and other great scientists in history.

But come to think about it, there are many interesting things to talk about this Man of the last Century.

Einstein got his Nobel for photoelectric theory, not general relativity theory

When Einstein was formulating the idea of general relativity that will re-write the century-old Newtonian gravity law, even Max Planck advised him not to try it, “As an old friend, I must advise you against it. . . . You will not succeed, and even if you succeed, no one will believe you.”

The exact date of birth of quantum mechanics/physics is December 14, 1900 when Max Planck announced his revolutionary idea that energy emitted by a resonator could only take a discrete value (quanta, hence quantum mechanics; E = hf; E=energy, f=frequency, h=Planck constant).  Based on Planck’s concept, Einstein proposed in 1915 that light is also quantized—his photoelectric effect (E = hv) that earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, ad Planck was so honored in 1918.

In fact, Einstein never got another Nobel Prize for his general relativity; I think part of the reason was that Nobel committee was so cautious and had no intention to make a fool of themselves by awarding something that might turn out wrong.

Charlie Chaplin once told Einstein, “The people applaud me because everybody understands me, and they applaud you because no one understands you.”

Einstein wrote an article for Scientific American (published in the issue of 4/1/1950, part of my collection) that came with a letter, saying “The article is somewhat long and not quite easy to grasp. I should, therefore, not be astonished if you find it unsuited for publication in your magazine.”  That letter is framed and displayed at the Scientific American’s office now.

Einstein is an ultimate pacifist during WWI

Einstein is an ultimate pacifist; a great man is often great in many aspects.  While reading WWI, I discovered how great an effort he made in trying to stop the war.  As I always said WWI shouldn’t have happened and WWII should fight at all costs.

Many intellectuals, including Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Romain Rolland and Einstein (all Nobel laureates) in Europe tried to stop the war, but to no avail. Einstein wrote to Rolland on 3/25/1915, “When posterity recounts the achievements of Europe, shall we let man say that three centuries of painstaking cultural effort carried us no further than from religious fanaticism to the insanity of nationalization? In both camps, today even scholars behave as though eight months ago they suddenly lost their heads.”

When observations of the total eclipse in 1919 detected the light was indeed bent by the gravitational force that confirmed his general relativity theory was correct, Einstein used that fame to speak out many issues to right the wrong and advocate a just world government.

Einstein's hand written E = mc²

Manhattan Project

In 1939 when the physicist Leo Szilard wrote a letter to warn FDR that Nazi might be building an atomic bomb, leading to the Manhattan Project. Szilard asked Einstein to sign the letter and he did.  But, Einstein never actually participated in the project as the government never trusted him, as many of his views were that of a socialist and leftist.

As we all know that the tremendous energy of an atom is revealed by his most famous formula: E = mc², that c is speed of light; there is nothing can be faster than speed of light).  After Hiroshima, Einstein remarked, “If I knew they were going to do this, I would have become a shoemaker!”

Esoteric general relativity

An article about Einstein will not be complete without talking about his general relativity.  I will only mention a few very basic concepts as higher calculus will be required to have a better grasp.

In Newton’s gravity law the gravity force is merely from the mass, but in general relativity gravity is the “curvature of space due to the presence of mass”, as physicist John Wheeler said, general relativity shows that “space tells matter how to move; matter tells space how to curve.”

Space and time are not fixed absolutes; they are relative to one another, and influenced by observer’s motion. In particle physics experiments, it has been observed that unstable particles moving at a very high speeds take longer to decay [as time passing much slower] than those moving at much slower velocities.

Road to relativity: crises in life drive the creativity in science and in literature?

Einstein began an affair with his cousin in 1912, whom he later married. He and his first wife separated in 1914 and his wife moved to Zurich with their two sons.  Anti-Semitism was rising.  Einstein lived alone in Berlin, where “he ate intermittently, slept randomly, played his violin and waged his solitary struggle.” There was rivalry in work, especially with David Hilbert.

One article implied that Einstein’s most productive and creative years corresponded to his most trying time of his personal and family life.

This reminds me of the story of T. S. Eliot.  By all accounts, he had a happy second marriage (1957 until his death at age of 76 in 1965) during which he wrote no plays or poetry of importance, in contrast to what he had produced during his melancholy 17 years with his first wife, Vivienne.  The Waste Land came out in 1922.