Bohr put down the pipe, which had now gone out, took another one from the rack and began the ritual. I now understood why he had such a large box of matches. When he had finished lighting the pipe, he said, with the pipe stem still in his mouth, “I feel that Albert has been wasting his time. You cannot ignore quantum mechanics and hope to achieve any success by unifying the classical gravitational and electromagnetic fields, in the way he attempts to do this.”
I said, “Well, Professor Schrödinger has also been attempting to unify gravity and electromagnetism, using the same formalism as Einstein, the nonsymmetric theory.”
Bohr removed the pipe from his mouth, looked at me sternly and said, “Well, Erwin is also an alchemist these days. He is pursuing this foolish denial of the successful development of quantum mechanics, and has also gone down this blind alley of trying to unify the classical gravitational and electromagnetic fields.”
Then I asked, “So, Professor Bohr, you believe they should be following a quantum mechanical interpretation of these fields?”
He then mumbled, “We already have a quantum mechanical interpretation of electromagnetic fields, which has been quite successful. As for gravity, I do not see that a classical unified theory of gravity and electromagnetism can ever solve the problems of atomic physics.”
“I understand,” I said, “that Professor Einstein does not agree with your interpretation of quantum mechanics. In fact, he seems to be opposed to quantizing the gravitational field.”
“Well,” Bohr said, “it saddens me to see that Albert has taken the wrong path in recent years. We have disagreed about this issue for years, and he refuses to accept the success of the quantum theory. He insists on being pigheaded about this.”
We sat in silence for a while again, and I waited for Bohr to put down his pipe and start over again with another. And indeed he did. I wondered if he went through this ritual every time he granted an interview. When he succeeded in lighting the fifth pipe, he leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “Anyway,” he said, “how did you come to write this manuscript? I understand from Mr. Page at the British consulate that you’ve been studying mathematics and physics by yourself.”
I nodded, and shifted in my seat. Now that the conversation had turned from physics to me, I began feeling nervous again.
“When did you leave school?”
“I finished high school in Kaptain Johnson’s school in Copenhagen when I was sixteen and then pursued an art career in Paris.”
“So you didn’t go to a gymnasium?” Bohr asked.
“No,” I said.
“And you haven’t attended the university in any way?”
“No,” I said again.
“So where did you get the books to learn mathematics and physics?”
“At the university library. The science textbook and periodicals section of the university library is open to the public.”
I saw Bohr and Rosenkrantz exchange glances.
“How long did it take you to learn mathematics and physics, such that you could write this manuscript?”
“About a year,” I answered.
“By yourself?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
“So what do you plan to do now?”
“I’d hoped that I could pursue an academic career and study physics, possibly in England. I am a British citizen.”
“Well,” said Bohr, removing his pipe from his mouth, “you couldn’t pursue an academic career in Denmark without going through the usual channels. That is, you have to take your student exam at a gymnasium and then enter the physics curriculum at the University of Copenhagen. Would you want to do this?”
“I think that I would prefer to go to England if possible, to an English university.”
“Well, then,” he said, “you would find that you would have to proceed through the same kind of academic channels that you would here, but it is possible that it would be easier for you than here in Denmark.”
I then plucked up my courage, and said, “Professor Bohr, would it be possible for me to give a talk here at the institute? I have been working on some quantum mechanical interpretations of gravity, using Julian Schwinger’s approach to quantum field theory.”
As we were talking, I had suddenly had the rash thought that if I could give a convincing talk to the physicists at the institute, they might accept me as a promising young physicist and I could perhaps bypass those “usual channels” that Bohr had referred to. During my private studies of physics, I had gone beyond quantum mechanics and learned about quantum field theory, combining quantum mechanics and the special theory of relativity.
Again, Bohr exchanged a glance with Rosenkrantz, who was still busy recording all that we were saying.
“Do you think you are capable of giving such a talk here at the institute?” Bohr asked.
I shifted nervously in my seat and replied brashly, “Yes, I think I am, Professor Bohr.”
“Will you be using Einstein’s unified field theory?” he asked.
“Yes, I think I will, as well as some ideas I have about quantizing his theory,” I responded.
“I’m afraid that you will meet much skepticism,” Bohr said. “Professor Christian Møller, who is our expert here at the institute on gravity, is also skeptical about Einstein’s program, but we can arrange for you to speak to him and see if he can arrange for you to give a seminar.”
Bohr put down his pipe, to join the others in the porcelain dish, and directed Rosenkrantz to arrange a meeting with Møller.
“Also,” Bohr said, addressing me again, “I will speak to Mr. Page at the British consulate and see whether they can help you with possibly pursuing your studies in England.”
Bohr stood up, signalling the end of the interview, and Rosenkrantz and I also rose from our chairs. I shook Professor Bohr’s hand and thanked him for his kindness in having this meeting with me. Rosenkrantz and I left the smoke-filled room together.
*Atoms emit photons when an electron makes a transition from a particular discrete energy level to a higher one, and they absorb photons when changing to a lower energy state. The emissions or absorptions occur as coloured or dark lines, respectively, within the radiation spectrum. These spectral lines are highly specific to different atoms, and can be used to identify elements, for example, in the composition of stars.
*By “quantizing,” I meant that the energy associated with a field such as the electromagnetic or gravitational field must also come in quantum packages of energy. This is accomplished by “quantizing” the classical field theory through the application of the mathematics of quantum mechanics and relativity theory.
TWO WEEKS LATER, I gave my talk in the seminar room on the ground floor of the Niels Bohr Institute, with its pleasant view of the adjoining park. The audience, consisting of Professor Møller and other professors and their students, was hostile, just as Professor Bohr had predicted. They made rude comments to me about Einstein’s unified field theory research and my attempts to defend it. I felt disappointed that Professor Bohr himself had not attended