Gunnar Nordström
Encyclopedia
Gunnar Nordström was a Finnish
theoretical physicist best remembered for his theory of gravitation
, which was an early competitor of general relativity
. Nordström is often designated by modern writers as The Einstein of Finland due to his novel work in similar fields with similar methods to Einstein.
at the Polytechnic institute in Helsinki
, later renamed Helsinki University of Technology and today a part of the Aalto University
. During his studies he developed an interest for more theoretical subjects, proceeding after graduation to further study for a master's degree in natural science, mathematics and economy at the University of Helsinki
(1903–1907).
Nordström then moved to Göttingen
, Germany
, where he had been recommended to go to study physical chemistry. However, he soon lost interest in the intended field and moved to study electrodynamics, a field the University of Göttingen was renowned for at the time. He returned to Finland to complete his doctoral dissertation at the University of Helsinki in 1910, and become a docent at the university. Subsequently he became fascinated with the very novel and soon burgeoning field of gravitation and wanted to move to the Netherlands
where scientists with contributions to that fields such as Hendrik Lorentz
, Paul Ehrenfest
and Willem de Sitter
were active. Nordström was able to move to Leiden in 1916 to work under Ehrenfest, in the midst of the First World War, due to his Russian passport. Nordström spent considerable time in Leiden where he met a Dutch physics student, Cornelia van Leeuwen, with whom he went on to have several children. After the war he declined a professorship at the University of Berlin, a post awarded instead to Max Born
, in order to return to Finland in 1918 and hold at first the professorship of physics and later the professorship of mechanics at the Helsinki University of Technology
.
One of the keys to Nordström's success as a scientist was his ability to learn to apply differential geometry to physics, a new approach that also would eventually lead Albert Einstein
to the theory of general relativity. Few other scientists of the time in Finland were able to make effective use of this new analytical tool, with the notable exception of Ernst Lindelöf.
's results for a point charge. The metric for a non-rotating charge distribution is nowadays known as the Reissner-Nordström metric
. Nordström maintained frequent contact with many of the other great physicists of the era, including Niels Bohr
and Albert Einstein. For example, it was Bohr's contributions that helped Nordström to circumvent the Russian censorship of German post to Finland, Finland was at the time a grand duchy of the Russian empire.
The theory for which Nordström was arguably most famous in his own lifetime, his theory of gravitation, was for a long time considered as a competitor to Einstein's theory of general relativity
which was published in 1915, after Nordström's theory. In 1914 Nordström introduced an additional space dimension to his theory, which provided coupling to electromagnetism
. This was the first of the extra dimensional theories, which later came to be known as Kaluza-Klein theory. Kaluza and Klein, whose names are commonly used today for the theory, did not publish their work until the 1920s. Some speculations as to why Nordström's contribution fell into oblivion are that his theory was partly published in Swedish and that Einstein in a later publication referenced to Kaluza alone. Today extra dimensions and theories thereof are widely researched, debated and even looked for experimentally.
Nordström's theory of gravitation was subsequently experimentally found to be inferior to Einstein's as it did not predict the bending of light which was observed during the solar eclipse in 1919. However, Nordström and Einstein were in friendly competition or by some measure even cooperating scientists, not rivals. This can be seen from Nordström's public admiration of Einstein's work, as demonstrated by the two occasions on which Nordström nominated Einstein for the Nobel prize
in physics for his theory of relativity. Einstein never received the Nobel prize for the theory, as the first experimental evidence presented in 1919 could at the time still be disputed and there was not yet a consensus or even general understanding in the scientific community of the complex mathematical models that Einstein, Nordström and others had developed. Nordström's scalar theory is today mainly used as a pedagogical tool when learning general relativity.
Today there is a limited public knowledge of Nordström's contributions to science even in Finland. However, after his death a number of Finnish physicists and mathematicians devoted their time to the theory of relativity and differential geometry presumably due to the legacy he left. On the other hand, the most notable opponent of general relativity in the Finnish scientific world was Hjalmar Mellin
, the previous rector of the Helsinki University of Technology where Nordström held professorship.
