4-40-9. David Hilbert an H. Poincaré

Göttingen 6.5.191211endnote: 1 The postcard is addressed simply to “Herrn Professor H. Poincaré – Membre de l’Institut de France – à Paris”.

Hochgeehrter Herr Kollege,

Sie haben letzthin eine wichtige Arbeit Théorie des Quanta im Journal de Physique veröffentlicht.22endnote: 2 Poincaré 1912. Poincaré showed in general that in the limit of extremal frequencies, there is no continuous law of radiation compatible with Planck’s law. On Poincaré’s contribution to quantum theory and its influence, see McCormmach (1967), Kuhn (1978, 210) and Krips (1986). For analyses of Poincaré’s paper, see Prentis (1995) and Irons (2001). The latter paper considers the differences between the proofs of incompatibility of Planck’s law and continuous energy radiation offered by Poincaré and Paul Ehrenfest. Ich würde mich glücklich schätzen, einen Separatabzug davon zu besitzen.33endnote: 3 Hilbert was unfortunate, as Poincaré explained he had no offprints. The truth is more complex, as explained in the annotation of Poincaré’s response to Hilbert, ca. 7 May, 1912 (§ 4-40-10).

Mit den besten Grüssen,

Ihr ergebenster,

Hilbert

ACS. Private collection, Paris 75017. For an English translation, see (§ 7-2-45), and for a French translation, see Dugac (1986, 212).

Time-stamp: "4.06.2024 20:12"

Notes

  • 1 The postcard is addressed simply to “Herrn Professor H. Poincaré – Membre de l’Institut de France – à Paris”.
  • 2 Poincaré 1912. Poincaré showed in general that in the limit of extremal frequencies, there is no continuous law of radiation compatible with Planck’s law. On Poincaré’s contribution to quantum theory and its influence, see McCormmach (1967), Kuhn (1978, 210) and Krips (1986). For analyses of Poincaré’s paper, see Prentis (1995) and Irons (2001). The latter paper considers the differences between the proofs of incompatibility of Planck’s law and continuous energy radiation offered by Poincaré and Paul Ehrenfest.
  • 3 Hilbert was unfortunate, as Poincaré explained he had no offprints. The truth is more complex, as explained in the annotation of Poincaré’s response to Hilbert, ca. 7 May, 1912 (§ 4-40-10).

Literatur

  • P. Dugac (1986) Henri Poincaré, la correspondance avec des mathématiciens (de A à H). Cahiers du séminaire d’histoire des mathématiques 7, pp. 59–219. link1 Cited by: 4-40-9. David Hilbert an H. Poincaré.
  • F. E. Irons (2001) Poincaré’s 1911–12 proof of quantum discontinuity interpreted as applying to atoms. American Journal of Physics 69 (8), pp. 879–884. link1, link2 Cited by: endnote 2.
  • H. Krips (1986) Atomism, Poincaré and Planck. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 17 (1), pp. 43–63. link1, link2 Cited by: endnote 2.
  • T. S. Kuhn (1978) Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894–1912. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Cited by: endnote 2.
  • R. McCormmach (1967) Henri Poincaré and the quantum theory. Isis 58, pp. 37–55. link1 Cited by: endnote 2.
  • H. Poincaré (1912) Sur la théorie des quanta. Journal de physique théorique et appliquée 2 (1), pp. 5–34. link1 Cited by: endnote 2.
  • J. J. Prentis (1995) Poincaré’s proof of the quantum discontinuity of nature. American Journal of Physics 63 (4), pp. 339–350. link1, link2 Cited by: endnote 2.