Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 236

After getting the superficial approval from Born and Jordan in the Department of Physics, von Neumann returned to his residence elated.

He couldn't wait to organize the ideas on the draft paper into a paper, and then publish it in the "Journal of Physics" as soon as possible.

Although it was a subject given by my teacher, Alexander Hilbert in mathematics, if this paper was published in some mathematics journal, the consequence would be that no one would care about it.

It is not uncommon for mathematicians to read physics papers!

So von Neumann finally decided to follow Born's advice and submit to a physics journal.

Jordan, or rather a newcomer named Ernst Dormeier, published a vehemently anti-Semitic review in the Göttingen Zeitung that came before von Neumann's paper. Much earlier.

Ernst was the first name in Jordan's full name, Ernst Pascual Jordan, but no one could compare the pseudonym of this new critic with the humble and polite The assistant Jordan is linked together.

A few days later, von Neumann came to Born's office again with the written paper.

Born and Jordang read his dissertation sincerely, and both felt that there was no problem with the proof and logic in the content.

So according to the agreement, Born wrote a letter of recommendation for this mathematical paper covered in physics, and sent it together with the paper to Karl Scheer, the executive director and secretary of the German Physical Society in the capital Berlin. He is also one of the editors-in-chief of the Journal of Physics.

In fact, the relationship between Born and the other editor-in-chief of the "Journal of Physics", Hans Geiger, is closer than that of Scheer, who is mainly responsible for administrative work, whether in the German Physical Society or in the editorial department of the journal. Better, except that Geiger was not in Berlin, where the magazine was published, but at Kiel University in Kiel.

If it is sent to Geiger, if he thinks it can be published and then forwarded to Berlin, it will take a lot of time to transfer it.

And Geiger himself is an experimental physicist who came from Cavendish Laboratory and followed Rutherford to do experiments. He knows shit theory, let alone mathematics papers that are a bit difficult for Born to read.

In terms of academic achievement and fame, the two editors, Geiger and Serga together, are not as good as Planck.

However, unlike the "Annual Review of Physics" edited by Planck, the "Journal of Physics" has adopted a reviewer system since its inception, instead of relying on the personal likes and dislikes of several editors in the editorial department, it is easy to decide. A paper that does not know whether its content is right or wrong is life and death.

It may be that Planck is a remnant of the old era and cannot understand the papers of the new era, or it may be because the rigorous Germans prefer the review system of the "Journal of Physics".

Therefore, German physicists are still more willing to contribute to this emerging journal.

Born himself is also one of the reviewers of the "Journal of Physics", he can directly recommend articles to the editorial department.

Moreover, von Neumann was still a student of Hilbert, and the topic of this thesis was only researched on the recommendation of the latter.

Looking at the Buddha's face instead of the monk's face, Born was very confident. He felt that Schell would not reject such a high-quality paper no matter what.

The postman in Göttingen was still so diligent. While taking away a lot of letters from the mailbox, including Born’s recommendation letter and von Neumann’s thesis, he also sent overseas letters for the University of Göttingen. The latest issue of "Natural Science Journal" came to the European continent after crossing the sea.

Because in the previous issue, Dr. Chen from the University of Cambridge published a mathematical paper that overturned the work of most mathematicians in the world.

Therefore, most of the scientific practitioners at the University of Göttingen, regardless of the discipline, want to open this issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society to see if there is any follow-up to this matter, or whether Dr. Published new papers in the field of expertise.

But the result disappointed most people. No one could find the four-letter Chinese surname on the catalog page, and there was only one paper with a mailing address of Cambridge University.

There are no papers by Chen Muwu, and there are no papers related to the subject or that they are interested in, so these disappointed people basically reclose this issue of "Journal of Natural Sciences", or put it aside, or give it to their students , Ask them to outline each paper.

Only a very small number of people opened the physics paper from Cambridge University according to the page number on the catalogue.

Jordan is one of them.

He remembered the name Dirac because of the Dirac-Chen statistics.

In the final analysis, it was because of Chen Muwu.

That person published a paper with Chen Muwu two years ago, and then disappeared like a flash in the pan.

Dirac is also a member of Cambridge University, and he can publish papers with Chen Muwu, so the relationship between these two people must not be bad.

After two years of dormancy, he made a comeback with a new paper, and looking at the title, the content of this paper is still related to quantum mechanics.

I don't know if Chen Muwu will give his guidance behind this thesis?Will it bring some surprises?

With this mentality, Jordan began to read Dirac's papers.

Although there is no DeepL, and there is no era of Google Translate, it is very difficult for Jordan, whose native language is German, to read an English paper.

But the more he looked down, the more delighted Jordan's face became.

Isn't the content of this paper exactly the idea that von Neumann got to Born's office a few days ago?
The Jew was arrogant a few days ago and thought he had written such an amazing paper, but now?
This Englishman who has never met before, you are doing well!

Ning and Youbang don't want to be at home, and Yue Dang's heart is somewhat sickly gloating.

As now, in the original historical process, Dirac did try to prove the equivalence of matrix mechanics and wave mechanics earlier than von Neumann.

Both are all-rounders in mathematics and physics, but the focus of the two people is still somewhat different.

Dirac was more physics, von Neumann was more mathematics.

After reading "Principles of Quantum Mechanics", von Neumann pointed out that the unified mathematical expression of quantum mechanics given by Dirac is correct, but it can be more correct.

Then he wrote an article "The Mathematical Basis of Quantum Mechanics", which finally proved the equivalence of the two mechanics strictly mathematically in the Hilbert space.