. The illness was perhaps caused by exposure to radioactive substances. Nordström was known to be interested in radioactivity, and a firm adherent to the then-widespread misconception that radioactivity was beneficial for one's health. Among his publications there is one from 1913 regarding the measurement of the radioactive emancipation power of different springs and ground waters in Finland. Nordström was known for experimenting with radioactive substances and for enjoying the Finnish sauna
tradition using water from a spring rich in radium
.
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
theoretical physicist best remembered for his theory of gravitation
Gravitation
Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...
, which was an early competitor of general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
. Nordström is often designated by modern writers as The Einstein of Finland due to his novel work in similar fields with similar methods to Einstein.
Education and career
Nordström graduated high-school from Brobergska Skolan in central Helsinki 1899. At first he went on to study mechanical engineeringMechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
at the Polytechnic institute in Helsinki
Helsinki University of Technology
Aalto University School of Science and Technology , was the temporary name for Helsinki University of Technology during the process of forming the Aalto University...
, later renamed Helsinki University of Technology and today a part of the Aalto University
Aalto University
Aalto University is a Finnish university established on January 1, 2010, by the merger of the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics, and the University of Art and Design Helsinki....
. During his studies he developed an interest for more theoretical subjects, proceeding after graduation to further study for a master's degree in natural science, mathematics and economy at the University of Helsinki
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...
(1903–1907).
Nordström then moved to Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where he had been recommended to go to study physical chemistry. However, he soon lost interest in the intended field and moved to study electrodynamics, a field the University of Göttingen was renowned for at the time. He returned to Finland to complete his doctoral dissertation at the University of Helsinki in 1910, and become a docent at the university. Subsequently he became fascinated with the very novel and soon burgeoning field of gravitation and wanted to move to the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
where scientists with contributions to that fields such as Hendrik Lorentz
Hendrik Lorentz
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect...
, Paul Ehrenfest
Paul Ehrenfest
Paul Ehrenfest was an Austrian and Dutch physicist, who made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition and the Ehrenfest theorem.- Biography :Paul Ehrenfest was born and grew up in Vienna in a Jewish...
and Willem de Sitter
Willem de Sitter
Willem de Sitter was a Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer.-Life and work:Born in Sneek, De Sitter studied mathematics at the University of Groningen and then joined the Groningen astronomical laboratory. He worked at the Cape Observatory in South Africa...
were active. Nordström was able to move to Leiden in 1916 to work under Ehrenfest, in the midst of the First World War, due to his Russian passport. Nordström spent considerable time in Leiden where he met a Dutch physics student, Cornelia van Leeuwen, with whom he went on to have several children. After the war he declined a professorship at the University of Berlin, a post awarded instead to Max Born
Max Born
Max Born was a German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s...
, in order to return to Finland in 1918 and hold at first the professorship of physics and later the professorship of mechanics at the Helsinki University of Technology
Helsinki University of Technology
Aalto University School of Science and Technology , was the temporary name for Helsinki University of Technology during the process of forming the Aalto University...
.
One of the keys to Nordström's success as a scientist was his ability to learn to apply differential geometry to physics, a new approach that also would eventually lead Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
to the theory of general relativity. Few other scientists of the time in Finland were able to make effective use of this new analytical tool, with the notable exception of Ernst Lindelöf.
Contributions to theory
During the time in Leiden Nordström solved the field equations for the spherically symmetric charged body, thus extending Hans ReissnerHans Reissner
Hans Jacob Reissner was a German aeronautical engineer whose avocation was mathematical physics. During World War I he was awarded the Iron Cross second class for his pioneering work on aircraft design....
's results for a point charge. The metric for a non-rotating charge distribution is nowadays known as the Reissner-Nordström metric
Reissner-Nordström metric
In physics and astronomy, the Reissner–Nordström metric is a static solution to the Einstein-Maxwell field equations, which corresponds to the gravitational field of a charged, non-rotating, spherically symmetric body of mass M.-The metric:...
. Nordström maintained frequent contact with many of the other great physicists of the era, including Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
and Albert Einstein. For example, it was Bohr's contributions that helped Nordström to circumvent the Russian censorship of German post to Finland, Finland was at the time a grand duchy of the Russian empire.
