-: Paul Ehrenfest :-
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| Paul Ehrenfest |
Paul Ehrenfest (January 18, 1880 –
September 25, 1933) was an Austrian and Dutch physicist, who made major
contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations
with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the
Ehrenfest theorem.
Paul Ehrenfest was born and grew up in Vienna in a Jewish family from Loštice in Moravia. His parents, Sigmund Ehrenfest and Johanna Jellinek, ran a grocery store. Although the family was not overly religious, Paul studied Hebrew and the history of the Jewish people. Later he always emphasized his Jewish roots. Ehrenfest excelled in grade school but did not do well at the Akademisches Gymnasium, his best subject being mathematics. After transferring to the Franz Josef Gymnasium, his marks improved. In 1899 he passed the final exams.
The Ehrenfests returned to Göttingen in September 1906. They would not see Boltzmann again: on September 6 he took his own life in Duino near Trieste. Ehrenfest published an extensive obituary in which Boltzmann’s accomplishments are described. Felix Klein, doyen of the Göttinger mathematicians and chief editor of the Enzyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften, had counted on Boltzmann for a review about statistical mechanics. Now he asked Ehrenfest to take on this task. Together with his wife, Ehrenfest worked on it for several years; the article was not published until 1911. It is a review of the work of Boltzmann and his school, and shows a style all of its own: a sharp logical analysis of the fundamental hypotheses, clear delineation of unsolved questions, and an explanation of general principles by cleverly chosen transparent examples.
In October 1912 Ehrenfest arrived in Leiden, and December 4 he gave his inaugural lecture Zur Krise der Lichtaether-Hypothese (About the crises of the light-ether hypothesis). He remained in Leiden for the rest of his career. In order to stimulate interaction and exchange between physics students he organized a discussion group and a fraternity called De Leidsche Flesch.
Paul Ehrenfest was born and grew up in Vienna in a Jewish family from Loštice in Moravia. His parents, Sigmund Ehrenfest and Johanna Jellinek, ran a grocery store. Although the family was not overly religious, Paul studied Hebrew and the history of the Jewish people. Later he always emphasized his Jewish roots. Ehrenfest excelled in grade school but did not do well at the Akademisches Gymnasium, his best subject being mathematics. After transferring to the Franz Josef Gymnasium, his marks improved. In 1899 he passed the final exams.
The Ehrenfests returned to Göttingen in September 1906. They would not see Boltzmann again: on September 6 he took his own life in Duino near Trieste. Ehrenfest published an extensive obituary in which Boltzmann’s accomplishments are described. Felix Klein, doyen of the Göttinger mathematicians and chief editor of the Enzyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften, had counted on Boltzmann for a review about statistical mechanics. Now he asked Ehrenfest to take on this task. Together with his wife, Ehrenfest worked on it for several years; the article was not published until 1911. It is a review of the work of Boltzmann and his school, and shows a style all of its own: a sharp logical analysis of the fundamental hypotheses, clear delineation of unsolved questions, and an explanation of general principles by cleverly chosen transparent examples.
In October 1912 Ehrenfest arrived in Leiden, and December 4 he gave his inaugural lecture Zur Krise der Lichtaether-Hypothese (About the crises of the light-ether hypothesis). He remained in Leiden for the rest of his career. In order to stimulate interaction and exchange between physics students he organized a discussion group and a fraternity called De Leidsche Flesch.
He maintained close contact with
prominent physicists within the country and abroad, and invited them to
visit to Leiden and give a presentation in his lecture series. Ehrenfest
was an outstanding debater, quick to point out weaknesses and summarize
the essentials.
Ehrenfest was particularly close to Einstein and to Bohr. After Niels Bohr's first visit to Leiden in 1919, for Kramers' thesis defense, he wrote to Ehrenfest: "I am sitting and thinking of all what you have told me about so very many different things, and whatever I think of I feel that I have learned so much from you which will be of great importance for me; but, at the same time, I wish so much to express my feeling of happiness over your friendship and of thankfulness for the confidence and sympathy you have shown me, I find myself so utterly incapable of finding words for it".
Ehrenfest was particularly close to Einstein and to Bohr. After Niels Bohr's first visit to Leiden in 1919, for Kramers' thesis defense, he wrote to Ehrenfest: "I am sitting and thinking of all what you have told me about so very many different things, and whatever I think of I feel that I have learned so much from you which will be of great importance for me; but, at the same time, I wish so much to express my feeling of happiness over your friendship and of thankfulness for the confidence and sympathy you have shown me, I find myself so utterly incapable of finding words for it".
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