Reactionaries and Einstein’s Fame: “German Scientists for the Preservation of Pure Science,” Relativity,and the Bad Nauheim Meeting

Two important and unpleasant events occurred in Albert Einstein’s life in 1920: That August an antirelativity rally was held in the large auditorium of the Berlin Philharmonic, and a few weeks later Einstein was drawn into a tense and highly publicized debate with Philipp Lenard on the merits of relativity at a meeting in Bad Nauheim, Germany. I review these events and discuss how they affected Einstein in light of new documentary evidence that has become available through the publication of Volume 10 of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Jeroen van Dongen is Associate Editor with the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology and Veni Research Fellow of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) at Utrecht University.     

The Genesis of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The creation of a good physics department in the newly established Hebrew University in Jerusalem (opened in 1925) was an important goal for Chaim Weizmann, President of the Zionist Organization and founder of the University (and chemist, by profession). A. H. Fraenkel, the mathematician, and L. S. Ornstein, the physicist from Utrecht, invested a lot of effort in achieving this goal. Albert Einstein was consulted on an almost day-to-day basis. Serious attempts were made to bring a first-rate theoretician to Jerusalem. After 1933, the chances for getting such a physicist were actually very good. George Placzek worked in Jerusalem during the academic year 1934–1935. Felix Bloch, Eugene Wigner, and Fritz London were offered positions as theoretical physicists in Jerusalem and considered the offers favorably. The discussions and correspondence with these great physicists are illuminating. Budget limitations, the problem of the teaching language (Hebrew) and the seclusion of Jerusalem from science centers in Europe or the United States undermined all these efforts. A solution was found when Giulio Racah from Italy finally was appointed.     

Accelerator Disaster Scenarios, the Unabomber, and Scientific Risks

The possibility that experiments at high-energy accelerators could create new forms of matter that would ultimately destroy the Earth has been considered several times in the past quarter century. One consequence of the earliest of these disaster scenarios was that the authors of a 1993 article in Physics Today who reviewed the experiments that had been carried out at the Bevalac at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory were placed on the FBI’s Unabomber watch list. Later, concerns that experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory might create mini black holes or nuggets of stable strange quark matter resulted in a flurry of articles in the popular press. I discuss this history, as well as Richard A. Posner’s provocative analysis and recommendations on how to deal with such scientific risks. I conclude that better communication between scientists and nonscientists would serve to assuage unreasonable fears and focus attention on truly serious potential threats to humankind. Joseph I. Kapusta: Joseph I. Kapusta received his Ph.D. degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1978 and has been on the faculty of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota since 1982. He is the author of over 150 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings and of Finite Temperature Field Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1989; second edition with Charles Gale, 2006).     

Quantum event theory: A Tetrode-Fokker version of quantum field theory

This paper explores the possibility of an event interpretation of quantum field theory.Research performed during stays at Utrecht State University at the Institute for the History and Foundations of Science.     

Contextual quantum process theory

A logically complete interpretation of quantum mechanics is given in terms of a theory of quantum processes.Research performed during stays at Utrecht State University, at the Institute for the History and Foundations of Science and at the Department of Philosophy.     

Berkeley and Its Physics Heritage

I first sketch the settlement of Berkeley, California, the founding of the University of California at Berkeley, and the origin of its Department of Physics. I then discuss the pivotal role that Ernest O. Lawrence (1901–1958) and his invention and subsequent development of the cyclotron played in physics at Berkeley after his arrival there in 1928 through the Second World War and beyond. I close by commenting on the Lawrence Hall of Science, the educational center and science museum conceived as a living memorial to Lawrence.     

Accelerating black holes in anti-de Sitter universe

A physical interpretation of theC-metric with a negative cosmological constantΛ is suggested. Using a convenient coordinate system it is demonstrated that this class of exact solutions of Einstein’s equations describes uniformly accelerating (possibly charged) black holes in anti-de Sitter universe. Main differences from the analogous de Sitter case are emphasised. Dedicated to my academic teacher Prof. J. Bičák on the occasion of his 60th birthday. This work was supported by the grant GACR-202/99/0261 of the Czech Republic and GAUK 141/2000 of Charles University in Prague.     

