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The Born-Einstein letters are a set of letters exchanged from 1916 to 1955 by the two famous 20th century physicists.


Albert Einstein and Max Born

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Albert Einstein, born in 1879, is well-known for his ground-breaking ideas in the first half the 20th century which brought two revolutions in theoretical physics.
He became world-famous for the development of the general theory of relativity and he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics[1] for his pioneering contribution to quantum mechanics. In 1933, he moved to Princeton in the US where he lived until his death in 1955.

Max Born, born in 1882, was a Professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin, Frankfurt, Göttingen and Edinburgh. He received the 1954 Nobel Prize in physics[2] for his work on the foundations of quantum mechanics. He died in Göttingen in 1970.

Max Born

The letters

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The letter exchange between the two great physicists began the year 1916. This was the year of the publication by Einstein of his landmark article on general theory of relativity. The last letter was written in 1955, the year of Einstein's death. The Born-Einstein letters present fascinating thoughts about the birth of modern theoretical physics. The tragic political history of Europe during the first half of the 20th century had a direct impact on the two physicist's lives. The political fate of Europe is a source of deep concern that is reflected in the letters all along. More than a hundred letters, precisely 117[3] , are contained in the correspondance. They were written without publishing intention. They were mostly written in german while a few of them are in English. Some are from Hedwig Born, Max Born's wife. Born kept them all safely. He added comments and, towards the end of his life, decided to publish them.
Einstein had in the beginning of the 20th century a formidable intuition. This helped start two major scientific revolutions: the theory of relativity and the quantum theory. The quantum theory was then futher developed by Max Born, his close collaborators and by other physicists. The developments of the new quantum theory became increasingly a source of disagreement between the two men. The debates on the interpretation of this new theory are fascinating. Finally, Einstein rejected it on the ground that it is incomplete. Born tried tirelessly to find arguments to convince him with no success. On his side, Einstein is on a the quest for a unified theory that will merge both gravitation and quantum theory, with no success. Physicists today are still looking for such a theory called quantum gravity.

In spite of the deep scientific divisions, the tone of the letters testify of the infallible friendship between the two men.

Official picture of Einstein after receiving the 1921 Nobel Prize

Selected passages

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The passages[4] presented in this section cover rather well the range of topics and discussion that can be found in the letters.

Letter 48

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<< The idea that the electron can choose freely its path at all time, is unbearable to me.
If that were the case, I would rather abandon my scientist's career and find work as a shoemaker
or as a casino employee. I have not found yet a tangible meaning to this quantum physics but
I have not yet given up hopes to find one day its meaning...>>

Albert Einstein, 29 april 1924

<< The fact that physics is fundamentally governed by statistical laws, what he refused, became a permanent
contentious subject between us. Einstein was firmly convinced that physics gives us access to
an external objective reality . I became progressively convinced along with other physicists that, as a result of the new experiments conducted at the atomic scale, this was not the case. It seems we can have at all time only a limited and rough knowledge of this external objective reality and we can only predict the future evolution in a probabilistic way using the quantum physics laws. >>

Comment by Max Born on letter 48

Letter 49

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<<All my young assistants, Heisenberg, Jordan and Hund , are absolutely brilliant. It is often very difficult for me to follow their thoughts and they have mastered their subjects prodigiously well. The new manuscript of Heisenberg which will soon be published seems to me very mysterious. But I do not doubt his work is extremely rigorous and and has deep consequences.>>

Max Born, 15 july 1925

Letter 52

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<< Quantum physics is very impressive. However, an inner voice tells me it is not the right thing yet. Quantum physics delivers results without grasping the fundamental reality of things. In fact, I am convinced that God does not throw dice...>>

Albert Einstein, 4 december 1926

<< Einstein's judgement on quantum physics was a hard blow to me. Strangely he rejected it because of the inner voice rather than by logical reasoning.>>

