Although Bohr and Einstein had a good relationship in private, since they met, they have been in a stage of falling in love and killing each other.
Today, Bohr still follows the old traditional views in his heart. In his mind, Einstein is good at everything, but the idea of light quanta is absolutely unacceptable.
If it is admitted that such light quanta do exist as he said, then both Huygens' wave theory and Maxwell's electromagnetic theory will be completely overturned.
Last year, Bohr and Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics at the same time. The former was the winner of that year's award, and the latter was the winner of the previous year's award. 【1】
As soon as he learned of the prize, Bohr immediately wrote a letter to Einstein, who was lecturing in the Far East, congratulating him on finally winning the Nobel Prize.
The content of the letter was written very humbly. He said that the reason why he was able to achieve some achievements was because of Einstein's foundational contributions. Therefore, Bohr felt that Einstein could win the Nobel Prize before him, which was a "great happiness".
Because the theory of relativity is still controversial in the physics community today, when it awarded Einstein the 1921 Physics Prize, the reason given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was not for relativity, but "in recognition of his research in theoretical physics, especially It is the discovery of the law of photoelectric effect." ——At least the law of photoelectric effect has been verified by Millikan's precise experiment, and its accuracy is beyond doubt.
On December 10 last year, the anniversary of Nobel's death, Einstein, who was still lecturing at the University of London, failed to attend his award ceremony in Stockholm.
After King Gustav V of Sweden presented the award to Einstein remotely, he invited Bohr, this year's winner, to the stage.
However, Bohr's speech caused uproar in the audience, because in his acceptance speech, he pointed the finger at the photoelectric effect that he had just won, completely denying Einstein's light quantum theory, saying that this theory can be used to explain photoelectricity. The effect is wrong!
It can be seen from this how much Bohr resisted the theory of light quanta, so that he could say such destructive words so ruthlessly at the award ceremony.
So at the beginning, Bohr was very disdainful of Chen Muwu's paper. It was just a theory. Without experimental verification, it was no different from civilian science.
However, in the subsequent "Transactions of the Natural Science", he not only saw Chen Muwu's paper again, but also the experimental verification done by his teacher Rutherford.
The teacher's experimental conclusion shows that after gamma rays are refracted, the phenomenon predicted in the paper will indeed occur.
This is what Bohr absolutely does not want to see!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, made a phone call and asked his assistant Hendrik Kramers to come to his office to find him.
In 1916, after receiving a Master of Science degree from Leiden University in the Netherlands, Kramers wanted to study abroad during his PhD.
He originally wanted to go to the University of Göttingen and study under Professor Max Born.
However, because Europe was fighting the First World War, Kramers could not go to Germany. He could only come to Denmark, which was a neutral country like the Netherlands, and became the disciple of Bohr, who had just returned from the University of Manchester and was still unknown at that time. Doctoral candidate.
After graduating from the Ph.D., he was left as an assistant by his teacher Bohr and obtained the position of associate professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen.
Today, he has just devoted himself to scientific research work, so he is as motivated as a chicken.
Kramers heard that the teacher's tone on the phone seemed a little abnormal, so he trotted all the way to Bohr's office.
"Hans, come and read this paper!"
Kramers honestly took over the "Transactions of the Natural Science" from Bohr, spent a long time carefully reading Chen Muwu's paper and Rutherford's experimental bulletin, and then raised his head and said to his boss : "Teacher, wasn't this paper published once in last month's "Annals of Physics"?"
As a Dutchman, he read German much more easily than English.
"Yes, what do you think?" Bohr asked with a frown.
Kramers answered truthfully: "The derivation process in this paper is very simple, and the knowledge used is very elementary. It is like a job that an undergraduate physics undergraduate can easily complete. However, I think he is looking at the light The idea of being a 'particle' is very interesting! From the photoelectric effect to the current experiment, light is probably a particle!"
"How could light be a particle? I want you to use your brain. If light is a particle, how could there be alternating light and dark interference fringes behind the two slits?"
"But, but, teacher, didn't Sir Rutherford of Cambridge University also attach the experimental results of the Cavendish Laboratory behind this?"
"Nothing! Light is definitely not a particle!"
…
Hearing Kramers's answer, Bohr, who had always been mild-tempered, became furious.
He feels that his assistant has been brainwashed by the demon named "Photon", which is absolutely unforgivable.
After that, the tobacco in Bohr's pipe was changed again and again, and the matches were lit one after another.
He took the trouble and spent a whole day using both soft and hard tactics on Kramers, repeatedly demonstrating from various angles such as science and philosophy that "photons" could not exist in this world.
In the end, Bohr finally convinced his assistant to admit that he had been led astray after reading Chen Muwu's paper.
It was not until dusk that Kramers dragged his exhausted body out of Bohr's office.
Exhausted and exhausted that night, he did not go home, but was admitted directly to the University Hospital of Copenhagen. 【2】
A few days later, after Kramers had just been discharged from the hospital after recuperating his health, Bohr asked him to compile his conversation with him that day, or rather his one-sided lecture, into a newsletter, and then signed two Name, sent to the Royal Scientific Society, London, England.
…
Compton's experimental data, Yves's reply to Rutherford, Debye's contribution to Planck, Bohr's correspondence angrily criticizing Chen Muwu...
Countless letters were sent from universities all over Europe and the United States, passing through the busy postal system, and finally ended up in the UK and Germany like snowflakes.
The contents of these letters are different, but what they have in common is that they cannot avoid a new concept in physics.
A ghost, a ghost named "photon", is wandering over the European and American physics circles.
Of course, only one of these letters was sent from Sihai, China.
Although what is written in it is not about photons, the shocking power contained in the content is not weaker than the current photon theory.
I don’t know if this stone is thrown into the still rippling world of physics, how big of a huge wave will it cause?
At this moment, the author of this letter is sitting on a train on the Beijing-Fenghuang Railway, "speeding" towards the east.
*****
[1] Author's note: The Nobel Prize does have such a rule. If the jury believes that there is no achievement that is worthy of the award that year (or other reasons), it can choose to shelve the award for that year for one year. If the award appears within one year, For achievements that are suitable for award evaluation, the award of the previous year will be delayed in the second year of awarding.
[2] Author's note: This is historical fact.