Resolved photon processes

After giving a very brief introduction to the resolved photon processes, I will summarize the latest experimental information from HERA, on resolved photon contribution to largep _T jet production as well as to direct photon production. I will point out the interesting role that resolved photon processes can play in increasing our understanding of the dynamics of the quarkonium production. I will then discuss the newer information on the parton content of virtual photons as well as thek _T distribution of the partons in the photon. I will end by giving predictions of an eikonalized minijet model for σ _γγ ^inel which crucially uses the experimental measurement of the abovementionedk _T distribution and comparing them with data. On leave of absence from Department of Physics, University of Bombay, Mumbai 400 076, India     

In Memoriam

In 1905 Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) was awarded the second John Fritz Medal for a lifetime of outstanding achievements in science and technology. I sketch Kelvin’s life, education, and work in thermodynamics, electrical technology, and instrumentation, and his role in the laying of the Atlantic cable. I then turn to Kelvin’s four visits to America, in 1876 on the centenary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America; in 1884 when he gave his famous Baltimore Lectures at The Johns Hopkins University; in 1897 when he visited Niagara Falls for the third time and advised George Westinghouse (1846–1914) on how to develop its enormous water power for the generation of electricity; and in 1902 when he advised George Eastman (1854–1932) on the development of the photographic industry. Written in connection with the Kelvin Centenary Year 2007; see “Celebrating the Life of Lord Kelvin,” University of Glasgow News Review No. 11 (2007), 4. Matthew Trainer: Matthew Trainer received his M.Phil. degree in physical sciences at the University of Edinburgh in 1980 and currently is a laboratory instructor at the University of Glasgow where his research focuses in part on the life and work of Lord Kelvin.     

Some twisted self-dual solutions for the Yang-Mills equations on a hypertorus

TheSU(N) Yang-Mills equations are considered in a four-dimensional Euclidean box with periodic boundary conditions (hypertorus). Gauge-invariant twists can be introduced in these boundary conditions, to be labeled with integersn (= –n ), defined moduloN. The Pontryagin number in this space is often fractional. Whenever this number is zero there are solutions to the equationsG =0 HereG is the covariant curl. When this number is not zero we find a set of solutions to the equations , provided that the periodsa of the box satisfy certain relations.Work supported in part by the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC-03-76ER 00068 and by the Fairchild FoundationOn leave from the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Utrecht, P.O. Box 80.006, NL-3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands     

Fritz Reiche and the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars

I discuss the family background and early life of the German theoretical physicist Fritz Reiche (1883–1969) in Berlin; his higher education at the University of Berlin under Max Planck (1858–1947); his subsequent work at the University of Breslau with Otto Lummer (1860–1925); his return to Berlin in 1911, where he completed his Habilitation thesis in 1913, married Bertha Ochs the following year, became a friend of Albert Einstein (1879–1955), and worked during and immediately after the Great War. In 1921 he was appointed as ordentlicher Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Breslau and worked there until he was dismissed in 1933. He spent the academic year 1934–1935 as a visiting professor at the German University in Prague and then returned to Berlin, where he remained until, with the crucial help of his friend Rudolf Ladenburg (1882–1952) and vital assistance of the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars, he, his wife Bertha, and their daughter Eve were able to emigrate to the United States in 1941 (their son Hans had already emigrated to England in 1939).From 1941–1946 he held appointments at the New School for Social Research in New York, the City College of New York, and Union College in Schenectady, New York, and then was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Physics at New York University, where his contract was renewed year-by-year until his retirement in 1958.     

The oscillator shell model with the state dependent frequencies

The frequencies of the oscillator potential are suggested to bs dependent on the state quantum numbers. They may play a role of variational parameters. This procedure is applied in the shell model calculation for light nuclei.On leave fromFaculty of Physics, Hanoi University, Vietnam.The author would like to thank Prof. I. Úlehla for his encouraging interest in this work.     

