The Perfect Theory (38 page)

 

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“The introduction of such a constant implies a considerable renunciation”: Einstein (2001).
“committed something in the theory of gravitation that threatens to get me interned in a lunatic asylum”: Einstein to P. Ehrenfest, 1917, in Isaacson (2008), p. 252.

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“To admit such possibilities seems senseless”: Ibid.

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“The cosmological constant . . . is undetermined”: Friedmann (1922), reprinted in Bernstein and Feinberg (1986).

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“the significance”: Einstein (1922), reprinted in Bernstein and Feinberg (1986).
“If you find the calculations presented in my letter correct”: Friedmann's letter to Einstein, 1922, in Schweber (2008), p. 324.
“there are time varying solutions”: Einstein (1923), reprinted in Bernstein and Feinberg (1986).

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“a very brilliant student”: Douglas (1967).

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H. Weyl and A. Eddington's discussions of the de Sitter effect: Weyl (1923) and Eddington (1963).

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Vesto Slipher: The relevant papers are Slipher (1913), Slipher (1914), and Slipher (1917), which can be found at
http://www.roe.ac.uk/~jap/slipher
.

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K. Lundmark's attempt at detecting the de Sitter effect: Lundmark (1924).
obscure Belgian publication: Lemaître (1927).

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“Although your calculations are correct”: Einstein to G. Lemaître at the 1927 Solvay Conference, in Berger (1984).
E. Hubble's papers measuring the distance to Andromeda: Hubble (1926) and Hubble (1929a).

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Hubble and Humason: A fascinating description of working with E. Hubble at Palomar can be found in M. Humason's AIP interview, in Shapiro (1965).

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E. Hubble's and M. Humason's back-to-back papers: Humason (1929) and Hubble (1929b).

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“I send you a few copies of the paper”: Letter from G. Lemaître to A. Eddington, 1930, reproduced in Nussbaumer and Bieri (2009), p. 123.

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“If the world has begun with a single”: Lemaître (1931).
“The notion of a beginning of the present order”: Eddington (1931).

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“serious expressions on their faces”:
Los Angeles Times,
January 11, 1933.
“This is the most beautiful and satisfactory”: A. Einstein about G. Lemaître in Kragh (1996), p. 55.
“World's Leading Cosmologist”:
New York Times
, February 19, 1933.

 

4.
COLLAPSING STARS

 

There are a number of histories of quantum physics. I would pick Kumar (2009) as an excellent up-to-date description of the characters and concepts. The fight and fallout between Eddington and Chandra is beautifully described in Miller (2007) with a personal view (from Chandra) in Chandrasekhar (1983). In Thorne (1994), you can find how their battle fits into the grand narrative. I have not discussed the almost simultaneous discovery of Chandra's mass limit by E. Stoner and L. Landau, but it is worth having a look at Stoner (1929) and Landau (1932).

Oppenheimer is a truly fascinating character and there are a number of biographies. One of my favorites is the slim, almost personal description of the man in Bernstein (2004), but I have also used the authoritative Bird and Sherwin (2009). Monk (2012) came out as I was finishing this book and is also a wonderful resource.

 

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“the star tends to close itself off from any communication”: Oppenheimer and Snyder (1939).

“As you see, the war is kindly disposed toward me”: K. Schwarzschild letter to A. Einstein in Einstein (2012).
“Schwarzschild's bent was more practical”: A. Eddington on K. Schwarzschild in Eddington and Schwarzschild (1917).

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“I had not expected that one could formulate the exact solution of the problem in such a simple way”: A. Einstein letter to K. Schwarzschild in Einstein (2012).

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“When we obtain by mathematical analysis”: Eddington (1959), p. 103.

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“It would seem that the star will be in an awkward predicament”: Ibid., p. 172.
“the force of gravitation would be so great”: Ibid., p. 6.

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“when we
prove
a result without understanding it”: Ibid., p. 103.
“By mere exposure to ultraviolet light”: Lenard (1906).

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“Certainly one of the earliest motives that I had was to show the world what an Indian could do”: S. Chandrasekhar in Weart (1977).
Chandra and Sommerfeld: Sommerfeld (1923).

