Article ID: CBB959398801

Quantum Cultures during the Prehistory of Quantum Gravity: Léon Rosenfeld's Early Contributions to Quantum Gravity (2019)

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In this paper we consider the prehistory of quantum gravity (1916–1930) from two perspectives. First, we investigate how this research field constituted itself and we propose for the first time a red thread to trace its evolution in this earliest period. Second, we focus on a case study: the earliest work of Léon Rosenfeld. In 1927 he tried to merge wave mechanics with general relativity in the context of a five-dimensional universe. We describe how Oskar Klein, Louis de Broglie, and Théophile De Donder influenced Rosenfeld's work and analyze how and why Rosenfeld attempted to reconcile Einstein's theory with quantum phenomena. We argue that Rosenfeld investigated for the first time the corrections to a classical space-time metric generated by a quantum source. As far as we know, Rosenfeld's approach has been largely ignored until today: he himself considered it “an accident.” After having reconsidered its connection with de Broglie's ideas and Rosenfeld's interpretation of the wave function in 1927, we argue that Rosenfeld's work can be interpreted as a first attempt to introduce the pilot-wave theory in the context of quantum gravity and we infer that this was one of the reasons that ruled it out.

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Article Christian Joas; Thiago Hartz (2019) Quantum Cultures: Historical Perspectives on the Practices of Quantum Physicists. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (pp. 281-289). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB959398801/

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Authors & Contributors
Sauer, Tilman
Valente, Mário Bacelar
Blum, Alexander S.
Wuensch, Daniela
Torretti, Roberto
Schroer, Bert
Concepts
Physics
Gravitation
Relativity, general
Quantum mechanics
Theoretical physics
Space
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century
20th century, late
21st century
19th century
Places
Germany
Institutions
Harvard University
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