Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Interlude: The BKS Proposal

A. Pais

Published Aug 25, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract In January 1924, Niels Bohr, Hendrik Anton Kramers, and John Clarke Slater submitted to the Philosophical Magazine an article [Bl] that contained drastic theoretical proposals concerning the interaction of light and matter. It was written after Compton’s discovery, yet it rejected the photon. It was also written after Einstein and Bohr had met. This chapter on the BKS proposal serves a twofold purpose. It is a postscript to the story of the photon and a prelude to the Bohr Einstein dialogue which will occupy us more fully later on. I have already mentioned that Einstein was immediately and strongly impressed by Bohr’s work of 1913. The two men did not yet know each other at that time. A number of years were to pass before their first encounter; meanwhile, they followed each other’s published work.

DOI
10.1093/oso/9780192806727.003.0022

Related papers

Rejection of the Light Quantum: The Dark Side of Niels Bohr ∗

Luis J. Boya

Evidence is recalled of the strong opposition of Niels Bohr, at the time of the Old Quantum Theory 1.913 − 25, to the Lichtquanten hypothesis of Einstein. Some episodes with H.A. Kramers, J.C. Slater and W. Heisenberg are recollected; Bohr’s changing point of view is traced back to some philosophical antecedents and to his endeavour to deduce quantum results from the Correspondence Principle. Some consequences for the future interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, specially to the Complementarity Principle, are considered.

•Jan 1, 2008•1 citation

When Bohr got it wrong

Philip Ball

Philip Ball peers into the quantum past, and uncovers a little-known paper published by Niels Bohr, Hendrik Kramers and John Slater in 1924, that proposed that the first law of thermodynamics may no longer hold firm. Their idea turned out to be wrong, but in interesting and provocative ways, and it demonstrates the intense turmoil in physics on the brink of quantum mechanics.

Physics World•Feb 1, 2025•0 citations

The Compton effect: Transition to quantum mechanics

Roger H. Stuewer

Abstract The discovery of the Compton effect at the end of 1922 was a decisive event in the transition to the new quantum mechanics of 1925‐1926 because it stimulated physicists to examine anew the fundamental problem of the interaction between radiation and matter. I first discuss Albert Einstein's light‐quantum hypothesis of 1905 and why physicists greeted it with extreme skepticism, despite Robert A. Millikan's confirmation of Einstein's equation of the photoelectric effect in 1915. I then follow in some detail the experimental and theoretical research program that Arthur Holly Compton pursued between 1916 and 1922 at the University of Minnesota, the Westinghouse Lamp Company, the Cavendish Laboratory, and Washington University that culminated in his discovery of the Compton effect. Surprisingly, Compton was not influenced directly by Einstein's light‐quantum hypothesis, in contrast to Peter Debye and H.A. Kramers, who discovered the quantum theory of scattering independently. I close by discussing the most significant response to that discovery, the Bohr‐Kramers‐Slater theory of 1924, its experimental refutation, and its influence on the emerging new quantum mechanics.

Annalen der Physik•Nov 1, 2000•25 citations

The Compton effect: Transition to quantum mechanics

Roger H. Stuewer

The discovery of the Compton effect at the end of 1922 was a decisive event in the transition to the new quantum mechanics of 1925-1926 because it stimulated physicists to examine anew the fundamental problem of the interaction between radiation and matter. I first discuss Albert Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis of 1905 and why physicists greeted it with extreme skepticism, despite Robert A. Millikan's confirmation of Einstein's equation of the photoelectric effect in 1915. I then follow in some detail the experimental and theoretical research program that Arthur Holly Compton pursued between 1916 and 1922 at the University of Minnesota, the Westinghouse Lamp Company, the Cavendish Laboratory, and Washington University that culminated in his discovery of the Compton effect. Surprisingly, Compton was not influenced directly by Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis, in contrast to Peter Debye and H.A. Kramers, who discovered the quantum theory of scattering independently. I close by discussing the most significant response to that discovery, the Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory of 1924, its experimental refutation, and its influence on the emerging new quantum mechanics.

Annalen der Physik•Nov 1, 2000•41 citations

Bohr’s Quantum: 1926–

“How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress,” said Niels Bohr with characteristic irony. The quantum view of the atom began with Bohr. Coming from Denmark, he worked with Rutherford, who although famously skeptical about theoreticians, supported him. Max Planck had previously introduced the idea of the quantum, and Einstein had extended it from matter to light, but Bohr’s proposal that electrons can adjust their orbits only by quantum leaps was revolutionary. The next revolution was Schrödinger’s description of electrons as waves instead of particles. This led to recognition of the wave–particle duality. The rest of the 20th century was marked by the realization that the apparently fundamental particles of the nucleus, the proton and the neutron, each actually consisted of a series of sub-particles. The wave–particle duality created a baffling series of paradoxes. Following revolutions tended to be driven by theoreticians, and massive team efforts were required to identify the sub-particles experimentally.