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“A star of large mass cannot pass into the white dwarf stage”: Chandrasekhar (1935a).
“a reductio ad absurdum” . . . “various accidents may intervene” . . . “I think there should be a law of nature”: Eddington (1935b).
“Now, that clearly shows that”: S. Chandrasekhar on A. Eddington in Chandrasekhar (1983).

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“was evidently much handicapped”: P. Bridgeman on J. R. Oppenheimer in Bernstein (2004).

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“nim nim boys”: W. Pauli on J. R. Oppenheimer's group in Regis (1987).

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“with his rabid hatred of genuine Socialism” . . . “become like Hitler and Mussolini”: Gorelik (1997).

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“a consideration of non-static solutions must be essential”: Oppenheimer and Volkoff (1939).
“The mass would produce so much curvature”: Eddington (1959), p. 6.

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N. Bohr and J. Wheeler's paper: Bohr and Wheeler (1939).

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“gravity becomes strong enough to hold in the radiation”: Eddington (1935b).
“For my part I shall only say”: S. Chandrasekhar on A. Eddington in Chandrasekhar (1983).
A. Einstein's mistaken attempt to get rid of the Schwarzschild solution: Einstein (1939).

 

5.
COMPLETELY CUCKOO

 

The creation of, and life at, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton is described in some detail in Regis (1987), and Einstein and Oppenheimer's relationship and times can be found in Schweber (2008). A fascinating and articulate description of Gödel's role in general relativity and his interaction with Einstein is in Yourgrau (2005), and a beautifully crafted novel about Gödel and Turing is Levin (2010). A wonderful graphic novel on the history of twentieth-century logic is Doxiadis and Papadimitriou (2009). If you want to understand a bit more about Einstein's failed quest for unification from a modern point of view, you should read Weinberg (2009).

For the German context of Einstein's work, and general relativity specifically, I have relied on Fölsing (1998), Wazek (2010), and Cornwell (2004). The Soviet context is far trickier, and while my starting point was Graham (1993) and Vucinich (2001), information has really begun to flow out of the Soviet archives that questions some of the Western views of what was going on during that period. I have relied heavily on my colleague Dr. Andrei Starinets and his translation of archival material of the time, but a book about Landau's times, which I eagerly await in translation, is Gorobets (2008). The stagnation of general relativity in the United States can be pieced together from Thorne (1994),
DeWitt-Morette (2011), and Wheeler and Ford (1998).

 

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“The ideal world is nothing else than the material world”: Marx (1990).

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The private letters to Beria: ЦХСД. ф.4. Оп.9. Д.1487. Л.5–7. Копия. CDMD (Central Depository of Modern Documents of the Russian Federation Archives) and ЦХСД. Ф.4. Оп.9. Д.1487. Л. 11–11 об. Копия. CDMD (Central Depository of Modern Documents of the Russian Federation Archives).

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“Einstein on Verge of Great Discovery”:
New York Times,
November 4, 1928.
“Einstein Is Amazed at Stir Over Theory”:
New York Times,
February 4, 1929.

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“New Einstein Theory Gives a Master Key to the Universe”:
New York Times,
December 27, 1949.
“Einstein Offers New Theory”:
New York Times,
March 30, 1953.

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“a wonderful piece of Earth”: A. Einstein letter to Queen of Belgium, 1933, kept in the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in Fölsing (1998), p. 679.
“just for the privilege of walking home”: A. Einstein on K. Gödel in Yourgrau (2005), p. 6.

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K. Gödel's solution: Gödel (1949).

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“an important contribution”: A. Einstein on Gödel's solution in Schilpp (1949).
“Princeton is a madhouse”: J. R. Oppenheimer to his brother in Schweber (2008), p. 265.
“Oppenheimer has made no contribution”: W. Pauli and A. Einstein on Oppenheimer in Schweber (2008), p. 271.
“The guest list at Oppie's”:
Time
magazine, November 8, 1948.

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“the general theory of relativity is one of the least promising”: F. Dyson letter, 1948, in Schweber (2008), p. 272.

“gravitation and fundamental theory”: S. Goudsmit in DeWitt-Morette (2011).

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“persistent campaign to reverse US Military Policy”:
Fortune,
May 1953, in Schweber (2009), p. 181.
“We find that Dr. Oppenheimer's continuing conduct”: Bernstein (2004).
“Einstein Warns World”: the
New York Post
, February 13, 1950.

