Ludwik Silberstein (1872 – 1948) was a
Polish-American physicist who helped make
special relativity and
general relativity staples of university coursework. His textbook ''
The Theory of Relativity'' was published by Macmillan in 1914 with a second edition, expanded to include general relativity, in 1924.
Life
Silberstein was born May 17, 1872 in
Warsaw to Samuel Silberstein and Emily Steinkalk. He was educated in
Krakow,
Heidelberg, and
Berlin. To teach he went to
Bologna, Italy from 1899 to 1904. Then he took a position at
Sapienza University of Rome
The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...
.
In 1907 Silberstein described a
bivector In mathematics, a bivector or 2-vector is a quantity in exterior algebra or geometric algebra that extends the idea of scalars and vectors. If a scalar is considered a degree-zero quantity, and a vector is a degree-one quantity, then a bivector ca ...
approach to the fundamental electromagnetic equations. When
and
represent electric and magnetic
vector fields with values in
, then Silberstein suggested
would have values in
, consolidating the field description with
complexification
In mathematics, the complexification of a vector space over the field of real numbers (a "real vector space") yields a vector space over the complex number field, obtained by formally extending the scaling of vectors by real numbers to include ...
. This contribution has been described as a crucial step in modernizing
Maxwell's equations
Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. ...
, while
is known as the
Riemann–Silberstein vector
In mathematical physics, in particular electromagnetism, the Riemann–Silberstein vector or Weber vector named after Bernhard Riemann, Heinrich Martin Weber and Ludwik Silberstein, (or sometimes ambiguously called the "electromagnetic field") is ...
.
Silberstein taught in Rome until 1920, when he entered private research for the
Eastman Kodak Company of
Rochester, New York. For nine years he maintained this consultancy with Kodak labs while he gave his relativity course on occasion at the
University of Chicago, the
University of Toronto, and
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...
. He lived until January 17, 1948.
Textbook inaugurating relativity science
At the
International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in 1912 at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...
, Silberstein spoke on "Some applications of quaternions". Though the text was not published in the proceedings of the Congress, it did appear in the
Philosophical Magazine
The ''Philosophical Magazine'' is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. It was established by Alexander Tilloch in 1798;John Burnett"Tilloch, Alexander (1759–1825)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Unive ...
of May, 1912, with the title "Quaternionic form of relativity". The following year Macmillan published ''The Theory of Relativity'', which is now available on-line in the
Internet Archive (see references). The quaternions used are actually
biquaternion
In abstract algebra, the biquaternions are the numbers , where , and are complex numbers, or variants thereof, and the elements of multiply as in the quaternion group and commute with their coefficients. There are three types of biquaternions c ...
s. The book is highly readable and well-referenced with contemporary sources in the footnotes.
Several reviews were published.
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...
expressed some misgivings:
:A systematic exposition of the principle of relativity necessarily consists very largely in the demonstration of invariant properties of certain mathematical relations. Hence it is bound to appear a little uninteresting to the experimentalist...little is done to remove the unfortunate impression that relativity is a fad of the mathematician, and not a thing for the every-day physicist.
In his review
Morris R. Cohen wrote, "Dr. Silberstein is not inclined to emphasize the revolutionary character of the new ideas, but rather concerned to show their intimate connection with older ones." Another review by
Maurice Solovine
Maurice Solovine (21 May 1875 – 13 February 1958) was a Romanian philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for his association with Albert Einstein.
Biography
Solovine was born in Iași, a university city in eastern Romania, near the bord ...
states that Silberstein subjected the relativity principle to an exhaustive examination in the context of, and with respect to, the principal problems of
mathematical physics taken up at the time.
On the basis of the book, Silberstein was invited to lecture at the
University of Toronto. The influence of these lectures on
John Lighton Synge has been noted:
:Synge had also been strongly influenced a few months previously
n January 1921by a Toronto lecture series organized by J.C. McLennan on "Recent Advances in Physics", at which Silberstein gave eighteen lectures on "Special and Generalized Theories of Relativity and Gravitation, and on Spectroscopy", all from a mathematical standpoint.