This time and space is different because of Chen Muwu.

He had already proposed with Dirac and Fowler that his own previous proofs were sufficient for physicists, but not rigorous for mathematicians.

To strictly prove this point, the final battlefield is in the Hilbert space.

Chen Muwu just mentioned it, but Dirac really listened to it.

Therefore, his current thesis, from the idea to the final proof process, is almost the same as that of von Neumann, and the latter cannot be allowed to pick out any faults from it.

Jodang, who was already happy in his heart, suppressed a smile, and shared the unfortunate result published in the "Journal of Natural Sciences" to his teacher Born with a blank face.

"Professor Born, the paper that Dr. von Neumann just sent has been published in this British journal.

"According to the time of receipt, there is absolutely no possibility of this paper being plagiarized. It should be the British Mr. Dirac and von Neumann who thought of going together and took the lead in solving this problem."

While talking, Jordan put the open periodicals on the desk and pushed them in front of Born.

After a short period of emotional adjustment, a trace of regret even appeared on his face.

Unlike Jordan, Born's English is very good.

After graduating from his Ph.D., he visited Cambridge University for a short period of time, and had academic exchanges with Lamour, the Lucasian mathematics professor, and Thomson, the director of the Cavendish Laboratory at the time. .

Moreover, he was invited by Michelson, the head of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, to teach relativity in the United States for several years.

Compared with Jordan, who could only guess the content of Dirac's thesis by relying on English-German dictionaries and physics formulas, Born read the "Proceedings of Natural Sciences" without any pressure.

As Jordan said, the content of the paper is almost exactly the same as the one that von Neumann just sent to the "Journal of Physics", except for the language used.

Because he also participated in a certain amount of thesis work before and after, but now he was caught first, Born felt a faint sense of loss in his heart.

But he is not the author of the paper after all. After thinking about it, Born decided that it would be better to invite von Neumann to his office again and announce this academic "bad news" to him face to face.

"Pasqual, please run over and invite Dr. von Neumann over, and let's discuss how to deal with this matter."

Jordan accepted Born's request without hesitation, and even ran out of the office all the way.

After learning the news, Von Neumann fell from heaven to hell in an instant.

He accepted Born's suggestion again, instead of withdrawing the paper, he wrote a supplementary letter to the editorial office of "Journal of Physics", declaring that he had not seen Dirac's paper of Cambridge University when writing this paper. dissertation, and did not draw any inspiration from it.

Both Born and Hilbert also endorsed this statement in their letters, proving with their two personalities that the two papers one after the other are completely academic coincidences.

But No.2 is No.2, as big as Germany, as small as the University of Göttingen, as small as von Neumann, they all lost in this small academic competition.

Cambridge University should not be underestimated. In addition to the long-established Cavendish Laboratory, apart from the sudden emergence of Chen Muwu, even this little-known Dirac can give himself a fatal blow academically.

Von Neumann's desire to go to Cambridge University in his mind became stronger after meeting these talented colleagues. He and his teacher Hilbert expressed his thoughts.

Hilbert is very supportive of this decision, and it is absolutely fine to let him communicate for a year or so.

He specifically told his new assistant that after arriving in England, he must communicate with the people there, especially Dr. Chen.

If there is an opportunity, he must be invited to the University of Göttingen.

Although the Hilberts are old, their ambitions are still young.

If Chen Muwu really came to his side, it would definitely make his research even more powerful.

With this right-hand man, when the time comes, the two of them can rebuild the mathematics building when they advance, and they can kill the Quartet in physics when they retreat.

The little Albert in Berlin is not afraid, let's see if he dares to criticize himself in the newspaper?

Hilbert attached great importance to this trip to Cambridge, so he wrote a letter to his colleague Fowler, asking him to take care of the unfamiliar von Neumann at Cambridge University.

In Göttingen, it goes without saying that von Neumann bought tickets, packed his luggage, and inquired about all kinds of precautions in Britain from people who passed by.

At the destination of his trip, Cambridge University, Chen Muwu's paper on path integrals was almost finished.

From the particle accelerator, which has been stagnant for a long time, there is also a piece of good news, which is not big or small.

Cockcroft said that he has received a telegram from the manufacturer that the custom-made spherical electrodes and insulating glass brackets have been made, and they will be transported to Cambridge Railway Station by rail freight in the near future.

The inconvenience caused by the wrong location of Cambridge Railway Station was once again reflected.

One walks a few miles, and taking the train outside of Cambridgeshire is still within the range of tolerability.

However, it is quite troublesome to transport these expensive accelerator parts from the suburbs to the city.

Because of this incident, Chen Muwu had no choice but to find the chief executive, Chadwick, and ask him to help contact a freight truck. When the agreed time came, he would go to the railway station to pull the goods to the house where the particle accelerator was located.

Up to now, Chen Muwu still thinks that Cockcroft said that the problem with the accelerator parts is due to one of the electrodes and the insulating pillars. He still didn't think about the silk that transports the charge.

Now that these two most expensive and important parts are available, it seems that the production process of particle accelerators can finally be accelerated.

Chadwick found the truck delivering the goods according to the agreed time.

Chen Muwu and Cockcroft also escorted the car and left Cambridgeshire early in the morning to the train station outside the city.

They asked the staff whether the freight train mentioned by the manufacturer in the telegram had arrived in Cambridgeshire on time, and whether the cargo had been unloaded safely.

However, a new problem has arisen.

There was a general strike in solidarity with the coal miners across the UK, and the railway system was no exception.

The goods did not arrive.

(End of this chapter)