The bumpy road. Max Planck from radiation theory to the quantum (1896--1906) (Q2354362)

The discovery of energy quanta is reported and investigated from epistemological, historical, and philosophical points of view. The book is arranged in four chapters. In the first one, the author lays down how he conceptualizes theories as structures concerned with three sorts of activities: representing, transforming and explaining. After outlining what is to be understood under the ``Received View'' and the ``Semantic View'', the author describes and comments developments of the theory of science in the second half of the twentieth century by Patrick Suppes, Nancy Cartwright, Ronald Giere, Mary Morgan, Margret Morrison and others. Chapter 2 considers the research on heat radiation in the second half of the ninetieth century. In the first section, the origins from G. R. Kirchhoff through V. Michelson are described. Section 2 is devoted to H. Hertz's solution of dipole radiation providing a means to relate thermal oscillations to heat radiation. Wilhelm Wien's research program resulting in his radiation law is represented in Section 3. The concluding section sums up the results at Max Planck's disposal when he began his research. Chapter 3 covers Plancks's endeavor to find the radiation law. In Section 1 the central points of Planck's approach, the interaction of the radiation field with matter based on Hertzian dipole oscillations, the unbalanced exchange of energy until the stationary thermal equilibrium is irreversibly achieved, are preliminarily considered. The detailed steps of the approach, published in five papers referred to as the Pentagony [\textit{M. Planck}, ``Über irreversible Strahlungsvorgänge. I, II, III.'' (German), Berl. Ber. 1897, 57--68, 715--717, 1122--1145 (1897; JFM 28.0808.01); part IV, Berl. Ber. 1898, 449-476 (1898; JFM 29.0759.04); part V, Berl. Ber. 1899, 440--480 (1899; JFM 30.0802.03)], are summarized in Section 2. Critical comments by L. Boltzmann concerning irreversibility are handled adding kinetic considerations to derive the resonator entropy. The third section gives an overview of Planck's radiation theory in the Pentagony. The first section of the final Chapter 4 shows the experimental result of O. Lummer and E. Pringsheim on black body radiation. Section 2 tells about the alternative approach of M. Planck to his entropy formula relating resonators with gas molecules in the kinetic theory. Since a resonator has itself already a huge number of degrees of freedom, \textit{M. Planck} still restricts his consideration on only one resonator [Ann. der Phys. (4) 1, 719--737 (1900; JFM 31.0845.02)]. Section 3 contains besides the critics by W. Wien to Planck's argument the essential breakthrough: experimental results by H. Rubens and F. Kurlbaum motivate M. Planck to guess the correct radiation formula which fits neither into his own view nor into that of W. Wien. The remaining problem to find a theoretical foundation is described as a ``bumpy road'' in Section 4. Finally, M. Planck sought for an adaptation of Boltzmann's combinatorial procedure to a system of oscillators. This is made explicit in Section 5 in which Boltzmann's urn model is represented before its adaption to the heat radiation is considered. Planck's statement \(\epsilon = h\nu\) to be an indivisible energy quantum dates from December 14 in 1900. The development of Planck's view on Boltzmann's kinetic theory from the Pentalogy until then is summarized in Section 6. Section 7 contains critical reactions to Planck's theoretical explanations of the radiation law. It begins with H. A. Lorentz who criticizes the assumption of oscillating dipoles and ends with A. Einstein and P. Ehrenfest who came to the conclusion that neither a thorough application of electrodynamics nor of Boltzmann statistics are compatible with the radiation law. Planck's derivation, in consequence, contains non-classical features. In Section 8, the conclusion, the author states that December 14 in 1900 was the beginning of a revolution which ended five years later when physicists accepted the fact that black-body radiation cannot be reconciled with the laws of classical physics. Besides a list of references at the end of each chapter, literature recommended for further readings, an author index, and a subject index are added at the end of the book. This book is the result of thorough exemplary investigations how ideas emerge, are formed by critical commentations, and finally are worked out to advances in knowledge.