Atticus Rare Books

Zur Hypothese der Quantenemission in Sitzungsberichte der Koniglich Preussischen akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 33-35 (July), pp. 723-731, 1911 [PLANCK’S 2nd QUANTUM THEORY & ABSOLUTE ZERO]

Planck, Max

Berlin: Königlich Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1911. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF ONE OF A SERIES OF PAPERS BY PLANCK INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF ZERO POINT ENERGY. “The concept of zero-point energy has its roots in a reformulation of the original version of quantum theory proposed by Max Planck in 1900” (Kragh, Prelude to Dark Energy Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Vol. 66, No. 3 (May 2012), 7). The revised version was presented in a series of works presented as addresses or published from 1911 to [1912]/1913. The revised version is known as Planck’s second quantum theory.

We separately offer extracted first editions of Planck’s other three papers published within the given timeline. They are bound together in a Sammelband, (a volume containing a number of works). Collectively they mark the “birth of the concept of zero point energy” (Miloni, The Quantum Vacuum: An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics, 10). HOWEVER that Sammelband is missing one paper – the one offered here; it was not bound in because it is a complete journal issue, again, one in original wraps. The titles of the extracts in the Sammelband are: Eine neue Strahlungshypothese (1911); Uber die Begrundung des Gesetzes der schwarzen Strahlung (1912); Uber die Begrundung des Gesetzes der schwarzen Strahlung (1912/1913).

“A cornerstone of thermodynamics, Planck’s 1900 law describes how the energy density at different wavelengths of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a “black body” varies according to the temperature of the body. It was formulated by German physicist Max Planck at the beginning of the 20th century using the concept of energy quantization that was to go on and serve as the basis for quantum mechanics” (PhysicsWorld, Optical Physics, 12 Sept. 2012).

“In Planck’s second quantum theory, his modified statistical approach created a small artifact: No matter the temperature of an object, and no matter the color of light one examined, there [was] always an extra little “chunklet” equal to half of one quantum of energy. It was a trifle and could largely be ignored in most cases… [but] the effect, the ‘zero-point energy,’ [was] real. It described a sort of very low-level but ubiquitous seething of energy,” a very small but real electromagnetic energy that is present even at absolute zero temperature due to the random creation of virtual particle/antiparticle pairs (Brown, Planck, 218). The phenomenon is the result of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and the understanding of this phenomenon is the basis for the development of quantum electrodynamics (QED).

Planck first introduced this new theory in an address to the German Physical Society of 3 February 1911” (Kragh, Preludes, 6). He then developed it further, next in the paper offered here (published in July), and then in his report on heat radiation delivered to the Solvay conference in Brussels in late 1911. By the 2nd edition of Planck’s Lectures published in 1913, his ideas were formulated canonically.

“Whereas in his original theory of 1900 had treated emission and absorption of radiation symmetrically, in his second theory – at the time generally known as the “theory of quantum emission” – he assumed that only the emission of radiation occurred in discrete energy quanta. The electrodynamic emission of these quanta would be governed by a probabilistic law. Absorption, on the other hand, was supposed to occur in accordance with classical theory, that is, continuously. This feature appealed to physicists who considered Planck’s original theory a too radical break with classical physics.

“For example, in an address of December 1912 Robert Millikan judged the new theory to be “the most fundamental and the least revolutionary form of quantum theory, since it modifies classical theory only in the assumption of discontinuities in time, but not in space, in the emission (not in the absorption) of radiant energy” (Kragh, Preludes, 6). Item #1580

CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete issue in original paper wraps. Bright and clean inside and out. Fine condition.

Price: $275.00