Satyendra Nath Bose

For Indian nationalist belonging to the Anushilan Samiti, seeSatyendranath Bosu.

Satyendra Nath Bose FRS,MP
Bose in 1925
Born	Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-01-01)1 January 1894 Calcutta,Bengal Presidency,British India
Died	4 February 1974(1974-02-04)(aged 80) Calcutta,West Bengal,India
Alma mater	University of Calcutta
Known for	Bose–Einstein condensate Bose–Einstein statistics Bose–Einstein distribution Bose–Einstein correlations Bose gas Boson Ideal Bose Equation of State Photon gas Bosonic string theory
Spouse	Ushabati Bose (néeGhosh)
Awards	Padma Vibhushan Fellow of the Royal Society
Scientific career
Fields	Theoretical Physics,Quantum Mechanics,Mathematics
Institutions	University of Calcutta University of Dhaka Visva-Bharati
Academic advisors	Jagadish Chandra Bose Prafulla Chandra Ray
Doctoral students	Purnima Sinha Partha Ghose Siva Brata Bhattacherjee
Other notable students	Mani Lal Bhaumik Lilabati Bhattacharjee Asima Chatterjee Ratan Lal Brahmachary
Member ofParliament,Rajya Sabha
In office 3 April 1952 – 2 April 1960
Signature

Satyendra Nath BoseFRS,MP(/ˈboʊs/;1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was an Indiantheoretical physicistandmathematician.He is best known for his work onquantum mechanicsin the early 1920s, in developing the foundation forBose–Einstein statisticsand the theory of theBose–Einstein condensate.AFellowof theRoyal Society,he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, thePadma Vibhushan,in 1954 by theGovernment of India.

The class of particles that obey Bose statistics,bosons,was named after Bose byPaul Dirac.

Apolymath,he had a wide range of interests in varied fields, includingphysics,mathematics,chemistry,biology,mineralogy,philosophy,arts,literature,andmusic.He served on many research and development committees in India after independence.

Early life

Bose was born inCalcutta(now Kolkata), the eldest of seven children in aBengali Kayasthafamily.He was the only son, with six sisters after him. His ancestral home was in the village Bara Jagulia, in the district ofNadia,in theBengal Presidency.His schooling began at the age of five, near his home. When his family moved to Goabagan, he was admitted into the New Indian School. In his final year of school, he was admitted into theHindu School.He passed his entrance examination (matriculation) in 1909 and stood fifth in the order of merit. He then joined the intermediate science course at thePresidency College,Calcutta,where his teachers includedJagadish Chandra Bose,Sarada Prasanna Das,andPrafulla Chandra Ray.

Bose received aBachelor of Sciencein mixed mathematics fromPresidency College,standing first in 1913. Then he joinedSir Ashutosh Mukherjee'snewly formedScience Collegewhere he again stood first in theMScmixed mathematics exam in 1915. His marks in the MSc examination created a new record in the annals of theUniversity of Calcutta,which is yet to be surpassed.

After completing his MSc, Bose joined theScience College, Calcutta Universityas a research scholar in 1916 and started his studies in thetheory of relativity.It was an exciting era in the history of scientific progress.Quantum theoryhad just appeared on the horizon and significant results had started pouring in.

His father, Surendranath Bose, worked in the Engineering Department of theEast Indian Railway Company.In 1914, at age 20, Satyendra Nath Bose married Ushabati Ghosh,the 11-year-old daughter of a prominent Calcutta physician.They had nine offspring, two of whom died in early childhood. When he died in 1974, he left behind his wife, two sons, and five daughters.

As apolyglot,Bose was well versed in several languages such asBengali,English, French, German andSanskritas well as the poetry ofLord Tennyson,Rabindranath TagoreandKalidasa.He could play theesraj,an Indian instrument similar to a violin.He was actively involved in running night schools that came to be known as the Working Men's Institute.

Research career

Bose attendedHindu SchoolinCalcutta,and laterattendedPresidency College,also in Calcutta, earning the highest marks at each institution, while fellow student and future astrophysicistMeghnad Sahacame second.He came in contact with teachers such asJagadish Chandra Bose,Prafulla Chandra Ray and Naman Sharma who provided inspiration to aim high in life. From 1916 to 1921, he was a lecturer in thephysics departmentof theRajabazar Science CollegeunderUniversity of Calcutta.Along with Saha, Bose prepared the first book in English based on German and French translations of original papers on Einstein's special and general relativity in 1919.

In 1921, Satyendra Nath Bose joined asReaderin the Department of Physics of the recently foundedUniversity of Dhaka(in present-day Bangladesh).Bose set up whole new departments, including laboratories, to teach advanced courses for MSc and BSc honours and taughtthermodynamicsas well asJames Clerk Maxwell'stheoryofelectromagnetism.

