Einstein, 1905-2005

This book is the fourth in a series of lectures of the S´ eminaire Poincar´ e,whichis directed towards a large audience of physicists and of mathematicians. The goal of this seminar is to provide up-to-date information about general topics of great interest in physics. Both the theoretical and experimental aspects are covered, with some historical background. Inspired by the Bourbaki seminar in mathematics in its organization, hence nicknamed Bourbaphi, the Poincar´ e Seminar is held twice a year at the Institut Henri Poincar´ e in Paris, with cont- butions prepared in advance. Particular care is devoted to the pedagogical nature of the presentations so as to ful?ll the goal of being readable by a large audience of scientists. This volume contains the seventh such Seminar, held in 2005. It is devoted to Einstein's 1905 papers and their legacy. After a presentation of Einstein's ep- temological approach to physics, and the genesis of special relativity, a cen- nary perspective is o?ered. The geometry of relativistic spacetime is explained in detail. Single photon experiments are presented, as a spectacular realization of Einstein's light quanta hypothesis. A previously unpublished lecture by Einstein, which presents an illuminating point of view on statistical physics in 1910, at the dawn of quantum mechanics, is reproduced. The volume ends with an essay on the historical, physical and mathematical aspects of Brownian motion. We hopethatthe publicationofthis serieswill servethe community ofphy- cists and mathematicians at the graduate student or professional level.

Lectures from the Séminaire Poincaré, held in April 2005 at the Institute Henry Poincaré Contains the English translation of an Einstein paper of 1910, written at the ETH Zürich Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Texte du rabat

The Poincaré Seminar is held twice a year at the Institute Henri Poincaré in Paris. The goal of this seminar is to provide up-to-date information about general topics of great interest in physics. Both the theoretical and experimental results are covered, with some historical background. Particular care is devoted to the pedagogical nature of the presentation.
This volume is devoted to Einstein's 1905 papers and their legacy. After a presentation of Einstein's epistemological approach to physics, and the genesis of special relativity, a centenary perspective is offered. The geometry of relativistic spacetime is explained in detail. Single photon experiments are presented, as a spectacular realization of Einstein's light quanta hypothesis. A previously unpublished lecture by Einstein, which presents an illuminating point of view on statistical physics in 1910, at the dawn of quantum mechanics, is reproduced. The volume ends with an essay on the historical, physical and mathematical aspects of Brownian motion.

Contributing authors:

Jacques Bros
Thibault Damour
Olivier Darrigol
Bertrand Duplantier
Albert Einstein
Philippe Grangier
Ugo Moschella
Clifford M. Will

Additional information (e.g. color versions of pictures) can be found at www.birkhauser.ch/3-7643-7435-7

Contenu
The Genesis of the Theory of Relativity.- Special Relativity: A Centenary Perspective.- From Euclid's Geometry to Minkowski's Spacetime.- The de Sitter and anti-de Sitter Sightseeing Tour.- Experiments with Single Photons.- Einstein 19051955: His Approach to Physics.- On Boltzmann's Principle and Some Immediate Consequences Thereof.- Brownian Motion, Diverse and Undulating.