God does not play dice

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God does not play dice! is a saying that goes back to statements of the physicist Albert Einstein and condenses his position in the Bohr-Einstein debate .

Content explanations

Einstein wrote in a letter to Max Born dated December 4, 1926 (possibly also in a letter to Niels Bohr ):

“Quantum mechanics is very respectable. But an inner voice tells me that this is not yet the real Jacob. The theory delivers a lot, but it hardly brings us any closer to the mystery of the old. Anyway, I am convinced that the does not play dice. "

The metaphor of the sentence allows for a wide range of interpretations, which Einstein did not restrict through further explanations.

One possible interpretation of Einstein's statement is that he rejected the probabilistic ( stochastic ) explanation of quantum mechanics . However, this interpretation is controversial.

Ballentine writes that Einstein's arguments regarding the interpretation of quantum mechanics were often completely misunderstood by other physicists. According to Ballentine, Einstein would not have rejected Max Born's statistical interpretation, but on the contrary would have considered it the only satisfactory one - contrary to the interpretation of Niels Bohr, who considered it a phenomenon of individual particles. And Einstein was also not a supporter of the theories of hidden variables and his reasoning did not require any underlying determinism.

Gregor Schiemann concludes that by "the secret of the old" Einstein means a uniform structure of nature underlying all phenomena. In Einstein's most likely to be Spinozistic to be referred to God's view "am God on the one hand for the whole of nature and also for an effective active principle in nature".

Mario Wingert describes the "dilemma" in such a way that Bohr considered "the resolution of the wave-particle paradox to be impossible - and unnecessary", while Einstein assumed that "there must be structures of reality that it is the task of physics to recognize" .

Ultimately, the question was whether the determinism of classical physics, e.g. B. Newtonian mechanics or classical electrodynamics, in which quantum mechanics is still valid or not, which has meanwhile been decided in the latter sense. Therefore, until his death in 1955, Einstein tried in vain to make quantum mechanics deterministic using so-called hidden variables . The thesis that God does not roll the dice, i.e. that physics knows no coincidence , was Einstein's answer to the question of what he did not like about the quantum physics emerging at the time , because there states of a physical system are described by means of probabilities, e.g. B. with probabilities of residence ; see u. a. the article state (quantum mechanics) .

He wrote about quantum mechanics in a letter to Cornelius Lanczos on March 21, 1942:

“It seems hard to look at the Lord God’s cards. But I cannot believe for a moment that he rolls the dice and uses telepathic means (as is expected of him by current quantum theory). "

But already in the conversations with Niels Bohr in the late 1920s, he received opposition.

“'God does not roll the dice', that was a principle that Einstein held steadfastly and which he did not want to be shaken. Bohr could only answer: 'But it cannot be our job to tell God how He should rule the world.' "

- Heisenberg, p. 115

Although Einstein had an extraordinary reputation as a scientist and the astute physical statements on which his work on the interpretation of quantum mechanics ( EPR effect , 1935) was based, - contrary to the philosophical premises on which his work was based - were invariably correct and fundamental for have proven the current physical world of concepts (e.g. for the concept of quantum entanglement ), his conclusions are now based on the so-called Bellschen due to the philosophical prerequisites mentioned in the work (which amount to "God does not roll the dice") through careful experiments Inequality , has been explicitly falsified, which represents a basic result of the theory of science.

Bell's inequality, which enabled an experimental decision for or against Einstein in terms of quantum mechanics, only became known long after Einstein's death, and it took more decades before the decision could be made experimentally. It fell out against Einstein.

Today Einstein's fundamental objections to quantum mechanics are therefore considered refuted, and indeed in a very subtle and for Einstein in no way dishonorable. The objections are therefore no longer upheld in physics, not even by a minority. Nonetheless, Einstein's authority in this matter is unbroken with physicists because he was the first to “put his finger in an open wound” and his objections, although they have proven to be false because of incorrect philosophical premises, are nonetheless an abundance of concrete and forward-looking ones Physics produced.

For the above experimental results see e.g. B. Alain Aspect . A summary among many:

“The latest quantum optical experiments should be enough to make Einstein rotate in his grave. […] In any case, Einstein's thought experiment has meanwhile turned into a series of real experiments, the results of which have confirmed that Bohr was clearly right and Einstein, unfortunately, was wrong. "

- Davies, p. 208

Others

Einstein does not roll the dice ! was the companion game of a traveling exhibition for the Einstein year " God does not throw the dice: Science in play - game in science ", which started in July 2005 in Göttingen .

literature

  • Paul Davies : The Immortality of Time. Modern physics between rationality and God. Scherz, Bern a. a. 1995.
  • Dieter Hattrup : Einstein against the god who rolls the dice. Kindle Edition, 2011.
  • Werner Heisenberg : The part and the whole. Conversations in the area of ​​atomic physics. Piper, Munich 1969.
  • Richard Morris: God doesn't roll the dice. Universe, matter and creative intelligence. Europa, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-203-80099-3 .

References and footnotes

  1. ^ Albert Einstein, Hedwig and Max Born: Correspondence 1916–1955. Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag, Reinbek near Hamburg, 1972, p. 97f
  2. ↑ Max Born : Physics in the course of my time. Verlag Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig, 1959, 3rd edition, p. 244
  3. ↑ Ernst Peter Fischer : The other education. What one should know about the natural sciences. Section God the dice. Ullstein, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-550-07151-5 .
  4. ↑ a b L. E. Ballentine, Einstein's Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Am. J. Phys. 40, 1763 (1972)
  5. ^ Arthur Fine, The Shaky Game, Einstein Realism and the Quantum Theory, Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series, 1996
  6. ↑ a b Gregor Schiemann: Why God does not roll the dice, Einstein and quantum mechanics in the light of recent research . In: R. Breuniger (ed.), Building blocks for philosophy. Vol. 27: Einstein . 2010 ( uni-wuppertal.de [PDF]).
  7. ↑ Mario Wingert: Einstein's legacy: the revolution in physics: the resolution of the wave / particle paradox . BoD, 2003, p. 8 ( google.de ).
  8. ↑ Einstein and Heisenberg: Founders of modern physics Urban paperbacks: Amazon.de: Konrad Kleinknecht: Amazon.de. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  9. ↑ a b Albert Einstein's flawed philosophical premises can be formulated as follows: Every physical theory must firstly fulfill the principle of realism , i. H. all states exist before the measurement. Second, it must meet the principle of locality . Quantum mechanics violates both premises: states are not determined by the measurement, but rather created (“prepared”). Quantum mechanics is also "non-local", since the state vector determines the instantaneous wave function everywhere.