1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910823328103321

Autore

Jacobsen Anja Skaar

Titolo

Léon Rosenfeld : physics, philosophy, and politics in the twentieth century / / Anja Skaar Jacobsen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Singapore, : World Scientific Pub. Co., 2012

ISBN

1-280-66920-9

9786613646132

981-4307-82-3

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (367 p.)

Disciplina

501

530.092

530/.09

Soggetti

Physicists

Physics - Philosophy

Science - Social aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Preface; List of Pictures; Introduction; Chapter 1. Physicist of the Second Quantum Generation; "You see, I was Belgian"; Paris 1926-1927: Physics and Socialism; Gottingen 1927-1929:The "Indeterminist" School; Rosenfeld Finds his Style in Physics; Two Approaches to Quantum Electrodynamics: Jordan versus Dirac; Zurich 1929-1930:The Pauli-Heisenberg Quantum Field Theory; Friendships; Chapter 2. Rosenfeld in Copenhagen; The Institute for Theoretical Physics; Assisting Bohr; Crisis in Quantum Theory; The "Small War"; Dirac, "the Ugly Duckling"; The Bohr-Rosenfeld paper; The EPR paper

Chapter 3. Physics, Philosophy, and Politics in the 1930sTrotsky in Copenhagen; Yvonne Cambresier; The Promised Land; Fascism and Nazism versus the Popular Front; Battling for the Ideological Rights to Complementarity; Bohr's French Connection; Dreary Times; Fission - A Question of Priority; Chapter 4. Surviving the War in Utrecht; The Second World War; Uhlenbeck's Successor; Life in Holland under Nazi Occupation; Heisenberg's Visit; Hiding; Chapter 5. Cold War and Political Commitment; Dividing the World; Science, Socialism, and



Peace; The End of the Popular Front

The History of the Social Relations of ScienceScientific Internationalism; "The Soviet Crisis"; The Maverick; Anglo-American Science Policy and Anti-Communism; Belgian Recognition; Rosenfeld versus Bohr; Chapter 6. Bohr's Cold Warrior; The Relationship between Science and Philosophy; Rosenfeld versus Bohm; "Strife about Complementarity"; Thaw in East-West Relations; Fock's Visit in Copenhagen; Epilogue; Bibliography; Abbreviations; Archival Document Collections; Books, Articles, Interviews, and Theses; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Léon Rosenfeld (1904-1974) was a remarkable, many-sided physicist of exceptional erudition. He was at the center of modern physics and was well-known as Niels Bohr's close collaborator and spokesman. Besides he reflected deeply on the history and philosophy of science and its social role from a leftist perspective. As both actor and acute spectator of modern physics and as a polyglot cosmopolitan whose life crossed those of many important people in both the East and West, as well as by virtue of his close collaboration and friendship with Bohr, Rosenfeld was an important figure in twentieth ce