arXiv subjects

Galina Weinstein

Publications and source records attributed to Galina Weinstein.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Einstein and the conservation of energy-momentum in general relativity

The main purpose of the present paper is to show that a correction of one mistake was crucial for Einstein's pathway to the first version of the 1915 general theory of relativity, but also might have played a role in obtaining the final version of Einstein's 1915 field equations. In 1914 Einstein wrote the equations for conservation of energy-momentum for matter, and established a connection between these equations and the components of the gravitational field. He showed that a material point in gravitational fields moves on a geodesic line in space-time, the equation of which is written in terms of the Christoffel symbols. By November 4, 1915, Einstein found it advantageous to use for the components of the gravitational field, not the previous equation, but the Christoffel symbols. He corrected the 1914 equations of conservation of energy-momentum for matter. Einstein had already basically possessed the field equations in 1912 together with his mathematician friend Marcel Grossman, but because he had not recognized the formal importance of the Christoffel symbols as the components of the gravitational field, he could "not obtain a clear overview". Finally, considering the energy-momentum conservation equations for matter, an important similarity between equations suggests that, this equation could have assisted Einstein in obtaining the final form of the field equations (the November 25, 1915 ones) that were generally covariant.

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arXiv2013

George Gamow and Albert Einstein: Did Einstein say the cosmological constant was the "biggest blunder" he ever made in his life?

In 1956/1970 Gamow wrote that much later, when he was discussing cosmological problems with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the "biggest blunder" he ever made in his life. But the cosmological constant rears its ugly head again and again and again. Apparently, Einstein himself has never used the apercu "biggest blunder"; nevertheless a vast literature grew up around this notion and associated it with Einstein. The present work is prompted by questions put by Mario Livio in his latest book "Brilliant Blunders" as to the phrase "biggest blunder": Did Einstein actually say, "biggest blunder"? I show that in 1947 Einstein wrote Lemaitre that he found it "very ugly" that the field law of gravitation should be composed of two logically independent terms. Earlier, in 1922 Einstein wrote Max Born that he committed "a monumental blunder some time ago". In 1965 Born commented: "Here Einstein admits that the considerations which led him to the positive-ray experiments were wrong: 'a monumental [capital] blunder'". It is likely that when Einstein met Gamow he formulated his views in his native German, and perhaps he told Gamow that suggesting his cosmological constant was a "blunder". I suggest that, Einstein perhaps told Gamow that the cosmological constant was a "capital blunder" or a "monumental blunder", and Gamow could have embellished Einstein's words to become the famous apercu "biggest blunder".

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arXiv2013

The Mythical Snake which Swallows its Tail: Einstein's matter world

In 1917 Einstein introduced into his field equations a cosmological term having the cosmological constant as a coefficient, in order that the theory should yield a static universe. Einstein desired to eliminate absolute space from physics according to "Mach's ideas". De Sitter objected to the "world-matter" in Einstein's world, and proposed a vacuum solution of Einstein's field equations with the cosmological constant and with no "world-matter". In 1920 the world-matter of Einstein's world was equivalent to "Mach's Ether", a carrier of the effects of inertia. De Sitter's 1917 solution predicted a spectral shift effect. In 1923 Eddington and Weyl adopted De Sitter's model and studied this effect. Einstein objected to this "cosmological problem". In 1922-1927, Friedmann and Lamaitre published dynamical universe models. Friedmann's model with cosmological constant equal to zero was the simplest general relativity universe. Einstein was willing to accept the mathematics, but not the physics of a dynamical universe. In 1929 Hubble announced the discovery that the actual universe is apparently expanding. In 1931 Einstein accepted Friedmann's model with a cosmological constant equal to zero, which he previously abhorred; he claimed that one did not need the cosmological term anymore. It was very typical to Einstein that he used to do a theoretical work and he cared about experiments and observations. This paper is a new interpretation to Einstein's cosmological considerations over the period 1917-1931.

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arXiv2013

The 1905 Relativity Paper and the "Light Quantum"

In 1905 the well-known physicist Max Planck was coeditor of the Annalen der Physik, and he accepted Einstein's paper on light quanta for publication, even though he disliked the idea of "light quanta". Einstein's relativity paper was received by the Annalen der Physik at the end of June 1905 and Planck was the first scientist to notice Einstein's relativity theory and to report favorably on it. In the 1905 relativity paper Einstein used a seemingly conventional notion, "light complex", and he did not invoke his novel quanta of light heuristic with respect to the principle of relativity. He chose the language "light complex" for which no clear definition could be given. But with hindsight, in 1905 Einstein made exactly the right choice not to mix concepts from his quantum paper with those from his relativity paper. He focused on the solution of his relativity problem, whose far-reaching perspectives Planck already sensed.