Antiproton physics at GSI: Studying the physics of hadronic matter

GSI/Darmstadt is planning a major upgrade of its accelerator and experimental facilities. One of the main components of the proposed GSI-upgrade is a storage ring, in which beams of antiprotons with unprecedented quality and intensity will be available with beam momenta up to 15 GeV/c. At this facility a wide physics program is planned to investigate the structure of hadrons in the charmonium mass range, with the goal to develop a better understanding of the transition from quarks and gluons to hadrons as effective degrees of freedom. An overview of the physics program and the detector system envisioned for this project are presented.Received: 30 September 2002, Published online: 22 October 2003PACS: 13.75.-n Hadron-induced low- and intermediate-energy reactions and scattering (energy GeV) - 25.43. + t Antiproton-induced reactionsJ. Ritman: For the Antiproton Research Study Group (Antiproton Research Study Group: J. Bacelar,KVI Groningen; R. Bertini,Torino University A. Avogadro; D. Bettoni,Ferrara,INFN; T. Bressani,Torino University I; K.-T. Brinkmann,Dresden University; R. Calabrese,Ferrara,INFN; M. Düren,Giessen University; C. Ekstrom,TSL Uppsala; W. Eyrich,Erlangen University; D. Frekers,Münster University; S. Ganzhur,Bochum University; P. Gianotti,Frascati; A. Gillitzer,FZ-Jülich IKP; O. Hartmann,GSI Darmstadt; V. Hejny,FZ-Jülich IKP; M. Holzscheiter,Los Alamos; B. Kamys,Kraków University; P. Kienle,Technical University Munich; J. Kisiel,University of Silesia; H. Koch,Bochum University; W. Kühn,Giessen University; U. Lynen,GSI Darmstadt; M. Macri,Genova University; A. Martin,Trieste University and INFN; J. Marton,Austrian Academy of Science (IMEP); R. Meier,Tuebingen University; V. Metag,Giessen University; P. Moskal,FZ-Jülich IKP; H. Orth,GSI Darmstadt; M. Pallavicini,Genova,INFN; S. Paul,Technical University Munich; K. Peters,Bochum University; J. Pochodzalla,Mainz University; G. Raciti,Catania University; J. Ritman,Giessen University; G. Rosner,Glasgow University; E.L. Rizzini,Brescia University and INFN II; A. Rotondi,Pavia University; M. Sapojnikov,JINR Dubna; L. Schmitt,Technical University Munich; C. Schwarz,GSI Darmstadt; K. Seth,Northwestern University; J. Smyrski,Kraków University; I. Tikhonov,BINP Novosibirsk; N. Vlassov,JINR Dubna; A. Vodopianov,JINR Dubna; U. Wiedner,Uppsala University; A. Zenoni,Brescia University and INFN I; B. Zwieglinski,SINS Warsaw.-1)     

Compact Scalar-flat Indefinite Kähler Surfaces with Hamiltonian <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis><Superscript>1</Superscript>-Symmetry

The existence of scalar-flat indefinite Kähler metrics on compact complex surfaces is discussed. In particular, a compact scalar-flat indefinite Kähler surface admitting a Hamiltonian S¹-symmetry is proved to be biholomorphic to the product of two complex projective lines, with the help of a generalization of the Bando-Calabi-Futaki character. In fact, it is shown that none of such metrics exist on Hirzebruch surfaces of positive degree. On the other hand, by employing an analogue of LeBruns hyperbolic ansatz, we construct a wealth of explicit scalar-flat indefinite Kähler metrics on the product of complex projective lines, and also prove that these explicit metrics provide infinitely many different isometry classes, by examining a necessary and sufficient condition for these metrics to be isometric to each other.Supported by JSPS–MEXT. Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (No. 13740053).Acknowledgement Several components of this work were carried out when the author was visiting the Mathematical Institute, Tôhoku University in the academic year 2000. I would like to thank the participants of the Geometry Seminar at the institute for their friendship. Thanks also go to Professors Henrik Pedersen, Kazuo Akutagawa, Hiroyasu Izeki and Keisuke Ueno for a variety of discussion, suggestions and comments. I am particularly grateful to Professors Akito Futaki and Yasuhiro Nakagawa for many valuable comments on the Bando-Calabi-Futaki character, and to Professor Shin Nayatani for many helpful suggestions and constant encouragement since the early stage of this work. I would also like to thank the referee for useful suggestion and especially for correcting a flaw in the earlier proof of Proposition 1. Last but not least, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Seiki Nishikawa for his insightful advice and continuous help as well as for the warm welcome he extended to me while I visited to Tohoku University.     

