Max von Laue's role in the relativity revolution (Q976305): Difference between revisions

To appreciate Max von Laue's role in the relativity revolution, the author emphasizes the great influence of Laue's early articles and two monographs on the history of special and general relativity. He argues that the meaning of these works did not only consist in that they made the theory of relativity understandable and, thus, acceptable to German physicists, but, what is more: (i) Laue's monograph on special relativity [Das Relativitätsprinzip. Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg u. Sohn. X u. 208 S. (1911; JFM 42.0718.04)] following Minkowski's lead provided Einstein with some of the essential physical and mathematical concepts he would later employ in his search for gravitational field equations, and (ii) Laue's companion volume on general relativity [Die Relativitätstheorie. 2. Band: Die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie und Einsteins Lehre von der Schwerkraft. Braunschweig: Vieweg, XII u. 276 S. (1921; JFM 48.1321.01)] offered important clues to Laue's understanding of Einsteinian gravitation and also for appreciating the climate of reception in Germany during tumultuous years. Keeping in mind the contributions of a number of prominent physicists and mathematicians to special relativity and the clarification of the interplay between mathematical and physical conceptions, the author comes to the conclusion that, however, it was Laue who first saw the fertility of Minkowski's physical conceptions ``and not just his mathematical tools'' for realizing Einstein's fundamental program of special relativity from 1905. To give arguments in favor of the statement that Laue's insights influenced Einstein's thinking notably in the time when Einstein was looking for a generalization of special relativity, a long-forgotten manuscript by Einstein (the Marx manuscript) is discussed. This paper is of interest in this context because it partly was formulated just at that time when Einstein and Laue working next door in Zurich and when Laue continued his work on the revised second edition of his text book on special relativity [Das Relativitätsprinzip. Zweite vermehrte Auflage. Braunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg and Sohn. XII u. 272 S. (Sammlung Die Wissenschaft, Bd. 38.) (1913; JFM 44.0772.02)]. Finally, the author describes Laue's slow acceptance of the equivalence principle and, thus, of Einstein's theory of general relativity, Laue's change of mind and the meaning of his 1921 text book on general relativity, his defense of both Einstein and his ideas against the attacks of antirelativists in the Weimar Republic and, later in Nazi Germany, against the proponents of Deutsche Physik.