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arXiv2013

PBR theorem and Einstein's quantum hole argument

Upon reading Einstein's views on quantum incompleteness in publications or in his correspondence after 1935 (the EPR paradox), one gets a very intense feeling of deja-vu. Einstein presents a quantum hole argument, which somewhat reminds of the hole argument in his 1914 "Entwurf" theory of general relativity. PBR write in their paper, "An important step towards the derivation of our result is the idea that the quantum state is physical if distinct quantum states correspond to non-overlapping distributions for [physical states]". PBR then conclude, "The general notion that two distinct quantum states may describe the same state of reality, however, has a long history. For example, in a letter to Schrödinger containing a variant of the famous EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) argument", and they refer to Einstein's quantum hole argument. This short paper discusses the PBR theorem, and the connection between the PBR argument and Einstein's argument and solution.

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arXiv2012

Max Born, Albert Einstein and Hermann Minkowski's Space-Time Formalism of Special Relativity

This note is by no means a comprehensive study of Minkowski's space-time formalism of special relativity. The mathematician, Hermann Minkowski was Einstein's former mathematics professor at the Zürich Polytechnic. During his studies at the Polytechnic Einstein skipped Minkowski's classes. In 1904 Max Born arrived in the first time to Göttingen. Many years later Born wrote his recollections. In the summer of 1905, Minkowski and Hilbert led an advanced seminar on mathematical physics, on electrodynamical theory. Minkowski told Born later that it came to him as a great shock when Einstein published his paper in which the equivalence of the different local times of observers moving relative to each other was pronounced; for he had reached the same conclusions independently. He never made a priority claim and always gave Einstein his full share in the great discovery. In his famous talk, "Space and Time" Minkowski wrote that the credit of first recognizing sharply that t and t' are to be treated the same, is of A. Einstein.

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arXiv2012

Albert Einstein's Methodology

This paper discusses Einstein's methodology. 1. Einstein characterized his work as a theory of principle and reasoned that beyond kinematics, the 1905 heuristic relativity principle could offer new connections between non-kinematical concepts. 2. Einstein's creativity and inventiveness and process of thinking; invention or discovery. 3. Einstein considered his best friend Michele Besso as a sounding board and his class-mate from the Polytechnic Marcel Grossman, as his active partner. Yet, Einstein wrote to Arnold Sommerfeld that Grossman will never claim to be considered a co-discoverer of the Einstein-Grossmann theory. He only helped in guiding Einstein through the mathematical literature, but contributed nothing of substance to the results of the theory. Hence, Einstein neither considered Besso or Grossmann as co-discoverers of the relativity theory which he invented.

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arXiv2012

Einstein's Pathway to the Equivalence Principle 1905-1907

Between 1905 and 1907, Einstein first tried to extend the special theory of relativity in such a way so as to explain gravitational phenomena. This was the most natural and simplest path to be taken. These investigations did not fit in with Galileo's law of free fall. This law, which may also be formulated as the law of the equality of inertial and gravitational mass, was illuminating Einstein, and he suspected that in it must lie the key to a deeper understanding of inertia and gravitation. Einstein's 1907 breakthrough was to consider Galileo's law of free fall as a powerful argument in favor of expanding the principle of relativity to systems moving non-uniformly relative to each other. Einstein realized that he might be able to generalize the principle of relativity when guided by Galileo's law of free fall; for if one body fell differently from all others in the gravitational field, then with the help of this body an observer in free fall (with all other bodies) could find out that he was falling in a gravitational field.

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arXiv2012

A Biography of Henri Poincaré - 2012 Centenary of the Death of Poincaré

On January 4, 2012, the centenary of Henri Poincaré's death, a colloquium was held in Nancy, France the subject of which was "Vers une biographie d'Henri Poincaré". Scholars discussed several approaches for writing a biography of Poincaré. In this paper I present a personal and scientific biographical sketch of Poincaré, which does not in any way reflect Poincaré's rich personality and immense activity in science: When Poincaré traveled to parts of Europe, Africa and America, his companions noticed that he knew well everything from statistics to history and curious customs and habits of peoples. He was almost teaching everything in science. He was so encyclopedic that he dealt with the outstanding questions in the different branches of physics and mathematics; he had altered whole fields of science such as non-Euclidean geometry, Arithmetic, celestial mechanics, thermodynamics and kinetic theory, optics, electrodynamics, Maxwell's theory, and other topics from the forefront of Fin de Siècle physical science. It is interesting to note that as opposed to the prosperity of biographies and secondary papers studying the life and scientific contributions of Albert Einstein, one finds much less biographies and secondary sources discussing Poincaré's life and work. As opposed to Einstein, Poincaré was not a cultural icon. Beginning in 1920 Einstein became a myth and a world famous figure. Although Poincaré was so brilliant in mathematics, he mainly remained a famous mathematician within the professional circle of scientists. He published more papers than Einstein, performed research in many more branches of physics and mathematics, received more prizes on his studies, and was a member of more academies in the whole world. Despite this tremendous yield, Poincaré did not win the Nobel Prize.