Electroweak interactions between intense neutrino beams and dense electron-positron magnetoplasmas

The electroweak coupling between intense neutrino beams and strongly degenerate relativistic dense electron-positron magnetoplasmas is considered. The intense neutrino bursts interact with the plasma due to the weak Fermi interaction force, and their dynamics is governed by a kinetic equation. Our objective here is to develop a kinetic equation for a degenerate neutrino gas and to use that equation to derive relativistic magnetohydrodynamic equations. The latter are useful for studying numerous collective processes when intense neutrino beams nonlinearly interact with degenerate, relativistic, dense electron-positron plasmas in strong magnetic fields. If the number densities of the plasma particles are of the order of 10³³ cm^-3, the pair plasma becomes ultra-relativistic, which strongly affects the potential energy of the weak Fermi interaction. The new system of equations allows several neutrino-driven streaming instabilities involving new types of relativistic Alfvén-like waves. The relevance of our investigation to the early universe and supernova explosions is discussed. Received 11 September 2002 Published online 4 February 2003 RID="a" ID="a"Permanent address: Department of Physics, Tbilisi State University, Chavchavadze 3, Tbilisi 38028, Georgia. RID="b" ID="b"Also at the Department of Plasma Physics, Ume? University, 90187 Ume?, Sweden; and the Center for Interdisciplinary Plasma Science, Max-Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik und extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany. e-mail: ps@tp4.ruhr-uni-bochum.de RID="c" ID="c"Permanent address: Department of Plasma Physics, Ume?University, 90187 Ume?, Sweden.     

Spherically symmetric radiation of charge in Einstein-Maxwell theory

We give solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell equations describing the emission of charged null fluid from a spherically symmetric body. The electromagnetic field is parallel to the direction of energy propagation, is of orderr ^–2 at infinity and is not null.This work was carried out whilst I was at Queen Elizabeth College, under a Commonwealth Universities Interchange Scheme of the British Council. I would like to thank the British Council for the travel grant and London University and Queen Elizabeth College for their hospitality.     

A new proof of the propagation theorem forN-body quantum systems

A new proof of I. Sigal's and A. Soffer's propagation theorem is given. This theorem describes a large class of operators which are Kato-smooth with respect to anN-body Schrödinger operator.On leave from Division of Mathematical Methods in Physics, Warsaw University, Hoza 74, PL-00682 Warsaw, Poland     

Non-equilibrium point defect phenomena influencing beryllium and zinc diffusion in GaAs and related compounds

Beryllium and zinc are the main p-type dopants used for the fabrication of devices based on GaAs or related III-V materials. Both elements are substitutionally dissolved on the group III sublattice and diffuse via the kick-out mechanism which involves group III self-interstitials. Non-equilibrium concentrations of these self-interstitials have a strong influence on the diffusivities of Be and Zn with often drastic consequences on device behavior especially if Be or Zn is used to realize narrow base regions in heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). Various situations in which non-equilibrium point defects play a role for Be and Zn diffusion are discussed such as: in-diffusion of these dopants from an outside source, diffusion of grown-in dopants, self-interstitial generation by Fermi level surface pinning of highly n ⁺-doped emitter cap or subcollector layers in HBTs, or recom bination-enhanced beryllium diffusion during device operation. Finally, we will comment on the diffusion behavior of carbon, which is dissolved on the group V sublattice in GaAs, is much less sensitive to non-equilibrium point defect, and, therefore, is increasingly used to replace Be and Zn as p-type dopants.On sabbatical leave from Duke University, School of Engineering, Durham, NC 27706, USA     

Influence of final-state interaction on incoherent pion photoproduction on the deuteron in the region of the Δ-resonance

The influence of final-state NN and πN rescattering in incoherent pion photoproduction on the deuteron has been investigated. For the elementary photoproduction operator an effective Lagrangian model is used which describes well the elementary reaction. The interactions in the final two-body subsystems are taken in separable form. While NN rescattering shows quite a significant effect, particularly strong for neutral pion production, πN rescattering is almost negligible. Inclusion of such effects leads to an improved and quite satisfactory agreement with experiment. Received: 12 August 2002 / Accepted: 11 September 2002 / Published online: 17 January 2003 RID="a" ID="a"Present address: Physics Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Sohag, Egypt. RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: arenhoev@kph.uni-mainz.de Communicated by V. Vento