Bose, along with Indian AstrophysicistMeghnad Saha,presented several papers in theoretical physics and pure mathematics from 1918 onwards. In 1924, whilst a Reader in the Physics Department of theUniversity of Dhaka,Bose wrote a paper derivingPlanck's quantum radiation lawwithout any reference toclassical physicsby using a novel way of counting states withidentical particles.This paper was seminal in creating the important field ofquantum statistics.Though not accepted at once for publication, he sent the article directly toAlbert Einsteinin Germany. Einstein, recognising the importance of the paper, translated it into German himself and submitted it on Bose's behalf to theZeitschrift für Physik.As a result of this recognition, Bose was able to work for two years in EuropeanX-rayandcrystallographylaboratories, during which he worked withLouis de Broglie,Marie Curie,and Einstein.

Bose–Einstein statistics

While presenting a lectureat theUniversity of Dhakaon the theory ofradiationand theultraviolet catastrophe,Bose intended to show his students that the contemporary theory was inadequate, because it predicted results not in accordance with experimental results.

In the process of describing this discrepancy, Bose for the first time took the position that theMaxwell–Boltzmann distributionwould not be true for microscopic particles, where fluctuations due toHeisenberg's uncertainty principlewill be significant. Thus he stressed the probability of finding particles in thephase space,each state having volumeh³,and discarding the distinct position andmomentumof the particles.

Bose adapted this lecture into a short article called "Planck's Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta" and sent it toAlbert Einsteinwith the following letter:

Respected Sir, I have ventured to send you the accompanying article for your perusal and opinion. I am anxious to know what you think of it. You will see that I have tried to deduce the coefficient8π ν²/c³in Planck's Law independent of classical electrodynamics, only assuming that the ultimate elementary region in the phase-space has the contenth³.I do not know sufficient German to translate the paper. If you think the paper worth publication I shall be grateful if you arrange for its publication inZeitschrift für Physik.Though a complete stranger to you, I do not feel any hesitation in making such a request. Because we are all your pupils though profiting only by your teachings through your writings. I do not know whether you still remember that somebody from Calcutta asked your permission to translate your papers on Relativity in English. You acceded to the request. The book has since been published. I was the one who translated your paper on Generalised Relativity.

Einstein agreed with him, translated Bose's papers "Planck's Law and Hypothesis of Light Quanta" into German, and had it published inZeitschrift für Physikunder Bose's name, in 1924.

Possible outcomes of flipping two coins

Two heads

Two tails

One of each

(1)There are three outcomes. What is the probability of producing two heads?

Outcome probabilities

		Coin 1
		Head	Tail
Coin 2	Head	HH	HT
	Tail	TH	TT

(2)Since the coins are distinct, there are two outcomes which produce a head and a tail. The probability of two heads is one-quarter.

The reason Bose's interpretation produced accurate results was that since photons are indistinguishable from each other, one cannot treat any two photons having equal energy as being two distinct identifiable photons. By analogy if, in an alternate universe, coins were to behave like photons and otherbosons,the probability of producing two heads would indeed be one-third (tail-head = head-tail).

Bose's interpretation is now calledBose–Einstein statistics.This result derived by Bose laid the foundation ofquantum statistics,and especially the revolutionary new philosophical conception of the indistinguishability of particles, as acknowledged by Einstein and Dirac.When Einstein met Bose face-to-face, he asked him whether he had been aware that he had invented a new type of statistics, and he very candidly said that no, he wasn't that familiar withBoltzmann's statistics and didn't realize that he was doing the calculations differently. He was equally candid with anyone who asked.

Bose–Einstein condensate

Velocity-distribution data of a gas ofrubidiumatoms, confirming the discovery of a new phase of matter,the Bose–Einstein condensate.Left: just before the appearance of a Bose–Einstein condensate. Center: just after the appearance of the condensate. Right: after further evaporation, leaving a sample of nearly pure condensate.

Einstein also did not at first realize how radical Bose's departure was, and in his first paper after Bose, he was guided, like Bose, by the fact that the new method gave the right answer. But after Einstein's second paper using Bose's method in which Einstein predicted the Bose-Einstein condensate (pictured left), he started to realize just how radical it was, and he compared it to wave/particle duality, saying that some particles didn't behave exactly like particles. Bose had already submitted his article to the British JournalPhilosophical Magazine,which rejected it before he sent it to Einstein. It is not known why it was rejected.

Einstein adopted the idea and extended it to atoms. This led to the prediction of the existence of phenomena which became known asBose–Einstein condensate,a dense collection ofbosons(which are particles with integerspin,named after Bose), which was demonstrated to exist by experiment in 1995.

Dhaka

Bose at Dhaka University in the 1930s

After his stay in Europe, Bose returned toDhakain 1926. He did not have a doctorate, and so ordinarily, under the prevailing regulations, he would not be qualified for the post of Professor he applied for, butEinsteinrecommended him. He was then madeHeadof the Department ofPhysicsatDhaka University.He continued guiding and teaching at Dhaka University and was theDeanof the Faculty of Science there until 1945.

