Arnold Sommerfeld: Science, Life and Turbulent Times 1868-1951

477 Pages·2013·4.09 MB·English

by  Michael Eckert (auth.)

Michael Eckert
Arnold
Sommerfeld
Science, Life and Turbulent Times
–
Michael Eckert
Arnold Sommerfeld. Science, Life and Turbulent Times

Michael Eckert
translated by Tom Artin
Arnold Sommerfeld
Science, Life and Turbulent Times
1868–1951
Michael Eckert
Deutsches Museum
Munich , Germany
Translation of Arnold Sommerfeld: Atomphysiker und Kulturbote 1868–1951, originally published
in German by Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen
ISBN ---- ISBN ---- (eBook)
DOI ./----
Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 
Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the
material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with
reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed
on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts
thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current
version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained
through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the
respective Copyright Law.
Th e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication,
neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or
omissions that may be made. Th e publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein.
Printed on acid-free paper
Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Acknowledgment
In the case of such a source-dependent work, fi rst thanks are due Sommerfeld’s
heirs for access to the private papers and for permission to make full use of their
content. Sommerfeld’s granddaughter, Monika Baier, deserves particular thanks for
ordering her grandfather’s private papers and for providing valuable information
on the family background. Th e archivists of the various public institutions in which
Sommerfeld correspondence resides, too, are gratefully acknowledged for their
readiness to help. Th e bibliography reveals how much support the project has
thereby received. Cited passages from letters and texts from other source materials
have been adapted to modern notation for the sake of legibility. Numerous letters
cited here only in excerpts are printed in full in editions of correspondence. In these
cases, references are given indicating the respective volume of the published corre-
spondence (e.g., ASWB I and ASWB II as abbreviations for the two volumes of
Arnold Sommerfeld – Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel, Band I und II: since in those
volumes the letters are printed in chronological order, there is no need to specify
page or letter numbers). Th us the reader can study the respective letters in full and
in the context of the other correspondence reproduced there. Since Sommerfeld’s
private letters are not publicly accessible, they are identifi ed only by date, and no
source is given.
It is conventional for the published work of a scientist to take precedence over
unpublished papers at the beginning of a biographical endeavor. Th is approach
refl ects his life’s work as a scientist as it has been perceived by his contemporaries.
Usually this kind of biographical work begins with the mile-stone birthdays mark-
ing decades of a scientist’s life. 1 Th us, festschrifts were assembled to celebrate
Sommerfeld’s 60th, 70th, and 80th birthdays. In 1968, on the occasion of his 100th
birthday, the physicists of the University of Munich, organized an “Arnold
Sommerfeld Centennial Memorial Meeting,” and an “International Symposium
on the Physics of the One- and Two-Electron Atoms.” On this occasion, his succes-
sor at the Institute for Th eoretical Physics (Fritz Bopp) was commissioned by the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences to arrange for Sommerfeld’s most important scien-
tifi c papers to be published in the form of a four-volume edition. 2 Th e biographer
is gratefully obliged to all those involved in this preliminary work. Th e editors of
the scientifi c correspondence (the author and Karl Märker) had the support of the
Munich Physics Department (especially Harald Fritzsch and Herbert Wagner), and
the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (in the person of Past President Arnulf Schlüter).
Special thanks are also due the Dean of the Faculty of Physics (Axel Schenzle) of
Munich University for the fi nancial support that has enabled the translation of the
German original of this biography into English.
1 See chapter 14.
2 Sauter, Sommerfeld , 1969.
v
acknowledgment
Th e biographer owes thanks and acknowledgment also to his colleagues in the
history of science who have concerned themselves from a historical perspective
with Sommerfeld and his fi elds of research. Atop the list are John L. Heilbron, and
Paul Forman, who as participants in the S HQP project actually fi rst set Sommerfeld
research in motion. Subsequently, above all Armin Hermann, Ulrich Walter Benz,
and Karl von Meyenn have helped cause this spark to jump over to Germany.
In recent years, a new project on the history of quantum physics 3 at the Max
Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin brought further impetus to analyze
Sommerfeld’s work within the network of modern atomic and quantum theory.
For this biography, it was a piece of good fortune to participate in this project.
It would lead too far afi eld to list all the names of colleagues and friends who in this
and in previous decades have researched the history of quantum physics—and thus
also important aspects of the fi eld of Sommerfeld biography.
Even if, in retrospect, quantum physics be deemed Sommerfeld’s most signifi -
cant area of research, the less spectacular mathematical, physical, and technical
work to which he devoted himself in the course of his long scientifi c career deserves
inclusion in his biography. Th e gratitude of the historian of science and biographer
is therefore directed to all those who have devoted their scholarly attention to these
aspects of Sommerfeld’s work, and thus in diverse ways have advanced the work of
this biography. Th eir names and contributions are to be found in the bibliography.
Special thanks to our colleagues at the Research Institute of the Deutsches Museum,
which constitutes a particularly sympathetic setting for the work of history of sci-
ence. Last but not least, thanks to the German Research Foundation, without
whose fi nancial support this project would not have been possible.
3 http://quantum-history.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/main/ ( 28 January 2013)
vi
Contents
Prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
