D O C U M E N T S 3 4 5 , 3 4 6 M A R C H 1 9 2 0 4 6 7
345. From Walter Schottky
Charl[ottenburg?] 9. 3. 20
Sehr verehrter Herr Professor!
Meine Fragen beziehen sich auf das etwas unangenehme Gebiet der Gewichte
von Quantenzuständen. Einerseits handelt es sich um Extrapolationen von hoch-
quantigen, quasiklassischen Zuständen [usw]; andererseits scheint mir ein Zusam-
menhang zwischen dem Gewicht des untersten Quantenzustandes und dem Nernst-
schen Theorem zu bestehen. Wenn Sie sehen wollen, in welchem Zusammenhang
ich auf diese Fragen geraten bin, so würden Sie das aus einer Durchsicht des §1 der
beiliegenden Arbeit entnehmen
können.[1]
Die ganze Sache knüpft direkt an unsere letzte Unterhaltung im Herbst vorigen
Jahres an.
Herzliche Grüße von Ihrem
Walter Schottky
ALS. [21 546].
[1]Schottky had lectured on some of his research results to the German Physical Society in Berlin
in July 1919 (Schottky 1919). He subsequently published a fuller version as his December 1919 Habi-
litationsschrift from the University of Würzburg as Schottky 1920a. There he developed a thermody-
namics of “rare states” (“Seltenzuständen”) in the gaseous phase, a term coined to include both
thermally ionized atoms or molecules as well as particles in excited quantum states. He was made
aware of the necessary consideration of weighting constants in the calculation of the zero-point state
of a molecule in a conversation with Einstein (p. 139), presumably the one mentioned here, in the fall
of 1919. Schottky’s investigations were based, in part, on Einstein 1916j (Vol. 6, Doc. 34), where sta-
tistical weights were introduced to define the relative probability of finding a molecule in a quan-
tum state with energy in a canonical ensemble as .
In early 1920 he published a new paper on the subject, Schottky 1920b, which he had completed
3 February 1920. In a footnote added in page proofs, he writes that, as a result of a remark by Einstein,
he is able to supplement his paper written “in wintry isolation” (“in winterlicher Einsamkeit”) with
additional references, i.e., Poincaré’s lectures on cosmogonic hypotheses (Poincaré 1911). Schottky
had sent his paper to the journal for publication from Schloß Schaumburg a.d. Lahn on 12 January
1920. A series of Schottky’s articles, including the ones mentioned above, is in Einstein’s reprint col-
lection.
346. Ilse Einstein to the Protestant Synod of Berlin
[Berlin,] den 9. III. 20.
Herr Prof. Einstein beauftragte mich, Ihnen auf Ihr Schreiben vom 26. II. ds. J.[1]
Fogendes mitzuteilen. Dass der Magistrat Berlin–Schöneberg Ihnen Herrn Prof.
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