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Ludvig Lorenz and His Non-Maxwellian Electrical Theory of Light

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Abstract

Maxwell’s celebrated electromagnetic theory of light dates from 1865. Two years later, without appealing to the ether as a carrier of light waves, the Danish physicist Ludvig Lorenz (1829–1891) independently published another electrical theory of light based on optical equations and the novel idea of retarded potentials. In spite of resting on a very different conceptual foundation, Lorenz’s theory led to almost the same results as Maxwell’s. But whereas Maxwell’s field theory heralded a revolution in physics, Lorenz’s alternative was largely forgotten and soon relegated to a footnote in the history of physics. In part based on archival material and other sources in Danish, this paper offers a detailed contextual account of Lorentz’s theory and its reception in the physics community. Moreover, it includes a brief introduction to other of Lorenz’s scientific contributions and discusses the reasons why his electrical theory of light failed to attract serious interest.

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Fig. 1

Source: Royal Library, Copenhagen, Picture Collection

Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Fig. 5

Source: Front page, Maxwell (1965), first edition 1890

Fig. 6

Source: Lorenz Papers, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters

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  52. Harman, Scientific Letters and Papers, vol. 2 (ref. 43), 353–55. According to Jackson and Okun, “Historical Roots” (ref. 32), Maxwell’s criticism is unjustified because it ignores the electromagnetic momentum. See also Alfred O’Rahilly, Electromagnetic Theory: A Critical Examination of Fundamentals (New York: Dover Publications, 1965), 182–85, and Kirk T. McDonald, “Maxwell’s Objection to Lorenz’s Retarded Potentials” (2016), http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/examples/maxwell.pdf.

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  64. FitzGerald to Larmor, November 21, 1897. FitzGerald’s Δ2 is the Laplace operator usually written as Δ or ∇2. In a letter to Lodge of 1901, FitzGerald said of Lorenz’s functions that they were “essentially the same as I have been always using.” Both quoted in Hunt, The Maxwellians (ref. 36), 42.

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  80. Whittaker, Theories of Aether and Electricity (ref. 31), 270. Whittaker also stated that Lorenz “was unable to derive from his equations any explanation of the existence of refractive indices.” As mentioned, although Lorenz did not publish his derivation, he actually provided such an explanation.

  81. Wilhelm Wien “Elektromagnetische Lichttheorie,” in Encyclopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften, vol. 5.3, ed. Arnold Sommerfeld, 95–198 (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1909), 104.

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  83. Mogens Pihl, Der Physiker L. V. Lorenz: Eine kritische Untersuchung (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1939), 52; “The Scientific Achievements of L. V. Lorenz,” Centaurus 17 (1972), 83–94.

  84. Ronold King, review of Pihl, Der Physiker L. V. Lorenz (ref. 83), in Isis 40 (1949), 64–66.

  85. Autobiographical note on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala, Lorenz Papers, Danish Museum of Science and Technology.

  86. Wise, “German Concepts” (ref. 38); Darrigol, Electrodynamics (ref. 2), 213.

  87. Edlund, “Nature of Electricity” (ref. 57). For other examples, see Helge Kragh, “The Aether in Late Nineteenth Century Chemistry,” Ambix 36 (1989), 49–65.

  88. Ludvig Lorenz, ”Eksperimentale og Theoretiske Undersøgelser af Legemernes Brydningsforhold,” Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab Skrifter 8 (1869), 205–48.

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    Helge Kragh

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Helge Kragh is emeritus professor at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, working in the history of the physical sciences.

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Kragh, H. Ludvig Lorenz and His Non-Maxwellian Electrical Theory of Light. Phys. Perspect. 20, 221–253 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-018-0223-1

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