Silberstein gave a
plenary address at the International Congress of Mathematicians
This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...
in 1924 in Toronto: ''A finite world-radius and some of its cosmological implications''.
The Einstein–Silberstein debate
In 1935, following a controversial debate with
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, Silberstein published a solution of
Einstein's field equations that appeared to describe a static,
axisymmetric
Rotational symmetry, also known as radial symmetry in geometry, is the property a shape has when it looks the same after some rotation by a partial turn. An object's degree of rotational symmetry is the number of distinct orientations in which i ...
metric with only two point
singularities representing two point masses. Such a solution clearly violates our understanding of
gravity: with nothing to support them and no
kinetic energy to hold them apart, the two masses should fall towards each other due to their mutual gravity, in contrast with the static nature of Silberstein's solution. This led Silberstein to claim that
A. Einstein's theory was flawed, in need of a revision. In response, Einstein and
Nathan Rosen published a Letter to the Editor in which they pointed out a critical flaw in Silberstein's reasoning. Unconvinced, Silberstein took the debate to the popular press, with ''The Evening Telegram'' in
Toronto publishing an article titled "Fatal blow to relativity issued here" on March 7, 1936. Nonetheless, Einstein was correct and Silberstein was wrong: as we know today, all solutions to Weyl's family of axisymmetric metrics, of which Silberstein's is one example, necessarily contain singular structures ("struts", "ropes", or "membranes") that are responsible for holding masses against the attractive force of gravity in a static configuration.
Other contributions
According to Martin Claussen, Ludwik Silberstein initiated a line of thought involving eddy currents in the atmosphere, or fluids generally. He says that Silberstein anticipated foundational work by
Vilhelm Bjerknes
Vilhelm Friman Koren Bjerknes ( , ; 14 March 1862 – 9 April 1951) was a Norwegian physicist and meteorologist who did much to found the modern practice of weather forecasting. He formulated the primitive equations that are still in use in nu ...
(1862 – 1951).
Works
* 1907: Electromagnetische Grundgleichungen in bivectorielle Behandlung, Ann. Physik 22 579–86 & 24:783–4
* 1912: Quaternionic form of relativity, Phil. Mag. 14 1912 790 - 809
* 1913: Second memoir on quaternionic relativity, Phil. Mag. 15 1913 135-144
* 1913
Vectorial Mechanics 2nd edition 1926, Macmillan & Company.
* 1914
The Theory of Relativity Macmillan, 2nd edition 1924.
* 1918
Elements of the Electromagnetic Theory of Light Longmans, Green & Co.
* 1918
Simplified Method of Tracing Rays Through any Optical System of Lenses, Prisms, and Mirrors Longmans, Green & Co.
* 1919
Elements of Vector Algebra Longmans, Green and Company.
* 1920
Report on the Quantum Theory of Spectra Adam Hilger.
* 1922
Quantum Theory of Photographic ExposurePhilosophical Magazine
The ''Philosophical Magazine'' is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. It was established by Alexander Tilloch in 1798;John Burnett"Tilloch, Alexander (1759–1825)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Unive ...
6th series, volume 44:257–73 and 44:956–68.
* 1924
The Theory of General Relativity and Gravitation D. Van Nostrand,
* 1930: ''The Size of the Universe'',
Oxford University Press
* 1933: ''Causality: A Law of Nature or a Maxim of the Naturalist'',
Macmillan
MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to:
People
* McMillan (surname)
* Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan
* Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician
* James MacMillan, Scottish composer
* William Duncan MacMillan ...
[ The initials "T.G." might be those of the mathematician Thomas Greenwood, who wrote articles for ''Nature'' and had an interest in relativity theory. ]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silberstein, Ludwik
1872 births
1948 deaths
Heidelberg University alumni
Polish emigrants to the United States
American physicists
Polish relativity theorists