 Königsberg Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Childhood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. School Years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. University Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. A Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Dissertation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. A Mechanical Basis of Electrodynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Setting the Course. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Missed Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Military Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Mineralogical Interlude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Stick It Out, or Resign? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Approach to Felix Klein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Physics or Mathematics?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Klein’s Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Physical Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th en I’ll Grow into the Lectureship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Reading Room and Model Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Habilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Lecturer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Engagement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Clausthal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. An Off er from America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Appointment at the Clausthal School of Mining . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e School of Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Wedding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Gyroscope Matters and Electrodynamic Problems. . . . . . . . . . . 
. Encyclopedia Travels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Gyroscope + Encyclopedia = Aachen-Recommendation . . . . . . . . 
vii
contents
 Aachen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Backgrounds of an Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Rapprochement with Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Technological Expert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Family Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Duties and Inclinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e “Super-Mechanics” of Electrons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. “In Truth I Am No Engineering Professor; I Am a Physicist” . . . . . 
 Munich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Academic Traditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Quarrel over Electron Th eory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Origins of the Sommerfeld School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Mathematical Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e “h-Discovery”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e First Solvay Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. X-Rays and Crystals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Physics in War and Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. “For Me, the Political Future Lies in Utter Darkness” . . . . . . . . . 
. Return to Th eory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Letters from the Front. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Elaboration of Bohr’s Atomic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Military Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. An Emotional Roller Coaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 The Quantum Pope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Atomic Structure and Spectral Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e German Physical Society: Internal Strife . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Visiting Bohr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. A New Quantum Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Teacher and Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Bible of Atomic Physics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Lusitania Medal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Karl Schurz Professor at Madison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. California Impressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Practical Spectroscopy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
viii
contents
 Wave Mechanics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Crisis of the Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. “We Believe in Heisenberg, but We Calculate with Schrödinger” . . . 
. Electron Th eory of Metals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Planck Succession. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. “Not Sommerfeld, but Schüpfer” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Volta Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. A Wave Mechanics Supplement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Cultural Ambassador. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. German Science on the International Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Impressions of India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. German Science at Chinese Outposts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Birthday in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Visiting Professor in Pasadena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Second American Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Critique of Positivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Quarrel with Stark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. On the Road Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Consolidation of the New Th eories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Descent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Consequences of the New Civil Service Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. A Deceptive Normalcy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. “Retirement” with Postponement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. “German Physics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Science on the Sidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Seventieth Birthday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Decision in the Succession Dispute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Bitter Years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e Scandal Intensifi es. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Th e End of “German Physics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Political Misgivings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. A Research Assignment for the Navy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Lectures on Th eoretical Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
. Relativity Th eory Without Einstein?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
ix