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arXiv2012

Variation of Mass with Velocity: "Kugeltheorie" or "Relativtheorie"

This paper deals with four topics: The first subject is Abraham's spherical electron, Lorentz's contracted electron and Bücherer's electron. The second topic is Einstein's 1905 relativity theory of the motion of an electron. Einstein obtained expressions for the longitudinal and transverse masses of the electron using the principle of relativity and that of the constancy of the velocity of light. The third topic is Einstein's reply to Ehrenfest's query. Einstein's above solution appeared to Ehrenfest very similar to Lorentz's one: a deformed electron. Einstein commented on Ehrenfest's paper and characterized his work as a theory of principle and reasoned that beyond kinematics, the 1905 heuristic relativity principle could offer new connections between non-kinematical concepts. The final topic is Kaufmann's experiments. Kaufmann concluded that his measuring procedures were not compatible with the hypothesis posited by Lorentz and Einstein. However, unlike Ehrenfest, he gave the first clear account of the basic theoretical difference between Lorentz's and Einstein's views. Finally, Bücherer conducted experiments that confirmed Lorentz's and Einstein's models; Max Born analyzed the problem of a rigid body and showed the existence of a limited class of rigid motions, and concluded, "The main result was a confirmation of Lorentz's formula".

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arXiv2012

The Einstein-Nordström Theory

The Finnish physicist Gunnar Nordström developed a competing theory of gravitation to Einstein's 1912-1913 gravitation theory. The equivalence principle was valid in his theory and it also satisfied red shift of the spectral lines from the sun. However, it was unable to supply the Perihelion of Mercury, such as Einstein's theory; it led to a Perihelion like the one predicted by Newton's law, and, it could not explain the deflection of light near the sun, because in Nordström's theory the velocity of light was constant. Einstein's 1913-1914 theory, the field equations of which were not generally covariant, remained without empirical support. Thus a decision in favor of one or the other theory - Einstein's or Nordström's - was impossible on empirical grounds. Einstein began to study Nordström's theory from the theoretical point of view and he developed his own Einstein-Nordström theory on the basis of his conception of the natural interval. Eventually, in a joint 1914 paper with Lorentz's student Adrian Fokker, Einstein showed that a generally covariant formalism is presented from which Nordström's theory follows if a single assumption is made that it is possible to choose preferred systems of reference in such a way that the velocity of light is constant; and this was done after Einstein had failed to develop a generally covariant formulation for his own theory.

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arXiv2012

Biographies of Albert Einstein -- Mastermind of Theoretical Physics

Over the years many have written biographies of Einstein. They all based their biographies on primary sources, archival material: memories and letters of people who were in contact with Einstein, Einstein's own recollections; interviews that Einstein had given over the years, and letters of Einstein to his friends - youth friends like Marcel Grossman and Michele Besso and later friends and colleagues like Heinrich Zangger; and especially his love letters with Mileva Marić. One can demarcate between two types of biographies, namely, Documentary biographies, and, Non-documentary biographies. Non-documentary biographies were written by people who based themselves on documentary biographies and on other non-documentary biographies. Documentary biographies were written by people who knew Einstein personally, and received information from him and from other people who were in personal contact with him. This type can be further divided into two subgroups: books that were written while Einstein was still alive, and books that were written after his death. Among the first group there were some biographies that Einstein considered to be more reliable, others he thought were less reliable, and still other biographies which he considered to be almost pure imagination. I will demonstrate that relying on primary sources and "documentary" does not necessarily mean "reliable".

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arXiv2012

Albert Einstein: Rebellious Wunderkind

Childhood and Schooldays: Albert Einstein, and the family members seemed to have exaggerated the story of Albert who developed slowly, learned to talk late, and whose parents thought he was abnormal. These and other stories were adopted by biographers as if they really happened in the form that Albert and his sister told them. Hence biographers were inspired by them to create a mythical public image of Albert Einstein. Albert had tendency toward temper tantrums, the young impudent rebel Einstein had an impulsive and upright nature. He rebelled against authority and refused to learn by rote. He could not easily bring himself to study what did not interest him at school, especially humanistic subjects. And so his sister told the story that his Greek professor, to whom he once submitted an especially poor paper, went so far in his anger to declare that nothing would ever become of him. Albert learned subjects in advance when it came to sciences; and during the vacation of a few months from school, Albert independently worked his way through the entire prospective Gymnasium syllabus. He also taught himself natural science, geometry and philosophy by reading books that he obtained from a poor Jewish medical student of Polish nationality, Max Talmud, and from his uncle Jacob Einstein.

