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Pascual Jordon / Physics / W W II



I forward the following FYI:

Bob Sciamanda (W3NLV)
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (em)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor

SW BULLETIN - March 29 2000
---------------------------------------------

This Week's Report:

THEORETICAL PHYSICS: ON PASCUAL JORDAN AND NAZI PHYSICS
The individual human brain is an extremely complex natural
system, and the individual human mind, the manifestation of the
dynamics of that system, is at least of an equal order of
complexity and also a domain where paradox is commonplace.
(Ernst) Pascual Jordan (1902-1980) was one of the great
theoretical physicists of this century, the principal architect
of the Born-Heisenberg-Jordan matrix quantum mechanics (see Note
#1 below), the essential inventor of *quantum field theory, and a
20th century tour de force in mathematical physics -- but he was
also an ardent Nazi storm trooper, "complete with brown uniform,
jackboots, and swastika armband..." And if that paradox is not
enough, add to it the fact that Jordan not only defended the
physics of Albert Einstein to the Nazi regime which despised
Einstein because Einstein was a Jew, but also devoted
considerable effort to developing the details of Einstein's
general theory of relativity.
... ... Engelbert L. Schucking (New York University, US),
theoretical physicist and a former student of Pascual Jordan
(beginning in 1952), presents a biographical essay on Jordan,
with Schucking making the following points:
1) Pascual Jordan was the originator of the quantum theory
of fields, "which we now take to be the basis of all physics." He
was the first to realize that all things in the Universe --
photons, electrons, protons, atoms, and elephants -- are field
quanta. Of the triumvirate Pascual Jordan, *Max Born, and *Werner
Heisenberg that formulated matrix quantum mechanics in 1925,
Jordan was the principal architect of the theory. But in spite of
his revolutionary contributions, Jordan never achieved the
acclaim of his colleagues Heisenberg and *Wolfgang Pauli, perhaps
because Jordan was looked down upon by Pauli and Heisenberg as
more of a mathematician than a physicist.
2) Schucking points out that Jordan also made the first
formulation of what is now called *Fermi-Dirac statistics. The
story is that in 1925 Max Born, who was then editor of the
_Zeittschrift fur Physik_ was given a paper by Jordan for
publication in the journal. Born put the paper in his briefcase
and then left for the US to give lectures at MIT. Born forgot
about the paper, and when he returned to Germany six months
later, he found the paper at the bottom of the suitcase.
According to Max Born: "It contained what came to be known as the
Fermi-Dirac statistics. In the meantime, it had been discovered
by Enrico Fermi and, independently, by Paul Dirac. But Jordan was
the first."
3) In May 1933, Jordan joined the Nazi party. But even
before the Nazis came to power in January 1933, Jordan had been a
conservative nationalist, and under the pseudonym "Domeier" he
had published his elitist views in the right-wing journal
_Deutsches Volkstum_ (_German Heritage_). In November 1933,
Jordan joined an SA (Sturmabteilung) unit and became a storm
trooper. He volunteered for the Luftwaffe in 1939, worked mostly
as a meteorologist at airfields, and also at the notorious
Peenemunde rocket center. In 1953, thanks to the intercession of
Wolfgang Pauli, Jordan was "rehabilitated" and advanced from
visiting to full professor at the University of Hamburg.
4) The Schucking article includes an amusing extract from a
play by *Bertolt Brecht (_Fright and Misery in the Third Reich_)
in which Brecht satirizes Nazi physics in a scene in which two
physicists execute tortuous verbalizations in an attempt to avoid
mentioning the dangerous "E-word" (Einstein). In fact, most
German physicists, when writing about relativity during the Nazi
era, shunned the dangerous E-word. Schucking notes: "A
circumspect Heisenberg managed to avoid it." Jordan, however, did
use Einstein's name when writing about relativity.
5) Schucking notes that the contributions of Pascual Jordan
are for the most part still widely unknown. "The bulk of the
monumental 1925 Born-Jordan paper 'Zur Quantenmechanik' was
written by Jordan [*Note #1]." It has also been argued that
Jordan's habilitation lecture was crucial for Heisenberg's
discovery of the uncertainty principle. "Even Jordan's pioneering
work in quantum field theory was not immediately appreciated. His
formalism of *creation and annihilation operators, now the basic
language of physics, was still viewed with suspicion by Pauli in
1933." In a seminal paper in 1935, Jordan showed how his
formalism could treat the physics of multiparticle systems -- now
the standard treatment in condensed matter physics -- and
generate the representations that are now used in particle
physics.
6) In 1979, *Eugene Wigner proposed Jordan for the Nobel
Prize in Physics, but the Swedish Academy awarded the prize that
year to *Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg --
according to Schucking, "three practitioners of the art that
Jordan had invented." Less than a year later, Jordan died at the
age of 78 while filling in formulae in a manuscript at his
kitchen table.
-----------
[Editor's note: The 1997 edition of _Chambers Biographical
Dictionary_ contains a short paragraph on "(Ernst) Pascual Jordan
(1902- ) German theoretical physicist". Evidently, 17 years
after Jordan's death, the editors of the dictionary were not
aware of it. Several current popular biographical dictionaries of
scientists contain no mention of Pascual Jordan at all. David
Bohm's 1951 textbook _Quantum Theory_ does not mention Jordan at
