The Quantum Generation : Highlights and Tragedies of the Golden Age of Physics

Quantum mechanics dates its anniversaries from 1925, the year when its first versions, matrix and wave mechanics, were born. The quan­ tum itself had by that time reached the age of 25, having first seen the light of day on the eve of the nativity of the 20th century itself. Either shunned or completely unnoticed, the quantum seemed for a long time to be an illegitimate child. Even Max Planck himself, its own father, could not bring himself to accept his monstrous child until he was forced to do so -that is, until it became clear that the problems which were arising in physics could not be solved without the quantum. At first the quantum "like a greasy stain, soaked through all the different branches of physics" and then, like an explosion, came the creation of quantum mechanics. The overwhelming majority of those who first created quantum mechanics were just about of an age with the quantum itself. These were very young people, born as the new century was born, give or take a year or so. Hence the phrase was coined - "the quantum generation". At that time there was quantum everything - towns, steps, park benches, lodging houses and so, natu­ rally, the quantum generation. Front Matter....Pages I-XXII By the Sure Path of Experimentation....Pages 1-18 Fiat Lux....Pages 19-34 To Göttingen....Pages 35-46 From the Maroseika to Chistiye Prudy....Pages 47-60 Petrograd — and Back to Moscow....Pages 61-80 Where the Crowned Heads of Science Gather....Pages 81-102 Professor Born’s Circle of Friends....Pages 103-118 “Then, As Now, Physicists Went About Their Work and Regarded It As Perfectly Normal”....Pages 119-130 Metamorphosis....Pages 131-144 “I Shall Leave Neither Tomorrow Nor the Day After, But In a Week From Now.”....Pages 145-160 The Choice....Pages 161-184 Cascades and Showers....Pages 185-210 Pentoptics....Pages 211-234 Earning a Living as an Engineer....Pages 235-256 Teaching the Teachers....Pages 257-276 On Pearl Street....Pages 277-288 In the Beginning Was Mechanics....Pages 289-310 Back Matter....Pages 311-327 This book tells the story of the generation of physicists who were to establish the foundations of quantum physics between the two World Wars. Written in the style of a novel, the experiences of an individual, Professor Yurii Borisovich Rumer, who worked as assistant to Max Born in Göttingen, provide the frame for introducing numerous famous physicists who were connected with this international center for physics research at that time. Rumer's story, from his arrival in Göttingen, to his return to Russia and his captivity in a "golden cage" puts the great scientific developments of his age in their tragic human context