4 3 0 D O C U M E N T 4 3 4 F E B R U A R Y 1 9 2 5
I don’t think that my demand for the denominator r! is unjustified; that is why I
am very doubtful about whether real meaning is attributable, even only as theoret-
ical consequences, to the deviations from the ideal gas calculated subsequently; I
rather believe they are just the materialization of an approximation that is not suf-
ficient for all cases. In fact, they appear when (at low temperature) some of the ns
reach the order of magnitude 1, when one can no longer ignore the existence of
multiply-occupied cells.
Please forgive me in case this is a clumsy error in my reasoning and if I have
wasted your time. I reassure myself that it would not cost you much effort to dis-
cover it.
Please, highly esteemed Professor, accept most cordial regards from your ever
sincerely devoted
Erwin Schrödinger
434. From Adolf Smekal[1]
Vienna IV, 13/11 Schikaneder Street, 5 February 1925
Highly esteemed Professor,
When I recently studied your analysis on the quantum theory of monatomic ide-
al
gases[2]
a little more thoroughly, in order to be able to review it for the Physika-
lische Berichte, some doubts occurred to me that I believed I should lend expres-
sion to in supplementary remarks by the reviewer. First of all, Bose’s statistics seem
to suffer from a principal fault regarding the correlation of your results with mac-
roscopically observable states of heated bodies. But the way in which you per-
formed the cell counting seems to me to be particularly problematic; if at absolute
zero only one cell should remain, it seems to me that this comes down to an implicit
assignment of a zero-point translation, which strikes me as questionable due to the
role played here by the volume.
I therefore take the liberty of enclosing a copy of my review of your and Bose’s
analyses,[3]
in case you should be interested in these misgivings. As
Thirring[4]
in-
forms me by telephone, objections to the Bose statistics have otherwise also been
raised by Mr.
Halpern[5]
and communicated to you by letter.
With my best compliments and ever thankful to you, Professor, yours,
Adolf Smekal