all. The 1958 4th edition of Paul Dirac's _The Principles of
Quantum Mechanics_ does not mention Jordan at all. Jordan is also
not mentioned anywhere in Richard Feynman's _Lectures on Physics_
(1965). Additional note: Pascual Jordan (1902-1980) should not be
confused with the noted mathematician Camille Jordan (1838-1922).
Camille Jordan was the foremost specialist in algebra of his
time, publishing research in topology, analysis, and particularly
in group theory. The so-called "Jordan curve" in analysis is the
curve of Camille Jordan.]
-----------
Engelbert L. Schucking: Jordan, Pauli, politics, Brecht, and a
variable gravitational constant.
(Physics Today October 1999)
QY: Engelbert L. Schucking, Dept. of Physics, New York
University, US.
-----------
Text Notes:
... ... *quantum field theory: The mathematical fusion of quantum
mechanics with special relativity theory. It is now the overall
theory of fundamental particles and their interactions, with each
type of particle represented by appropriate operators which obey
specific algebraic commutation laws.
... ... *Max Born: (1882-1970) Nobel Prize in Physics 1954. Born
did fundamental work in quantum theory, particularly work linking
the wave function of the electron to electron distribution
probability. It was Born who apparently coined the term "quantum
mechanics". Heisenberg was one of Born's students.
... ... *Werner Heisenberg: (1901-1976) Nobel Prize in Physics
1932. Developed quantum theory (matrix quantum mechanics) and
formulated the uncertainty principle, which concerns matter,
radiation, and their reactions, and which places absolute limits
on the achievable accuracy of measurement of physical phenomena
in the quantum domain.
... ... *Wolfgang Pauli: (1900-1958) Nobel Prize in Physics 1945.
Originated the exclusion principle, which states that in a given
system no two fermions (electrons, protons, neutrons, or other
elementary particles of half-integral spin) can be characterized
by the same set of quantum numbers. He also predicted the
existence of neutrinos.
... ... *Fermi-Dirac statistics: The statistics of an assembly of
identical half-integer spin particles. Such particles satisfy the
Pauli exclusion principle, i.e., no two particles of the same
kind in the system may simultaneously occupy the same quantum
state.
... ... *Bertolt Brecht: (1898-1956) Considered by many to be
Germany's greatest dramatist, Brecht presented his plays as
instruments of sociological analysis. When Hitler came to power
in 1933, Brecht left Germany and in 1941 finally settled in
Hollywood (US). The play in question, _Fright and Misery under
the Third Reich_, is also called _Fear and Loathing under the
Third Reich_ (Furcht und Elend des dritten Reiches, 1945). In
1948, Brecht moved to East Berlin to direct a theater. Always in
conflict with bureaucratic authority, Brecht's years in East
Germany proved difficult for both himself and the East German
government.
... ... *Note #1: What is known as "Heisenberg's matrix
mechanics" (matrix quantum mechanics) is a particular formulation
of quantum mechanics in which the vector aspect of quantum theory
is emphasized, whereas the wave aspects of quantum phenomena play
a secondary role. Although wave quantum mechanics (subsequently
developed by Schroedinger, see below) and matrix quantum
mechanics appear superficially to be very different, the two
theories are in fact completely equivalent and lead to the same
physical predictions. Werner Heisenberg's first paper on the
subject appeared in 1925, and in this paper matrix theory is not
mentioned explicitly because Heisenberg did not realize yet that
his mathematical operations had a matrix theory interpretation.
The connection with matrix theory was demonstrated the same year
in the already mentioned important paper by Max Born and Pascual
Jordan (Z. fur Physik 1925 34:858). In a second paper a short
time later, Born and Jordan and Heisenberg all published together
and clarified the principles of matrix quantum mechanics (Z. fur
Physik 1926 35:557). The wave quantum mechanics of Erwin
Schroedinger was not published until 1926 (Annalen der Physik
1926 79:361), so that historically matrix mechanics was invented
and developed before Schroedinger invented wave mechanics. Given
wave mechanics, the invention of matrix mechanics might be viewed
as inevitable, since the set of all solutions of a linear
differential equation can be regarded as a vector space. The fact
that matrix mechanics was invented _without_ wave mechanics is
considered by some physicists to be an astounding theoretical
accomplishment.
... ... *creation and annihilation operators: These are quantum
mechanical operators which increase or reduce, respectively, the
occupation of a single quantum state by one. For example, an
annihilation operator applied to a state of one particle yields
the vacuum. In this context, "operators" are abstract
representations of certain specific mathematical operations, and
consideration of the various algebras of such operators has
proved to be of immense importance in theoretical physics.
... ... *Eugene Wigner: (1902-1995) He introduced the idea of
parity, or symmetry theory, into nuclear physics. He shared the
1963 Nobel Prize for Physics with Maria Goeppert-Mayer
(1906-1972) and Hans Jensen (1907-1973).
... ... *Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg:
Shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for the unified theory of
weak and electromagnetic fundamental forces, and for the
prediction of the existence of the weak neutral current. Abdus
Salam (1926-1996).
-------------------
Summary & Notes by SCIENCE-WEEK [http://scienceweek.com] 19Nov99
[For more information: http://scienceweek.com/swfr.htm]

[SW Bulletin 29 Mar 00]