1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 469: The meeting contents are announced! The physics community is shocked! Everyone is shocked! Incomprehensible spin!

The quantum theory seminar ended with everyone still wanting more.

However, everyone understands that it is not only an end, but also a new beginning.

Its impact on modern physics has only just begun.

After the meeting, Uhlenbeck and two other colleagues immediately published a paper on electron spin as co-authors.

As soon as the paper was published, it shocked the physics community.

Everyone was shocked by the news.

"Oh my god! The fourth quantum number has finally been discovered!"

“This should be comparable to the exclusion principle.”

"I thought Pauli was invincible, but I didn't expect there was an even more amazing genius."

"Whose subordinates are these three?"

"Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit were on the list of geniuses in the second Physics Olympiad."

"Currently a student of Professor Ehrenfest."

"Then who is this Kronig? Why is he so awesome?"

"Oh, so you are Professor Bohr's doctor. Excuse me, but that's fine."

Most people immediately agreed that electron spin is the fourth quantum number.

In their opinion, how could an article published on the cover of Nature journal be wrong?

However, for some bigwigs, the situation is different.

Netherlands, capital city Amsterdam.

A few years after retiring, 68-year-old Lorenz was reappointed as Minister of Higher Education of the Netherlands.

When he heard that two geniuses from the Netherlands had published a paper on the fourth quantum number, he was overjoyed.

He asked someone to bring the paper and read it carefully.

This is something serious.

After calculations, Lorentz discovered the problem of electron spin exceeding the speed of light.

He quickly wrote to Ehrenfest to inform him of the problem.

If he could discover it himself, then surely other physics giants could as well.

If this issue is not explained clearly, the significance of publishing this paper will be questionable.

However, he did not expect that after receiving the letter, Ehrenfest would visit him in person and explain the whole story to him.

Lorenz heard this and laughed:

"Bruce still likes to make so much noise."

"Now I wonder what else he will say in the third session."

Ehrenfest smiled knowingly when he heard this.

The Bruce Conference, the highest conference in the physics community.

Others may have to worry about invitations.

But the big boss in front of him doesn’t need that.

Because Lorenz was elected permanent chairman of the Bruce Conference.

In other words, as long as he is alive, he will definitely be able to attend the Bruce Conference.

It makes everyone envious.

Lorenz was not wrong. After Uhlenbeck and his two colleagues published their paper, people soon began to question it.

However, that’s not the time for them to discuss it publicly.

Then, another big thing happened.

All discussions are meaningless.

The contents of the quantum theory seminar have been made public by the Quantum Research Institute!

The debate over electron spin was clearly laid out for everyone to see.

This move instantly caused an 18-magnitude earthquake in the physics community.

Both physicists and ordinary students were excited.

They all had an expression of surprise.

The excitement of this seminar was beyond everyone's imagination.

"Oh my god! The electron spin may not be correct?"

"Pauli is so awesome that he could have a passionate debate with Professor Bruce!"

"Spin is not spin? It cannot be described?"

"Oh my God! I feel like I don't have enough brains anymore."

"Professor Bruce's theory is too shocking!"

At this moment, everyone was shocked by the debate between Professor Bruce and Pauli.

To a certain extent, it can even rise to the level of whether the essence of the world is knowable or unknowable.

This is an eternal and unsolved proposition in the philosophical world.

University of Göttingen, Germany.

After being hired as the head of the physics department this year, Born taught together with his good friend Frank.

Frank was the one who, together with G. Hertz, verified the Bohr model experimentally at the Second Quantum Theory Conference.

The young talent at that time has now become a famous physicist.

Together with Born, he supported the Department of Physics at the University of Göttingen.

And his research direction also includes quantum theory.

So, you can imagine how shocked he was when he heard the news.

"I never expected that the immature Bohr model would develop to this point."

"With the exclusion principle, plus the fourth quantum number."

“Quantum theory should be considered complete.”

Born nodded with emotion.

"Yes."

"Otherwise, Professor Bruce wouldn't have said he wanted to reconstruct quantum theory."

In real history, Born is not as famous as Bohr, Heisenberg and others.

But his contribution to quantum mechanics is very great, even indispensable.

There is a joke in quantum mechanics.

Called: Schrödinger does not understand the Schrödinger equation.

This means that although Schrödinger published the equations of wave mechanics, he misunderstood the meaning of the equations.

The correct explanation was given by Born.

That is the famous "probability interpretation". (It is not the same as the probability of an electron jumping to a certain orbit)

This is the core concept of quantum mechanics and is extremely important.

To put it simply, the probabilistic interpretation is that electrons appear randomly in various places inside the atom in the form of probability.

This is the formation principle of what we often call "electron cloud" in later generations.

This shows its importance.

In addition, in real history, Heisenberg, Pauli and others all studied under him.

Heisenberg was able to publish matrix mechanics with the great help of Born.

It can be said that Born's contributions run through the early development of quantum mechanics.

Therefore, he is a veritable quantum mechanics expert.

But now, Born is clearly not yet a first-class physicist.

He has no revolutionary achievements.

He met Professor Bruce in 1900, earlier than many physicists.

But now, the status of the two is as different as heaven and earth.

Therefore, Born was deeply moved.

"I hope that Professor Bruce can open up a new world for physics in the future."

The existing quantum theory has become increasingly perfect, and Born felt that he had little chance.

We can only wait for new directions.

At this time, a doctoral student next to him suddenly asked:
"Professor, I still don't understand what it means that electron spin is indescribable?"

"Even if the electron is not actually spinning, it must be in some state."

"It's just that we don't know this status yet."

"So, it's not that it's indescribable, but that it can't be described for the time being."

“Maybe someday, when the theory is more complete, we’ll know what the state of the spin is.”

