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Theory of Relativity
Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) was one of the 20th-century's most influential physicists. He was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize for physics for the discovery of the exclusion principle (also called the Pauli principle). A brilliant theoretician, he was the first to posit the existence of the neutrino and one of the few early 20th-century physicists to fully understand the enormity of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Pauli's early writings, Theory of Relativity , published when the author was a young man of 21, was originally conceived as a complete review of the whole literature on relativity. Now, given the plethora of literature since that time and the growing complexity of physics and quantum mechanics, such a review is simply no longer possible.
In order to maintain a proper historical perspective of Professor Pauli's significant work, the original text is reprinted in full, in addition to the author's insightful retrospective update of the later developments connected with relativity theory and the controversial questions that it provokes.
Pauli pays special attention to the thorny problem of unified field theories, its connection with the range validity of the classical field concept, and its application to the atomic features of nature. While an early skeptic of solutions along classical lines, Pauli's alternative model was subsequently supported by the newer epistemological analysis of quantum or wave mechanics. Given the many pieces of the puzzle yet to be fitted into a cohesive picture of relativity, the differences of opinion on the relation of relativity theory to quantum theory are merging into one of science's great open problems.
Pauli provides additional informative views on: problems beyond the original frame of special and general relativity; the conflict between "classical physics" and the quantum mechanical approach; the importance of Einsteinian theory in the development of physics; and finally, the epistemological analysis of the finiteness of the quantum of action and the move away from naïve visualizations.
Pauli's early writings, Theory of Relativity , published when the author was a young man of 21, was originally conceived as a complete review of the whole literature on relativity. Now, given the plethora of literature since that time and the growing complexity of physics and quantum mechanics, such a review is simply no longer possible.
In order to maintain a proper historical perspective of Professor Pauli's significant work, the original text is reprinted in full, in addition to the author's insightful retrospective update of the later developments connected with relativity theory and the controversial questions that it provokes.
Pauli pays special attention to the thorny problem of unified field theories, its connection with the range validity of the classical field concept, and its application to the atomic features of nature. While an early skeptic of solutions along classical lines, Pauli's alternative model was subsequently supported by the newer epistemological analysis of quantum or wave mechanics. Given the many pieces of the puzzle yet to be fitted into a cohesive picture of relativity, the differences of opinion on the relation of relativity theory to quantum theory are merging into one of science's great open problems.
Pauli provides additional informative views on: problems beyond the original frame of special and general relativity; the conflict between "classical physics" and the quantum mechanical approach; the importance of Einsteinian theory in the development of physics; and finally, the epistemological analysis of the finiteness of the quantum of action and the move away from naïve visualizations.
272 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1921
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About the author
Wolfgang Pauli
72 books51 followersDr. Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Ph.D. (Ludwig-Maximilians University, 1921), was a theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, for which he was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics. His paper on Einstein's theory of relativity, written two months after receiving his doctorate, remains a standard reference on the subject to this day. In the field of quantum theory, the "Pauli exclusion principle" is named for him; he also developed the theory of nonrelativistic spin.
In 1928, Pauli was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He held visiting professorships at the University of Michigan in 1931, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1935. He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1931.
At the end of 1930, shortly after his postulation of the neutrino and immediately following his November divorce, Pauli had a severe breakdown. He consulted psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung who, like Pauli, lived near Zurich. Jung immediately began interpreting Pauli's deeply archetypal dreams, and Pauli became one of the depth psychologist's best students. He soon began to criticize the epistemology of Jung's theory scientifically, and this contributed to a certain clarification of the latter's thoughts, especially about the concept of synchronicity. A great many of these discussions are documented in the Pauli/Jung letters, today published as Atom and Archetype . Jung's elaborate analysis of more than 400 of Pauli's dreams is documented in Psychology and Alchemy .
The German annexation of Austria in 1938 made Pauli a German citizen, which became a problem for him in 1939 after the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, he tried in vain to obtain Swiss citizenship, which would have allowed him to remain at the ETH. Pauli moved to the United States in 1940, where he was employed as a professor of theoretical physics at the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1946, after the war, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States and subsequently returned to Zurich, where he mostly remained for the rest of his life. In 1949, he was granted Swiss citizenship.
In 1958, Pauli was awarded the Max Planck medal. In that same year, he fell ill with pancreatic cancer.
In 1928, Pauli was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He held visiting professorships at the University of Michigan in 1931, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1935. He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1931.
At the end of 1930, shortly after his postulation of the neutrino and immediately following his November divorce, Pauli had a severe breakdown. He consulted psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung who, like Pauli, lived near Zurich. Jung immediately began interpreting Pauli's deeply archetypal dreams, and Pauli became one of the depth psychologist's best students. He soon began to criticize the epistemology of Jung's theory scientifically, and this contributed to a certain clarification of the latter's thoughts, especially about the concept of synchronicity. A great many of these discussions are documented in the Pauli/Jung letters, today published as Atom and Archetype . Jung's elaborate analysis of more than 400 of Pauli's dreams is documented in Psychology and Alchemy .