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“What ought the minority of intellectuals do against”: A. Einstein in the
New York Times
, June 12, 1953.
“Einstein was a physicist, a natural philosopher”: J. R. Oppenheimer lecture, 1965, in Schweber (2008), p. 277.
“in the close-knit fraternity”: in
Time
magazine, November 8, 1948.

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“During the end of his life”: J. R. Oppenheimer in
L'Express,
December 20, 1965.

 

6.
RADIO DAYS

 

Radio astronomy and how it ended up fueling general relativity is well told in Munns (2012) and in Thorne (1994). Hoyle is a larger-than-life character, and it is definitely worth reading his autobiography, Hoyle (1994), but also the two substantial biographies, Gregory (2005) and Minton (2011). The AIP interview with Gold, Weart (1978), is very enlightening, and Kragh (1996) does an exhaustive job of mapping out the conflict with Ryle. I highly recommend reading Jansky (1933) and Reber (1940) to see how a field is discovered.

 

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“These theories were based on the hypothesis”: F. Hoyle in BBC Radio broadcast, 1949.

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“a feeling that he had gone far”: R. Williamson on F. Hoyle on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1951, in Kragh (1996), p. 194.
Eddington's theory: A. Eddington's fundamental theory is laid out in gory detail in Eddington (1953).
“Whether or not it will survive”: E. A. Milne on Eddington's fundamental theory in Kilmister (1994), p. 3.

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“complete nonsense: more precisely”: W. Pauli on A. Eddington in Miller (2007), p. 89.
“I was allowed to drift”: Lightman and Brawer (1990), p. 53.

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“I wanted to live for the rest of my days”: H. Bondi in Kragh (1996), p. 166.
“would continue . . . sometimes being rather repetitious”: T. Gold in Kragh (1996), p. 186.

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“I am afraid all we can do is to accept the paradox”: W. de Sitter in Kragh (1996), p. 74.
“It was an irrational process that cannot be described”: Hoyle (1950).

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“a distinctly unsatisfactory notion”: Ibid.
Dead of Night:
This is a British film by Alberto Cavalcanti (1945).

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“about one atom every century”: Hoyle (1955), p. 290.
two papers: The two first steady-state papers are Bondi and Gold (1948) and Hoyle (1948).
“I do not believe the hypothesis”: E. A. Milne in Kragh (1996), p. 190.
“for if there is any law which has withstood”: Born (1949).
“romantic speculation”: Michelmore (1962), p. 253.
“worn out with explaining points of physics”: F. Hoyle in Kragh (1996), p. 192.

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“I found it difficult to get my papers published”: Ibid.
“I do not think it unreasonable to say”: Ibid., p. 270.

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The birth of radio astronomy: Jansky (1933), Reber (1940), and Reber (1944).

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“I think the theoreticians have misunderstood”: M. Ryle at the RAS, 1955, in Lang and Gingrich (1979).

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“If we accept the conclusion that most of the radio stars”: Ryle (1955).
“Don't trust them”: T. Gold in Weart (1978).

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“catalogue is compared . . . the Cambridge catalogue is affected by the low”: Mills and Slee (1956).
“Radio astronomers must make considerable progress”: Hanbury-Brown (1959).
“this has happened more than once”: Bondi (1960), p. 167.

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“appear to provide conclusive evidence”: Ryle and Clarke (1961).
“the Bible was right”:
Evening News and Star,
February 10, 1961.
“I certainly don't consider this the death”: H. Bondi in the
New York Times,
February 11, 1961.

 

7.
WHEELERISMS

 

Wheeler is a great character and the driving force behind modern general relativity. His biography, Wheeler and Ford (1998), candidly exposes his two sides: the “radical” and the “conservative.” But, as importantly, the atmosphere at the time and the bizarre alliance between industry and relativists is well described in DeWitt and Rickles (2011) and DeWitt-Morette (2011) as well as in Mooallem (2007) and Kaiser (2000). It is worthwhile to browse through the Gravity Research Foundation website, at
http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org
, where you can find DeWitt's winning essay.

The realization that quasars are cosmological is well described in Thorne (1994) and in Schmidt's interview for the AIP, Wright (1975). The atmosphere in Schild's group at Austin is described to great effect in Melia (2009), and a great firsthand account of what happened at the first Texas Symposium can be found in Schucking (1989) and Chiu (1964).