Comment by Max Born on letter 48

Letter 80

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<< The most depressing idea was always the feeling that our science which is such a beautiful thing in itself and coud be
such a benefactor for human society has been degraded to nothing than means of destruction and death. Most of the German scientists
have collaborated with the Nazis, even Heisenberg has worked full blast for these scoundrels. I do not blame anybody .
For under the given circumstances nothing else can be done to save a rest of our civilisation.
Yet I think that we must have an international organisation, and, even more important, an international code of behaviour
on ethics, by which our scientific community could act as a regulating and stabilising power in the world, not, as at present, being nothing
than tools of industries and governments.>>

Max Born, 15 July 1944

Letter 84

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<< I am convinced that physics must describe an objective reality in space-time without any spooky effect at a distance.>>

Albert Einstein, 3 March 1947

Letter 107

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<<
In the end I will convince you that quantum physics is as realistic and complete as evidence shows it....>>

Max Born, 22 December 1953

Letter 110

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<<
I think a wave function Ψ should describe a collection of objects and should not completely describe a single object in order to meet the requirements of the locality principle . This statistical interpretation removes an apparent paradox of coupling of distant objects. Moreover, this has the advantage of giving us a clear objective description which is independent of observation and which makes sense for the observer...>>

Albert Einstein, 20 january 1954

Letter 114

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<<
In 1932, I was deeply saddened when ....>>

Comment by Max Born on letter 114

Letter 117

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Comment by Max Born on letter 117

Notable cited names

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Cinquante prix Nobel et d'autres personnes notables, issues principalement du monde scientifique mais aussi des domaines politique,littéraire et artistique, sont mentionnés dans la correspondance:

Traductions

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  • Correspondance 1916-1955, traduction par Pierre Leccia, Collection Science Ouverte, Le Seuil (1972) ISBN 2-020-02813-1
  • The Born-Einstein letters : Correspondence between Albert Einstein and Max and Hedwig Born from 1916 to 1955 with commentaries by Max Born, traduction par Irène Born, Walker and Company (1971), ISBN 0-802-70326-7
  • The Born-Einstein letters : friendship, politics, and physics in uncertain times : correspondence between Albert Einstein and Max and Hedwig Born from 1916 to 1955 with commentaries by Max Born, traduction par Irène Born, Macmillan (2005) , ISBN 1-403-94496-2

Notes

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  1. ^ 1921 physics Nobel Prize
  2. ^ 1954 physics Nobel Prize
  3. ^ . ISBN 978-3-784-42997-7. OCLC 85350353. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |isbn2= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |nom1= ignored (|last1= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |nom2= ignored (|last2= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |prénom2= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |éditeur= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ translation courtesy of Georges Bonheure except for letter 80 which is the original text in English

Bibliographie

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  • Banesh Hoffmann, Albert Einstein, créateur et rebelle, Collection Points-Sciences, Le Seuil (1975) ISBN 978-2-020-05347-1. Biographie au format poche, par un ancien collaborateur d'Einstein.
  • Françoise Balibar, Einstein la joie de la pensée, Paris, Gallimard, coll. « Découvertes », (1993) ISBN 978-2-070-53220-9.
  • Philippe Frank, Einstein – Sa vie et son temps, Collection Les savants & le monde, Albin Michel (Paris 1950). Réédition en poche dans la collection Champs, Flammarion (1993), ISBN 978-2-080-81242-1.
Part of a series of articles about
Quantum mechanics
Schrödinger equation
Background
Fundamentals
Experiments
Formulations
Equations
Interpretations
Advanced topics
Scientists

Catégorie:Physicien du XXe siècle Catégorie:Lauréat du prix Nobel de physique Catégorie:Lauréat de prix de physique Catégorie:Physicien théoricien Catégorie:Physique classique Catégorie:Physique quantique Catégorie:Problème non résolu en physique Catégorie:Histoire de la physique Catégorie:Physique théorique Catégorie:Relativité Catégorie:Relativité générale Catégorie:Paradoxe physique Catégorie:Théorie de la gravitation Catégorie:Physique mathématique

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