List of Scientific Publications By Albert Einstein - Chronology and Major Themes

Chronology and Major Themes

The following chronology of Einstein's scientific discoveries provides a context for the publications listed below, and clarifies the major themes running through his work. The first four entries come from his Annus Mirabilis papers or miracle year papers.

• In 1905, Einstein proposed the existence of the photon, an elementary particle associated with electromagnetic radiation (light), which was the foundation of quantum theory. In 1909, Einstein showed that the photon carries momentum as well as energy and that electromagnetic radiation must have both particle-like and wave-like properties if Planck's law holds; this was a forerunner of the principle of wave-particle duality. He would go on to receive the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work.

• Likewise in 1905, Einstein developed a theory of Brownian motion in terms of fluctuations in the number of molecular collisions with an object, providing further evidence that matter was composed of atoms. A few weeks earlier, he had derived the Einstein relation for diffusion, which was the first example of the general fluctuation-dissipation theorem and allowed a good estimate of the Avogadro constant.

• Additionally In 1905, Einstein developed the theory of special relativity, which reconciled the relativity of motion with the observed constancy of the speed of light (a paradox of 19th-century physics). Special relativity is now a core principle of physics. Its counterintuitive predictions that moving clocks run more slowly, that moving objects are shortened in their direction of motion, and that the order of events is not absolute have been confirmed experimentally.

• Also in 1905, Einstein developed his concept of Mass–energy equivalence. Its relation E=mc2 suggested that matter was a form of energy, which was later verified by the mass defect in atomic nuclei. The energy released in nuclear reactions—which is essential for nuclear power and nuclear weapons—can be estimated from such mass defects.

• In 1907 and again in 1911, Einstein developed the first quantum theory of specific heats by generalizing Planck's law. His theory resolved a paradox of 19th-century physics that specific heats were often smaller than could be explained by any classical theory. His work was also the first to show that Planck's quantum mechanical law E=hν was a fundamental law of physics, and not merely special to blackbody radiation.

• Between 1907 and 1915, Einstein developed the theory of general relativity, a classical field theory of gravitation that provides the cornerstone for modern astrophysics and cosmology. General relativity is based on the surprising idea that time and space dynamically interact with matter and energy, and has been checked experimentally in many ways, confirming its predictions of matter affecting the flow of time, frame dragging, black holes, and gravitational waves.

• In 1917, Einstein published the idea for the Einstein–Brillouin–Keller method for finding the quantum mechanical version of a classical system. The famous Bohr model of the hydrogen atom is a simple example, but the EBK method also gives accurate predictions for more complicated systems, such as the dinuclear cations H₂+ and HeH2+.

• In 1918, Einstein developed a general theory of the process by which atoms emit and absorb electromagnetic radiation (his A and B coefficients), which is the basis of lasers (stimulated emission) and shaped the development of modern quantum electrodynamics, the best-validated physical theory at present.

• In 1924, together with Satyendra Nath Bose, Einstein developed the theory of Bose–Einstein statistics and Bose–Einstein condensates, which form the basis for superfluidity, superconductivity, and other phenomena.

• In 1935, together with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, Einstein put forward what is now known as the EPR paradox, and argued that the quantum-mechanical wave function must be an incomplete description of the physical world.

• In the final thirty years of his life, Einstein explored whether various classical unified field theories could account for both electromagnetism and gravitation and, possibly, quantum mechanics. However, his efforts were unsuccessful, since those theories did not match experimental observations.