Einstein's Dice and Schr�dinger's Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics by Paul Halpern

Author:Paul Halpern [Halpern, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2015-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

A Call for Assistants

Schrödinger was well aware at that point of Einstein’s success in procuring positions in other countries. Given his financial worries and animosity toward the Nazis, a post at Oxford sounded attractive. Like Einstein, however, Schrödinger made his acceptance contingent on hiring someone else to assist him. Schrödinger’s equivalent of Mayer was Arthur March. He asked Lindemann if March could be given an Oxford appointment as well so they could work together.

There was a huge difference, though, between Einstein’s and Schrödinger’s motivations for wanting an assistant. After the age of fifty, Einstein had lost much patience with the nitty-gritty of calculations. Mayer was essential to his productivity. The situation with March was different. Schrödinger discussed the possibility of writing a book with him, but they never really collaborated. Rather, along with Arthur came his wife, Hilde, with whom Erwin was deeply smitten.

Lindemann returned to England and scampered to get funding for all the positions he had agreed to, including ones for Schrödinger and March. Meanwhile, conditions in Germany deteriorated even further. May was even worse than April. More dismissals of Jews took place. On Bebelplatz, right in front of the University of Berlin, a massive burning of books by Jews and other banned authors showed how much intellectual life had deteriorated. Born left for Italy, with the promise of a position at Cambridge.

In part to escape the mayhem, the Schrödingers and the Marches decided to spend their summer in Switzerland and Italy, including visits with Pauli, Born, and Weyl. Weyl had earlier been appointed to a position at Göttingen, but because his wife was Jewish, he had decided to step down and flee Germany. He would move on to a position at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.

In mountainous northern Italy, Erwin persuaded Hilde to take a long bicycling trip with him—just the two of them. During their excursion, their relationship became passionate. Sometime around then, Hilde got pregnant with Erwin’s child. Rather than divorcing their spouses, they decided to work out an unusual relationship—essentially a complex marriage.

Lindemann met with Schrödinger again in September, in the beautiful village of Malcesine on the shore of Italy’s Lake Garda. He was excited to report that a British firm, Imperial Chemical Industries, had agreed to fund several positions, including a two-year post for Schrödinger and a separate visiting appointment for March. Schrödinger would be associated with Oxford’s prestigious Magdalen College. Although the specific salaries were still being determined, Schrödinger had no desire to return to Berlin and warmly accepted. He, Anny, and Hilde moved to Oxford in early November. Arthur needed to negotiate a leave from Innsbruck, where he held a position, so he went back there for a time.

Schrödinger’s departure from Germany angered the Nazis. He was the most senior non-Jewish physicist to leave. Heisenberg, though not a Nazi party member or supporter, was upset that he had abandoned Germany. In Heisenberg’s view, loyalty to the German homeland and to German scientific progress transcended politics. One should wait out the regime and hope for a more reasonable government, he believed, not just take flight.

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