The German annexation of Austria in 1938 made Pauli a German citizen, which became a problem for him in 1939 after the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, he tried in vain to obtain Swiss citizenship, which would have allowed him to remain at the ETH. Pauli moved to the United States in 1940, where he was employed as a professor of theoretical physics at the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1946, after the war, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States and subsequently returned to Zurich, where he mostly remained for the rest of his life. In 1949, he was granted Swiss citizenship.
In 1958, Pauli was awarded the Max Planck medal. In that same year, he fell ill with pancreatic cancer.
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October 7, 2017
Wolfgang Pauli was a brilliant theoretical physicist responsible for positing the Pauli Exclusion Principle and the winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics. However, at the first printing of this book, Pauli was a young man of 21. I really admire that sort of thing, to be able to publish something like this at that age. The book acknowledges that there are issues with its contents since it was printed in 1921, but this book does a fine job of showing off relativity as it was known at that time.
Theory of Relativity is split into five major parts. They are as follows.
In part I, Pauli begins by defining the History of the Special Theory of Relativity. You know, the one that states that the speed of light is constant in all reference frames and that the laws of physics are the same for all inertial systems. This section of the book also discusses the consequences of that idea, the Lorentz Contraction and time dilation. Although this part of the book does have some equations that use curl and div, not many of them are shown.
With part II, we are introduced to some mathematical tools to help us on our journey to understand relativity. This section introduces the idea of "space-time," a four-dimensional manifold that is our reality. So Pauli starts to talk about transformation groups and using tensor calculus for affine transformations. Pauli demonstrates the basic ideas of tensor algebra and how to use them to anticipate the final results we are trying to find and the ideas of Riemannian Geometry to account for space-time curvature.
Part III elaborates on the Special theory a little bit more, taking care to discuss Kinematics, Electrodynamics Mechanics, and Thermodynamics in a relativistic manner.
Part IV discusses the General Theory in all its glory.
Part V is called Theories on the Nature of Charged Elementary Particles.
In total, Theory of Relativity contains 499 equations, some of them with those old-timey German Script letters that I believe to relate to a field. It also contains a ton of notes which are further discussed at the end of the book.
Theory of Relativity is split into five major parts. They are as follows.
In part I, Pauli begins by defining the History of the Special Theory of Relativity. You know, the one that states that the speed of light is constant in all reference frames and that the laws of physics are the same for all inertial systems. This section of the book also discusses the consequences of that idea, the Lorentz Contraction and time dilation. Although this part of the book does have some equations that use curl and div, not many of them are shown.
With part II, we are introduced to some mathematical tools to help us on our journey to understand relativity. This section introduces the idea of "space-time," a four-dimensional manifold that is our reality. So Pauli starts to talk about transformation groups and using tensor calculus for affine transformations. Pauli demonstrates the basic ideas of tensor algebra and how to use them to anticipate the final results we are trying to find and the ideas of Riemannian Geometry to account for space-time curvature.
Part III elaborates on the Special theory a little bit more, taking care to discuss Kinematics, Electrodynamics Mechanics, and Thermodynamics in a relativistic manner.
Part IV discusses the General Theory in all its glory.
Part V is called Theories on the Nature of Charged Elementary Particles.
In total, Theory of Relativity contains 499 equations, some of them with those old-timey German Script letters that I believe to relate to a field. It also contains a ton of notes which are further discussed at the end of the book.
June 30, 2025
As is known, the first thing Michael Faraday did as a young man, when in 1813 he received the unaccountable good fortune to be appointed to a position as assistant at the Royal Institution in London by Humphrey Davy, was to immerse himself in the literature on electricity and magnetism as it stood in his day and meticulously to reproduce for himself every claimed experimental result. There can be no doubt that his thoroughness in so doing taught him the superlative technique which was to serve as the foundation of all his pioneering later discoveries. Something similar can be said, on the theoretical plane, about Wolfgang Pauli in his student days around the beginning of the 1920’s. What remains left over of his industry to future generations is a remarkable full-length review of the literature on the then newly discovered general theory of relativity, which originally appeared in Teubner’s Encyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften in 1921 and soon after as a separate monograph, together with a preface by his mentor Arnold Sommerfeld.
There are no surprises in Pauli’s exposition. He covers all the bases in the formalism as it was then understood. Particularly clear is Part IV on the general theory of relativity [pp. 142-183]. Here, the field equations of gravitation are developed from a variational principle. Since Pauli has already explained the mathematical tools in the tensor calculus in Part II [pp. 21-70], the logical flow can be undisturbed by the inclusion of expository material (as it is in Einstein’s original 1916 paper, for instance). Thus, what one has the right to expect from Pauli are clarity and logical economy.