Royal Society of Chemistry eBooks•Jan 12, 2026•0 citations

The theory of virtual oscillators

Sandro Petruccioli

‘At the present state of science it does not seem possible to avoid the formal character of the quantum theory which is shown by the fact that the interpretation of atomic phenomena does not involve a description of the mechanism of the discontinuous processes […]. On the correspondence principle it seems nevertheless possible to […] arrive at a consistent description of optical phenomena by connecting the discontinuous effects occurring in atoms with the continuous radiation field […]’. This announced a turning point in atomic physics research; for the first time there were reasons to assert that discontinuity was not in itself incompatible with the theory's descriptive content, and rational solutions were provided that related a whole set of phenomena dependent on the radiation properties of matter to the continuous picture of the radiation field. This was the conclusion arrived at in a new paper by Bohr which took up and developed the hypothesis put forward by the American physicist John Slater that ‘the atom, even before a process of transition between two stationary states takes place, is capable of communication with distant atoms through a virtual radiation field’ was taken up and developed. The article, ‘The Quantum Theory of Radiation’, signed by Bohr, Kramers and Slater, was published in the Philosophical Magazine in January 1924. Slater had arrived in Copenhagen at the end of the preceding year with the idea that his hypothesis might lead to very different theoretical results.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Nov 18, 1993•0 citations
Abstract In January 1924, Niels Bohr, Hendrik Anton Kramers, and John Clarke Slater submitted to the Philosophical Magazine an article [Bl] that contained drastic theoretical proposals concerning the interaction of light and matter. It was written after Compton’s discovery, yet it rejected the photon. It was also written after Einstein and Bohr had met. This chapter on the BKS proposal serves a twofold purpose. It is a postscript to the story of the photon and a prelude to the Bohr Einstein dialogue which will occupy us more fully later on. I have already mentioned that Einstein was immediately and strongly impressed by Bohr’s work of 1913. The two men did not yet know each other at that time. A number of years were to pass before their first encounter; meanwhile, they followed each other’s published work.
Evidence is recalled of the strong opposition of Niels Bohr, at the time of the Old Quantum Theory 1.913 − 25, to the Lichtquanten hypothesis of Einstein. Some episodes with H.A. Kramers, J.C. Slater and W. Heisenberg are recollected; Bohr’s changing point of view is traced back to some philosophical antecedents and to his endeavour to deduce quantum results from the Correspondence Principle. Some consequences for the future interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, specially to the Complementarity Principle, are considered.
Abstract The discovery of the Compton effect at the end of 1922 was a decisive event in the transition to the new quantum mechanics of 1925‐1926 because it stimulated physicists to examine anew the fundamental problem of the interaction between radiation and matter. I first discuss Albert Einstein's light‐quantum hypothesis of 1905 and why physicists greeted it with extreme skepticism, despite Robert A. Millikan's confirmation of Einstein's equation of the photoelectric effect in 1915. I then follow in some detail the experimental and theoretical research program that Arthur Holly Compton pursued between 1916 and 1922 at the University of Minnesota, the Westinghouse Lamp Company, the Cavendish Laboratory, and Washington University that culminated in his discovery of the Compton effect. Surprisingly, Compton was not influenced directly by Einstein's light‐quantum hypothesis, in contrast to Peter Debye and H.A. Kramers, who discovered the quantum theory of scattering independently. I close by discussing the most significant response to that discovery, the Bohr‐Kramers‐Slater theory of 1924, its experimental refutation, and its influence on the emerging new quantum mechanics.
The discovery of the Compton effect at the end of 1922 was a decisive event in the transition to the new quantum mechanics of 1925-1926 because it stimulated physicists to examine anew the fundamental problem of the interaction between radiation and matter. I first discuss Albert Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis of 1905 and why physicists greeted it with extreme skepticism, despite Robert A. Millikan's confirmation of Einstein's equation of the photoelectric effect in 1915. I then follow in some detail the experimental and theoretical research program that Arthur Holly Compton pursued between 1916 and 1922 at the University of Minnesota, the Westinghouse Lamp Company, the Cavendish Laboratory, and Washington University that culminated in his discovery of the Compton effect. Surprisingly, Compton was not influenced directly by Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis, in contrast to Peter Debye and H.A. Kramers, who discovered the quantum theory of scattering independently. I close by discussing the most significant response to that discovery, the Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory of 1924, its experimental refutation, and its influence on the emerging new quantum mechanics.
“How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress,” said Niels Bohr with characteristic irony. The quantum view of the atom began with Bohr. Coming from Denmark, he worked with Rutherford, who although famously skeptical about theoreticians, supported him. Max Planck had previously introduced the idea of the quantum, and Einstein had extended it from matter to light, but Bohr’s proposal that electrons can adjust their orbits only by quantum leaps was revolutionary. The next revolution was Schrödinger’s description of electrons as waves instead of particles. This led to recognition of the wave–particle duality. The rest of the 20th century was marked by the realization that the apparently fundamental particles of the nucleus, the proton and the neutron, each actually consisted of a series of sub-particles. The wave–particle duality created a baffling series of paradoxes. Following revolutions tended to be driven by theoreticians, and massive team efforts were required to identify the sub-particles experimentally.
‘At the present state of science it does not seem possible to avoid the formal character of the quantum theory which is shown by the fact that the interpretation of atomic phenomena does not involve a description of the mechanism of the discontinuous processes […]. On the correspondence principle it seems nevertheless possible to […] arrive at a consistent description of optical phenomena by connecting the discontinuous effects occurring in atoms with the continuous radiation field […]’. This announced a turning point in atomic physics research; for the first time there were reasons to assert that discontinuity was not in itself incompatible with the theory's descriptive content, and rational solutions were provided that related a whole set of phenomena dependent on the radiation properties of matter to the continuous picture of the radiation field. This was the conclusion arrived at in a new paper by Bohr which took up and developed the hypothesis put forward by the American physicist John Slater that ‘the atom, even before a process of transition between two stationary states takes place, is capable of communication with distant atoms through a virtual radiation field’ was taken up and developed. The article, ‘The Quantum Theory of Radiation’, signed by Bohr, Kramers and Slater, was published in the Philosophical Magazine in January 1924. Slater had arrived in Copenhagen at the end of the preceding year with the idea that his hypothesis might lead to very different theoretical results.