Speaker
AFRIAT, Alexander
(Université de Bretagne Occidentale)
Description
I compare two resarch programmes from the late years (1916-) of the old quantum theory. In three texts from 1917, Einstein proposes an apparently Hamiltonian micro-mechanics – on a torus designed to ‘Riemannize away’ problematic dynamical multi-valuedness – characterised by surprisingly modern invariances: ‘point’ (diffeomorphic) and homotopic. The rival programme (Schwarzschild, Sommerfeld, Epstein etc.), which is genuinely canonical, produces its own tori through action-angle variables and uses perturbations (Zeeman, Stark, relativity) to eliminate awkward coordinate ambiguities which would affect quantisation itself.
Primary author
AFRIAT, Alexander
(Université de Bretagne Occidentale)