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arXiv2012

Albert Einstein at the Zürich Polytechnic: a rare mastery of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory

Einstein at the Zürich Polytechnic: he skipped classes, did not attend all the lectures of his Professors, and before going to the examinations he studied instead from the notebooks of his good friend from class, Marcel Grossmann. Einstein the free-thinker did not respect the two major professors in the Polytechnic - Heinrich Friedrich Weber and Jean Pernet - who eventually turned on him. He felt that his beloved science had lost its appeal because Weber's lectures did not include Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. Einstein seldom showed up to Pernet's practical physics course. By his fourth-rightness and his distrust of authority he had alienated his professors, especially Weber, who apparently conceived a particular dislike of him. At the Zürich Polytechnic, Einstein could not easily bring himself to study what did not interest him. Most of his time he spent on his own studying Maxwell's theory and learning at first hand the works of great pioneers in science and philosophy: Boltzmann, Helmholtz, Kirchhoff, Hertz, Mach. Eventually, Einstein finished first in his class in the intermediate exams; second after him was his note taker Grossmann. Do not ever try Einstein's recipe for studying in college, because after obtaining the diploma, when he sought university positions, he was rebuffed. Finally rescue came from Grossmann, and thanks to him and his father Einstein obtained a post in the Patent Office. There are strong reasons to believe that it was Einstein's rare mastery of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory that ultimately prompted the Director of the Patent Office to offer him a job.

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arXiv2012

Albert Einstein's close friends and colleagues from the Patent Office

In the Patent Office Einstein hatched his most beautiful ideas, and there he spent his "Happy Bern Years". These wonderful ideas led to his miraculous year works of 1905. Einstein was not an expert in academic matters, and he was out of academic world. Neither did he meet influential professors, or attend academic meetings. He discussed his ideas with his close friends and colleagues from the Patent Office. In 1907 he finally got his foot into the academic doorway; Einstein became a privatdozent and gave lectures at the University of Bern. However, his first students consisted again of his two close friends and another colleague from the Patent Office.

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arXiv2012

Einstein's Clocks and Langevin's Twins

In 1905 Einstein presented the Clock Paradox and in 1911 Paul Langevin expanded Einstein's result to human observers, the "Twin Paradox." I will explain the crucial difference between Einstein and Langevin. Einstein did not present the so-called "Twin Paradox." Later Einstein continued to speak about the clock paradox. Einstein might not have been interested in the question: what happens to the observers themselves. The reason for this could be the following; Einstein dealt with measurement procedures, clocks and measuring rods. Einstein's observers were measuring time with these clocks and measuring rods. Einstein might not have been interested in so-called biology of the observers, whether these observers were getting older, younger, or whether they have gone any other changes; these changes appeared to be out of the scope of his "Principle of relativity" or kinematics. The processes and changes occurring within observers seemed to be good for philosophical discussions. Later writers criticized Einstein's clock paradox. Einstein quickly replied with witty, smart and clever retorts.

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arXiv2012

A Discussion of Special Relativity

Five topics: A rigid body does not exist in the special theory of relativity; distant simultaneity defined with respect to a given frame of reference without any reference to synchronized clocks; challenges on Einstein's connection of synchronization and contraction; a theory of relativity without light, composition of relative velocities and space of relative velocities.

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arXiv2012

Did Poincaré explore the inertial mass-energy equivalence?

Einstein was the first to explore the inertial mass-energy equivalence. In 1905 Einstein showed that a change in energy is associated with a change in inertial mass equal to the change in energy divided by c2. In 1900 Poincaré considered a device creating and emitting electromagnetic waves. The device emits energy in all directions. As a result of the energy being emitted, it recoils. No motion of any other material body compensates for the recoil at that moment. Poincaré found that as a result of the recoil of the oscillator, in the moving system, the oscillator generating the electromagnetic energy suffers an "apparent complementary force". In addition, in order to demonstrate the non-violation of the theorem of the motion of the centre of gravity, Poincaré needed an arbitrary convention, the "fictitious fluid". Einstein demonstrated that if the inertial mass E/c2 is associated with the energy E, and on assuming the inseparability of the theorem of the conservation of mass and that of energy, then - at least as a first approximation - the theorem of the conservation of the motion of the centre of gravity is also valid for all systems in which electromagnetic processes take place. Before 1905 (and also afterwards) Poincaré did not explore the inertial mass-energy equivalence. In 1908 Einstein wrote the German physicist Johannes Stark, "I was a little surprised to see that you did not acknowledge my priority regarding the relationship between inertial mass and energy".

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