Born and Frank nodded with satisfaction after hearing this. They were not afraid of students asking questions, but they were afraid of students not having any questions.

If there is no problem, it means you don’t understand.

This is especially true for quantum theory.

Frank smiled and said:

"Born, you have a good student."

“I think Hunt will achieve great success in the future.”

This young man was none other than Hunt.

Hund, 25 years old this year, became Born's doctoral student in the second year after the war.

The young man was wearing a pair of gold-rimmed round glasses, and looked extremely handsome.

In real history, he was the originator of Hund's rule, one of the three major principles of electron distribution outside the nucleus.

After Pauli proposed the exclusion principle, physicists could easily determine the arrangement of electrons.

However, they will encounter some special circumstances.

For example, suppose there are 2 electrons in the outermost layer.

So, they are distributed in the same orbit according to their different spins.

Or do they occupy different orbits in the same way as their spins?

The Pauli exclusion principle cannot explain this problem.

After summarizing a large amount of spectral experimental data, Hund discovered a pattern.

That is, the electrons are arranged in the second way.

This is the so-called Hund's rule.

However, Hund himself did not win the Nobel Prize in Physics for this achievement.

I have to say, it’s a pity.

What's even more legendary about Hunt is his age.

This big man lived until 1997 at the age of 101.

One can imagine how the physicists at that time felt when faced with Hund.

It’s like experiencing that magnificent period in the history of physics in person.

They can see the sunset of classical physics from Hund's eyes: Lorentz, Thomson, Planck, Marie Curie.
You can also see the bright sun of modern physics: Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Dirac
Heavy and romantic!
At this point, in response to Hund's question, Born explained:

"Your problem is probably what most people have."

"It took me a long time to figure it out."

"In fact, according to Professor Bruce's explanation, the state of electron spin itself is unknowable."

"It's not because of technical means or anything, I don't know for now."

“But from the origin, it is indescribable.”

"You don't think of spin as a dynamic state, a movement."

"Electron spin has no cause, it is an innate property of electrons."

“It’s an inherent attribute, like a person’s name.”

“We know that everyone has a name, but can you describe what it looks like?”

"In fact, you were misled by the term 'spin' and thought it was a kind of movement."

"If you now change the electron spin to the electron mass, I'm afraid you won't have any problems."

“You certainly don’t ask what quality is.”

After listening to this, Hunt suddenly understood.

He has always used the thinking of classical physics to understand electron spin, and always felt that a definition needed to be given.

But now that Professor Born had given examples using names and masses, he could understand.

Electron spin is a property, not a motion.

But this is even more shocking.

"How can Professor Bruce conclude that it is a property and not some kind of movement?"

Born heard this and seemed to recall something, then said with emotion:
"To be honest, when I first saw this explanation, I was as shocked as you."

"I can't answer this question for you."

“All I can say is: trust Professor Bruce’s instincts.”

"You have never met him, so you can't imagine what kind of man he is."

“Countless examples have proven that Professor Bruce’s intuition is a shortcut to the truth.”

"And, this time, he also gave a deadline."

"He has made a major breakthrough in reconstructing quantum theory, which may explain why electron spin is a property."

"Of course, you can now reject his view and deny the correctness of electron spin."

"Just like the wave-particle duality of light."

“The development of physics takes time to prove itself.”

After listening to his mentor's words, Hong Te nodded solemnly.

He had understood all the causes and consequences of electron spin.

In short, from the current perspective of physics, electron spin is still a conjecture.

But this conjecture is perfect and can explain the remaining anomalous Zeeman effect.

And using Professor Bruce's point of view, we can understand this conjecture very well.

However, this does not mean that it is necessarily right.

Next, what physicists need to do is to study electron spin from a higher level.

As for what that was, Hunt didn't know.

But he is very self-aware.

It was not his turn to meddle in physics at that level.

The right thing to do is to complete the research at hand and graduate with a Ph.D. as soon as possible.

At this time, Hong Te suddenly smiled and said:

"That's right, Professor."

"I recently studied the exclusion principle and found that it has a situation that it cannot handle when dealing with the problem of electron configuration."

"I would like to arrange a time to discuss this with you."

Born was surprised when he heard this.

There is actually a problem with the exclusion principle?
Frank joked:

"Oh, Hunt, you better be careful then."

"Pauli is not someone you can easily mess with."

"Be careful that he hears the news and comes directly to the University of Göttingen to debate with you."

"We can't help you."

"Even Professor Bruce couldn't fully convince him."

After that, Born and Frank laughed out loud.

Hongte touched his head awkwardly. He didn't dare to compete with those peerless geniuses.

At this moment, Pauli, as the three people mentioned, was having a great time at the Quantum Research Institute.

Ridgway accepted Sommerfeld's recommendation and accepted Pauli as his assistant.

When Pauli arrived at the new environment, he did not feel awkward at all, but instead was very familiar with the place.

He quickly became friends with Schrödinger, Irena and others.

"Brother Xue, why do you look listless? What did you do last night?"

"Sister Yi, why did you choose Joliot as your boyfriend? He's so ugly."

Amid the protests of the entire research institute, Li Qiwei had no choice but to deceive Pauli:

"Pauli, don't bury your talent."

"I hope you can often travel around the world to exchange ideas."

"On the one hand, you promote the Quantum Research Institute, and on the other hand, you preach your incompatibility principle."

“Let more people understand quantum theory and find more problems like electron spin.”

"Don't worry, the institute will provide funding and the trip will be at public expense."

Pauli was overjoyed when he heard this.

"Professor Bruce is so nice to me."

The Pauli incident was just an episode.

Li Qiwei’s recent important work is to prepare for the upcoming third Bruce Conference.

And this conference will surely shock the physics community again.

(End of this chapter)