This book highlights the numerous important contributions that Einstein made to physics-aside from his relativity theories-and places each of his achievements in the corresponding context, referring en route to the original sources. There are very few publications devoted to Einstein's work outside of relativity. This book aims to fill the gap by exploring the scope of Einstein's contributions on topics including molecular forces, thermostatistics, the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, molecular currents, critical opalescence, energy quanta, dual structure of radiation, introduction of the photon, and the formulation of the first quantum statistics. The book pays special attention to Einstein's scepticism toward certain ideas that came to light alongside Schrödinger's first formulation of wave mechanics in 1926, also addressing his doubts regarding the probabilistic interpretation of the quantum formalism, an issue closely connected with the hidden variable theories and their implications. The author discusses the early hidden variable theories, whose appearance was largely a result of Einstein's criticism of the orthodox interpretation of quantum formalism. Finally, in an appendix, the author explores the controversy about the possible contribution that Mileva Mari?, Albert Einstein's first wife, may have made to some of her husband's main scientific achievements.

Autorentext

Luis Navarro Veguillas (Madrid, 1939) obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona in 1965, where he has developed his academic career. Since 2009, he has been Emeritus professor at the University of Barcelona.

His teaching has mainly dealt with classical, quantum, and statistical mechanics. Since 1990, his interest has focused exclusively on the field of History of Physics. He has been Initiator and Lecturer in charge of this discipline since its creation in 1992, until his retirement in 2009.

As for his research activity, his initial publications were in the fields of classical mechanics, statistical mechanics, and quantum theory. He has published numerous papers in these fields, and he is the author of books such as Einstein, profeta y hereje (2009, second edition) and El desconocido Einstein (2020), both published by Tusquets Ed. in Spanish.