Jakob Laub

Jakob Johann Laub (born as Jakub Laub, February 7 1884 in Rzeszów - April 22 1962 in Freiburg) was a physicist from Austria-Hungary, who is most well known for his work with Albert Einstein in the early period of special relativity.

Life

He was the son of Abraham Laub and Anna Maria Schenborn. Laub, who converted from the Jewish to the catholic faith and changed his name from "Jakub" into "Jakob Johann", first visited High School in Rzeszów. Next stations were the University of Vienna, the University of Kraków and finally the University of Göttingen, where he studied mathematics under David Hilbert, Woldemar Voigt, Walther Nernst, Karl Schwarzschild and Hermann Minkowski. Afterwards he went to the University of Würzburg, where he attained a doctorate in 1907. Soon he established closer contact to Wilhelm Wien, Arnold Sommerfeld, Johannes Stark, and Albert Einstein. When he travelled to Bern in 1908 to visit Einstein (with whom it corresponded later frequently and was friendly) he found him still working as a patent employee. This he called a "stair joke [Treppenwitz] of history". In 1909 he became co-worker of Philipp Lenard at the University of Heidelberg.

1911 he emigrated with his wife Ruth Elisa Wendt to Argentina. There he worked at the geophysical and astronomical observatory in La Plata. Afterwards he obtained a leading position at a Physics Department in Buenos Aires. After accepting the the Argentine nationality (with the Spanish first name variant "Jacobo Juan") he began to work in the Diplomatic service of Argentina. In 1947 he returned to Germany. In his new home town Freiburg he went into economic troubles and therefore sold a part of his correspondence with Einstein. [NDB|13|688|689|Laub, Jakob|Lewis Pyenson] [R. O. Barrachina: [http://www.ib.edu.ar/staff/barrachina/research/preprints/2003laub.pdf Una perspectiva weberiana para la biografía de Jakob Laub, primer colaborador de Einstein] ] [Elke Flatau, [http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/Preprints/P293.PDF Albert Einstein als wissenschaftlicher Autor] ]

cientific Work

In 1905 he investigated cathode rays together with Wilhelm Wien. Afterwards he investigated some topics on special relativity and wrote in 1907 an important work on the optics of moving bodies. In 1908 he wrote several works together with Einstein on the basic electromagnetic equations, which was aimed to replace the four-dimensional formulation of the electrodynamics by Minkowski by a simpler, classical formulation. Both Laub and Einstein discounted the spacetime formalism as too complicated. However, it turned out that Minkowski's spacetime formalism was fundamental for the further development of special relativity. Laub also published some papers on relativistic effects within gases and in 1910 he wrote one of the first survey articles on relativity. Also in the following years Laub still wrote many scientific papers on different topics.

References

Publications

*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1907
title= Über sekundäre Kathodenstrahlen
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =328
pages =285–300
url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k153304/f294.chemindefer
doi=10.1002/andp.19073280708
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1907
title= Zur Optik der bewegten Körper
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =328
pages =738–744
url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k153304/f748.chemindefer
doi=10.1002/andp.19073280910
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1908
title= Zur Optik der bewegten Körper II
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =330
pages =175–184
doi=10.1002/andp.19083300113
*Citation
author=Einstein, A. & Laub, J.
year=1908
title=Über die elektromagnetischen Grundgleichungen für bewegte Körper
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =331
pages =532–540
url=http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/papers/1908_26_532-540.pdf
doi=10.1002/andp.19083310806
*Citation
author=Einstein, A. & Laub, J.
year=1908
title=Über die im elektromagnetischen Felde auf ruhende Körper ausgeübten ponderomotorischen Kräfte
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =331
pages =541–550
url=http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/papers/1908_26_541-550.pdf
doi=10.1002/andp.19083310807
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1908
title=Über die durch Röntgenstrahlen erzeugten sekundären Kathodenstrahlen
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =331
pages =712–726
url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15332t/f730.table
doi=10.1002/andp.19083310903
*Citation
author=Einstein, A. & Laub, J.
year=1908
title=Berichtigung zur Abhandlung: "Über die elektromagnetischen Grundgleichungen für bewegte Körper"
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =332
pages =232
url=http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/papers/1908_27_232.pdf
doi=10.1002/andp.19083321115
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1909
title= Über den Einfluß der molekularen Bewegung auf die Dispersionserscheinungen in Gasen
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =333
pages =131–141
doi=10.1002/andp.19093330107
*Citation
author=Einstein, A. & Laub, J.
year=1909
title=Bemerkungen zu unserer Arbeit: "Über die elektromagnetischen Grundgleichungen für bewegte Körper"
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =333
pages =445–447
url=http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/annalen/history/papers/1909_28_445-447.pdf
doi=10.1002/andp.19093330212
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1909
title=Zur Theorie der Dispersion und Extinktion des Lichtes in leuchtenden Gasen und Dämpfen
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =334
pages =94–110
url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k153335/f102.table
doi=10.1002/andp.19093340608
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1910
title=Über die experimentellen Grundlagen des Relativitätsprinzips
journal=Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität und Elektronik
volume =7
pages =405–463
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1915
title=Über die Dispersionserscheinungen des Lichtes in beliebig bewegten Körpern
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =351
pages =705–719
url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15349j/f713.table
doi=10.1002/andp.19153510509
*Citation
author=Laub, J.
year=1915
title=Über die durch Röntgenstrahlen erzeugten Strahlen
journal=Annalen der Physik
volume =351
pages =785–808
url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15349j/f783.table
doi=10.1002/andp.19153510605

ee also

*History of special relativity