The theory for which Nordström was arguably most famous in his own lifetime, his theory of gravitation, was for a long time considered as a competitor to Einstein's theory of general relativity
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
which was published in 1915, after Nordström's theory. In 1914 Nordström introduced an additional space dimension to his theory, which provided coupling to electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
. This was the first of the extra dimensional theories, which later came to be known as Kaluza-Klein theory. Kaluza and Klein, whose names are commonly used today for the theory, did not publish their work until the 1920s. Some speculations as to why Nordström's contribution fell into oblivion are that his theory was partly published in Swedish and that Einstein in a later publication referenced to Kaluza alone. Today extra dimensions and theories thereof are widely researched, debated and even looked for experimentally.
Nordström's theory of gravitation was subsequently experimentally found to be inferior to Einstein's as it did not predict the bending of light which was observed during the solar eclipse in 1919. However, Nordström and Einstein were in friendly competition or by some measure even cooperating scientists, not rivals. This can be seen from Nordström's public admiration of Einstein's work, as demonstrated by the two occasions on which Nordström nominated Einstein for the Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in physics for his theory of relativity. Einstein never received the Nobel prize for the theory, as the first experimental evidence presented in 1919 could at the time still be disputed and there was not yet a consensus or even general understanding in the scientific community of the complex mathematical models that Einstein, Nordström and others had developed. Nordström's scalar theory is today mainly used as a pedagogical tool when learning general relativity.
Today there is a limited public knowledge of Nordström's contributions to science even in Finland. However, after his death a number of Finnish physicists and mathematicians devoted their time to the theory of relativity and differential geometry presumably due to the legacy he left. On the other hand, the most notable opponent of general relativity in the Finnish scientific world was Hjalmar Mellin
Hjalmar Mellin
Robert Hjalmar Mellin was a Finnish mathematician and functional theorist.He studied at the University of Helsinki and later in Berlin under Karl Weierstrass. He is most noted as the developer of the integral transform known as the Mellin transform...
, the previous rector of the Helsinki University of Technology where Nordström held professorship.
Death
Nordström died in December 1923, at the age of 42, from pernicious anemiaPernicious anemia
Pernicious anemia is one of many types of the larger family of megaloblastic anemias...
. The illness was perhaps caused by exposure to radioactive substances. Nordström was known to be interested in radioactivity, and a firm adherent to the then-widespread misconception that radioactivity was beneficial for one's health. Among his publications there is one from 1913 regarding the measurement of the radioactive emancipation power of different springs and ground waters in Finland. Nordström was known for experimenting with radioactive substances and for enjoying the Finnish sauna
Finnish sauna
The Finnish sauna is a substantial part of Finnish culture. There are five million inhabitants and over two million saunas in Finland - an average of one per household. For Finnish people the sauna is a place to relax in with friends and family, and a place for physical and mental relaxation as...
tradition using water from a spring rich in radium
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
.
Selected publications
During Nordström's career he published 34 articles and research papers in languages including German, Dutch, Finnish, and his mother-tongue Swedish. Nordström is probably the first person to write about the theory of relativity in the languages of Finland.- Die Energiegleichung für das elektromagnetische Feld bewegter Körper, 1908, Doctoral dissertation
- Rum och tid enligt Einstein och Minkowski, 1909, published in a series of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters: Öfversigt af Finska Vetenskaps-Societetens Förhandlingar
- Relativitätsprinzip und Gravitation, 1912, in Physikalische Zeitschrift
- Träge und Schwere Masse in der Relativitätsmechanik, 1913, in Annalen der Physik
- Über die Möglichkeit, das Elektromagnetische Feld und das Gravitationsfeld zu vereiningen, 1914, in Physikalische Zeitschrift
- Zur Elektrizitäts- und Gravitationstheorie, 1914, in the series Öfversigt
- Über eine mögliche Grundlage einer Theorie der Materie, 1915, in the series Öfversigt
- Een en ander over de energie van het zwaarte krachtsveld volgens de theorie van Einstein, 1918