Marian Smoluchowski. Selected Scientific Works

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The year 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of premature death of Marian Smoluchowski, an outstanding Polish physicist, a pioneer of the kinetic theory of matter currently known as statistical physics. On this occasion, we have published the volume containing:
>> essays on Smoluchowski’s life and his contribution to science,
>> translations into English of Marian Smoluchowski’s papers originally published in German, French and Polish. Among them three extremely important articles have been prepared for the first time especially for this publication.

• A Contribution to the Theory of Electric Endosmosis and a Few Related Phenomena. Smoluchowski received a remarkable result in this paper. He showed that under the thin double layer assumption, the fluid flow in such phenomena is independent of boundary shape. The paper was published in 1903 in Polish and French.

• On the Kinetic Theory of the Brownian Molecular Motion and of Suspensions. The paper played a very important role in convincing scientists as to the validity of the kinetic theory of matter. This paper (published in 1906) was translated from the German original into English by Rudolf Schmitz from RWTH Aachen and Robert Jones from Queen Mary College University of London.

• Molecular-Kinetic Theory of the Opalescence of Gases in the Critical State and a Few Related Phenomena. The same two physicists translated Marian Smoluchowski’s paper on critical opalescence published in German in 1908 (French and Polish versions appeared in 1907). Explaining this mysterious phenomenon, discovered at the end of the 19th century, was at the time a great challenge for scientists.

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Some of his [Marian Smoluchowski – ed. note] fundamental contributions concerned the role of statistical fluctuations in phenomena involving assemblies of particles, and confirmed their importance in explaining phenomena like the Brownian motion and opalescence. One might say that, before him, most studies were concerned with the thermodynamic variables representing the first means or expected values of the relevant random variables. Because it went further into an examination of the deviations and second moments, the work of Smoluchowski gave further confirmation to the reality of a kinetic picture of matter.

Stanisław Ulam, Marian Smoluchowski and the Theory of Probabilities in Physics (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, US, 1956).

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On the occasion of 100th anniversary of death of Marian Smoluchowski, an outstanding Polish physicist, a pioneer of the kinetic theory of matter currently known as statistical physics, we published the volume containing essays on Smoluchowski’s life and his contribution to science and translations into English of his extremely important papers originally published in German, French and Polish.

Authors of the texts about Marian Smoluchowski: Roman Smoluchowski, Mark Kac, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar and Stanisław Ulam.

Keywords: statistical physics, Brownian molecular motion, atoms, kinetic theory of matter.

Marian Smoluchowski (1872–1917) – polski fizyk, pionier fizyki statystycznej, alpinista i taternik.

W latach 1890–1894 studiował fizykę na Uniwersytecie Wiedeńskim. W 1895 roku obronił z wyróżnieniem pracę doktorską w Wiedniu. W 1898 roku został docentem. Przez kilka lat pracował w laboratoriach różnych ośrodków naukowych Europy (Uniwersytet Paryski, Glasgow, Berlin). W 1898 roku otrzymał prawo wykładania (tzw. veniam legendi). W latach 1899–1912 pracował na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim, od 1900 roku jako profesor. W latach 1906–1907 był prezesem Polskiego Towarzystwa Przyrodników im. Mikołaja Kopernika. Od 1912 roku profesor na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim, w katedrze fizyki doświadczalnej. Objął ją po Auguście Witkowskim, który długo wcześniej wskazał go jako swego następcę.

Smoluchowski był klasykiem fizyki statystycznej. Prowadził badania nad wyjaśnieniem ruchów Browna. Albert Einstein wykorzystał uzyskane przezeń wyniki przy formułowaniu teorii wyjaśniającej chaotyczne ruchy cząstek. Jedno z równań teorii dyfuzji jest znane jako równanie Smoluchowskiego. 15 lipca 1917 roku został wybrany na rektora Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Zmarł w Krakowie w wyniku dyzenterii. Wspomnienie o nim napisał m.in. Albert Einstein. Został pochowany na cmentarzu Rakowickim w Krakowie. Pośmiertnie został odznaczony Krzyżem Komandorskim Orderu Odrodzenia Polski (1936).

About Marian Smoluchowski
Fate cut off too early his benefi cent activities as researcher and teacher; let us, however, uphold his example and his works!
Albert Einstein, Naturwissenschaft en (1917, 5, p. 737)

Few realize today what an important role Marian Smoluchowski played in bringing atoms to life and even fewer that it happened in Lwów.
Mark Kac, Enigmas of Chance, An Autobiography (Harper&Row Publ., New York, 1985)