The Dover reprint presents the 1958 English translation of the version as revised by Pauli in 1956 (shortly before his own death). It retains the text of the original 1921 article unchanged but adds a number of supplementary notes to bring the references up to date as of 1956. What this reviewer finds of greatest interest is Note 23 on the Kaluza-Klein theory [pp. 227-232]. For all the fanfare Kaluza-Klein’s idea of compactified extra dimensions receives these days, Pauli himself was rather skeptical of unified field theories approached along the lines either of Kaluza-Klein or of the later Einstein. Two main reasons can account for this: first, they are exclusively classical in nature whereas, from the success of Julian Schwinger’s calculation of the Lamb shift in the immediate aftermath of World War II, it was clear by the 1950’s that some sort of quantum field theory was going to form the basis of any future elementary particle physics; and second, even at the purely classical level, the unified theories are problematic. For instance, Kaluza-Klein must assume the circle of the compactified dimension to possess identically the same radius across all of the remaining four-dimensional space-time, even though one would expect the entire system to be dynamical and evolving. In fact, the circle’s radius can be shown to be unstable and subject to local perturbations. Thus, the assumption of its global constancy is highly unphysical.
It is always salutary to examine a review of a major development in theoretical physics that is roughly contemporaneous with the events it describes, for one can glean from it a good sense of what the participants themselves were thinking, unfiltered by the revolution in perspective it brings about and by the subsequent advance of technique (which tends to simplify matters unduly, as historians of science know very well). Thus, Pauli’s encyclopedia article comes recommended, as being competent and about the best one could get. Perusal of it tends to reinforce the commonly received view of Pauli’s intellect as being inclined rather to critique than to original system-building of his own. The exclusion principle was a brilliant deduction from a welter of empirical data and theoretical formulae arising from tentative models in the old quantum mechanics, not, that is, in itself the eventual outcome of a conceptual synthesis of a circle of original ideas as to how to found a new physics. For this latter, we are indebted to Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, who were to score the triumph of the new quantum mechanics a couple of years later (one could say something similar about Pauli’s neutrino idea, as well).
There are no surprises in Pauli’s exposition. He covers all the bases in the formalism as it was then understood. Particularly clear is Part IV on the general theory of relativity [pp. 142-183]. Here, the field equations of gravitation are developed from a variational principle. Since Pauli has already explained the mathematical tools in the tensor calculus in Part II [pp. 21-70], the logical flow can be undisturbed by the inclusion of expository material (as it is in Einstein’s original 1916 paper, for instance). Thus, what one has the right to expect from Pauli are clarity and logical economy.
The Dover reprint presents the 1958 English translation of the version as revised by Pauli in 1956 (shortly before his own death). It retains the text of the original 1921 article unchanged but adds a number of supplementary notes to bring the references up to date as of 1956. What this reviewer finds of greatest interest is Note 23 on the Kaluza-Klein theory [pp. 227-232]. For all the fanfare Kaluza-Klein’s idea of compactified extra dimensions receives these days, Pauli himself was rather skeptical of unified field theories approached along the lines either of Kaluza-Klein or of the later Einstein. Two main reasons can account for this: first, they are exclusively classical in nature whereas, from the success of Julian Schwinger’s calculation of the Lamb shift in the immediate aftermath of World War II, it was clear by the 1950’s that some sort of quantum field theory was going to form the basis of any future elementary particle physics; and second, even at the purely classical level, the unified theories are problematic. For instance, Kaluza-Klein must assume the circle of the compactified dimension to possess identically the same radius across all of the remaining four-dimensional space-time, even though one would expect the entire system to be dynamical and evolving. In fact, the circle’s radius can be shown to be unstable and subject to local perturbations. Thus, the assumption of its global constancy is highly unphysical.
It is always salutary to examine a review of a major development in theoretical physics that is roughly contemporaneous with the events it describes, for one can glean from it a good sense of what the participants themselves were thinking, unfiltered by the revolution in perspective it brings about and by the subsequent advance of technique (which tends to simplify matters unduly, as historians of science know very well). Thus, Pauli’s encyclopedia article comes recommended, as being competent and about the best one could get. Perusal of it tends to reinforce the commonly received view of Pauli’s intellect as being inclined rather to critique than to original system-building of his own. The exclusion principle was a brilliant deduction from a welter of empirical data and theoretical formulae arising from tentative models in the old quantum mechanics, not, that is, in itself the eventual outcome of a conceptual synthesis of a circle of original ideas as to how to found a new physics. For this latter, we are indebted to Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger, who were to score the triumph of the new quantum mechanics a couple of years later (one could say something similar about Pauli’s neutrino idea, as well).
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