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Once Upon Einstein
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Once Upon Einstein
Thibault Damour
translated by Eric Novak
AKPeters,Ltd.
Wellesley,Massachusetts
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OriginallypublishedinFrench.
SiEinsteinm’´etaitcont´e,copyright(cid:1)c LeChercheMidiEditeur,2005.
EnglishtranslationbyEricNovak.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Damour,Thibault.
[SiEinsteinm’e´taitconte´.English]
Onceuponeinstein/ThibaultDamour;translatedbyEricNovak.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
ISBN13:978-1-56881-289-2(alk.paper)
ISBN10:1-56881-289-2(alk.paper)
1.Einstein,Albert,1879-1955.2.Physicists--Germany--History--20th
century--Biography.3.Physicists--UnitedStates--History--20thcentury--Biography.4.
Physics--History--20thcentury.I.Title.
QC16.E5D358132006
530’.092--dc22
[B]
2005056604
Coverphotograph:AlbertEinsteinca.1930.CreditRuedesArchives/TAL.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
1009080706 10987654321
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ToThierry,whoshowedmethepath,
toHe´le`ne,whosharedthepath,
toFaxandUlysses,whowalkedwithmealongthepath.
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Contents
OnceUponaTime... xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 TheQuestionofTime 1
TheEagleandtheSparrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
SpaceandTimebeforeEinstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Ether: TheMaterializationofAbsoluteSpace . . . . . . . . . . . 10
ButterfliesinaShip’sCabin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
“TheStep” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
TimeDeregulated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
TemporalRefrigerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
AnInfiniteMultiplicityofDesynchronizedTimes . . . . . . . . . 24
2 TheWorld’sCheckerboard 27
“TimeDoesNotExist!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
BergsonandEinstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
ThePrincessedeGuermantesListenstoEinstein . . . . . . . . . 33
ANew“World”: Space-Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
MethodologicalInterludeontheNotionof“Real” . . . . . . . . . 39
TheSpace-TimeBlock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
TheWorld’sCheckerboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
ATenaciousIllusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Lorentz,Poincare´,Einstein,Minkowski,andSpecialRelativity . . 48
EphemeralMatter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
AProfoundSimplificationoftheBasicCategoriesofReality . . . . 55
3 ElasticSpace-Time 57
NewtonUnthroned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
SuddenlyFamous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
“TheHappiestThoughtofMyLife” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
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viii Contents
Einstein’sElevator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
TowardsaGeneralizedRelativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Einstein’sTheoryinaPhraseandanImage . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Space-TimeDeformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Einstein’sLawofSpace-TimeElasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
TheStrengthofSpace-TimeElasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4 Einstein’sWorld-Game 85
MercuryAdvances,theSphinxSpeaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
VibrationalWavesintheSpace-TimeGelatin . . . . . . . . . . . 88
ThinkingoftheWhole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
LargeSpace-TimeDeformations: NeutronStarsandBlackHoles . 96
5 LightandEnergyinGrains 103
“AnElementVaryingbyJumps” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
A“VeryRevolutionary”Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
TheWaveNatureofLight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
TheWormwithintheFruit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
TheBlackandtheRed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
DisorderandCountingtheConfigurationsofFleas . . . . . . . . 113
EntropyandDisorder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
TheNeglectedEquation: E=hf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
FirstConsequencesoftheNeglectedEquation . . . . . . . . . . . 117
MatterandQuanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
TheIcyDiamond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
TheIdeabehindtheLaser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
LightandMatter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6 ConfrontingtheSphinx 129
ACrucialConversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
“WavesoverHere,QuantaoverThere!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Einstein’sGhostField,Born’sProbabilityAmplitude,and
Heisenberg’sUncertaintyRelations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
AWatershedMoment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
“TheMarbleSmileofImplacableNature” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
AdventurersinEntangledReality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
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Contents ix
7 Einstein’sLegacy 147
TheMouseandtheUniverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
TheMultipleWorld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
TheKantianQuantum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
TheGrandIllusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
DreamsofUnification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
NotaDaywithoutEinstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
OfBearsandMen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Notes 167
SelectBibliography 183
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Once Upon a Time . . .
Once upon a time, there was a five-year-old boy, lying ill in bed. To help
him pass the time, his father brought him a compass. The child was struck
by the strangeness of the magnetic needle. In place of what he had come to
expect, the usual behavior of mundane objects, the needle always pointed in
the same direction, however he might rotate the casing. How could some-
thingsoextraordinarybepossible? Whatwasthehiddencauseofthisstrange
behavior?
The boy’s name was Albert Einstein. For his entire life, he remembered
the profound astonishment brought to him by the compass. This event was
the first manifestation of what would guide him throughout his career: an
insatiable curiosity, a desire to grasp the hidden order beneath the surface ap-
pearanceofthings. Ashestatedit:
IknowperfectlywellthatImyselfhavenospecialtalents. Itwascuriosity,
obsession,andsheerperseverancethatbroughtmetomyideas.
It has been 100 years since the “miraculous year,” 1905, during which
Einsteinlaidthefoundationsoftwoofthecrowningscientifictheoriesofthe
twentiethcentury: specialrelativityandquantummechanics. Ithasbeen90
years since he completed the theory of general relativity, and 50 years since
his death. Still the name Albert Einstein continues to fascinate the scientist
as well as the man on the street. His life was rich and complex, but it was
guided by this single, simple desire: to understand the hidden order of the
universe. Hissuccessinthisquestwasextraordinary. Evenifthesecondpart
of his life brought fewer concrete results than the first, the great ambition of
his curiosity can be measured today by the fact that the questions which he
posedthenhaveonlyrecentlybeguntobeanswered.
This book is not a biography of Einstein. We shall hardly speak of Ein-
stein the husband, the father, the musician, the pacifist, or the Zionist. We
shall not discuss his youth in Munich, his studies in Zurich, his difficulty
in finding a job, his university career, his social life in the vibrant Berlin of
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