A mis-interpretation and its consequences: Albert Einstein and the wave-particle duality
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: A mis-interpretation and its consequences: Albert Einstein and the wave-particle duality
zbMATH Open document ID: 0763.01016
DOI: 10.1007/BF00417065
author: Alexander Bach
published in: Archive for History of Exact Sciences
publication date: 1993-02-07T00:00:00Z
review text: The author gives a historical and critical analysis of Einstein's interpretation of the fluctuations of blackbody radiation which is to be found in Einstein's Habilitationsschrift (1909) and in two successive papers (1909). The starting point is a thesis: in these works Einstein gave his famous fluctuation formula, in a short and questionable way, but then he interpreted it incorrectly. After the Introduction a historical review is given (Ch. 2 and 3) of Einstein's wave-particle duality conceptions from 1909 through 1927. Ehrenfest's criticism of the Lichtquantenhypothese and Einstein's fluctuation formula (Ch. 4 and 5) is studied from a systematic point of view; also Einstein-Ehrenfest's correspondence is used. In Ch. 6 the author's proof is given to show that Einstein's interpretation is really wrong. In Ch. 7 a modern interpretation of the fluctuation formula follows. Finally, Ch. 8 contains remarks concerning the influence of Einstein's interpretation on the quantum theory. It is shown that for a modern interpretation the quantum theoretical methods are not needed. The paper ends with numerous references (on five pages).
reviewed by: Ülo Lumiste
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A60
zbMATH DE Number: 110361
zbMATH Keywords: blackbody radiation
zbMATH Keywords: wave-particle duality
zbMATH Keywords: Einstein's fluctuation formula
zbMATH Keywords: quantum theory
MaRDI profile type: Publication
cites work: On the origin of the integral representations in quantum optics
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 110361