Bose designed equipment himself for anX-ray crystallographylaboratory. He set up laboratories and libraries to make the department a center of research in X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, magnetic properties of matter, optical spectroscopy, wireless, andunified field theories.He also published anequation of stateforreal gaseswithMeghnad Saha.

Calcutta

When thepartition of Indiabecame imminent (1947), he returned toCalcutta(now known as Kolkata) and taught there until 1956. He insisted every student design their own equipment using local materials and local technicians. He was madeprofessor emerituson his retirement.He then became Vice-Chancellor ofVisva-Bharati UniversityinSantiniketan.He returned to the University of Calcutta to continue research in nuclear physics and complete earlier works in organic chemistry. In subsequent years, he worked in applied research such as extraction ofheliumin hot springs ofBakreshwar.

Other fields

Apart from physics, he did research inbiotechnologyand literature (Bengaliand English). He made studies inchemistry,geology,zoology,anthropology,engineering and other sciences. BeingBengali,he devoted significant time to promotingBengalias a teaching language, translating scientific papers into it, and promoting the development of the region.

Honours

Bose with other scientists at the University of Calcutta

Bust of Satyendra Nath Bose which is placed in the garden ofBirla Industrial & Technological Museum

In 1937,Rabindranath Tagorededicated his only book on science,Visva–Parichay,to Satyendra Nath Bose. Bose was honoured with the titlePadma Vibhushanby the Indian Government in 1954. In 1959, he was appointed as the National Professor, the highest honour in the country for a scholar, a position he held for 15 years. In 1986, theS.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Scienceswas established by an act of Parliament, Government of India, in Salt Lake, Calcutta.

Bose became an adviser to the then newly formedCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research.He was the president of theIndian Physical Societyand the National Institute of Science. He was elected general president of theIndian Science Congress.He was the vice president and then the president ofIndian Statistical Institute.In 1958, he became aFellow of the Royal Society.He was nominated asmember ofRajya Sabha.

Partha Ghosehas stated that

Bose's work stood at the transition between the 'old quantum theory' of Planck, Bohr and Einstein and the new quantum mechanics ofSchrödinger,Heisenberg,Born,Diracand others.

Nobel Prize nomination

Bose was nominated byK. Banerjee(1956),D.S. Kothari(1959), S.N. Bagchi (1962), and A.K. Dutta (1962) for the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his contribution toBose–Einstein statisticsand theunified field theory.Banerjee, head of the Physics Department,University of Allahabad,in a letter of 12 January 1956 wrote to theNobel Committeeas follows: "(1). He (Bose) made very outstanding contributions to physics by developing the statistics known after his name as Bose statistics. In recent years this statistics is found to be of profound importance in the classifications offundamental particlesand has contributed immensely to the development ofnuclear physics.(2). During the period from 1953 to date, he has made a number of highly interesting contributions of far-reaching consequences on the subject of Einstein'sUnitary Field Theory."Bose's work was evaluated by an expert of the Nobel Committee,Oskar Klein,who deemed his work not worthy of a Nobel Prize.

Legacy

Bose on a 1994 stamp of India

Bosons,a class of elementarysubatomicparticles inparticle physicswere named by Dirac after Satyendra Nath Bose to commemorate his contributions to science.

Soviet Nobel laureateLev Landaukept a list of names of physicists which he ranked on a logarithmic scale of productivity ranging from 1 to 5. Albert Einstein was ranked 0.5. Landau awarded a rank of 1 to Bose along with the founding fathers ofquantum mechanics,Niels Bohr,Werner Heisenberg,Paul DiracandErwin Schrödinger,and others. Landau ranked himself as a 2.5 but later promoted to a 2.

Although seven Nobel Prizes were awarded for research related to S N Bose's concepts of theboson,Bose–Einstein statisticsandBose–Einstein condensate,Bose himself was not awarded a Nobel Prize.

In his bookThe Scientific Edge,physicistJayant Narlikarobserved:

SN Bose's work on particle statistics (c. 1922), which clarified the behaviour ofphotons(theparticlesof light in an enclosure) and opened the door to new ideas on statistics of Microsystems that obey the rules of quantum theory, was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science and could be considered in the Nobel Prize class.

When Bose himself was once asked that question, he replied, "I have got all the recognition I deserve."

One of the main academic buildings ofUniversity of Rajshahi,the No 1 science building has been named after him.

The 4 June 2022Google Doodlefeatured Bose, on the 98th anniversary of his sending his work to Einstein.

Works (selection)

• Bose (1924), "Plancks Gesetz und Lichtquantenhypothese",Zeitschrift für Physik(in German),26(1): 178–181,Bibcode:1924ZPhy...26..178B,doi:10.1007/BF01327326,S2CID186235974.

External links

• Works by or about Satyendra Nath Boseat theInternet Archive
• Satyendra Nath Boseat theEncyclopædia Britannica
• Pais, Abraham(1982),Subtle is the Lord...: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein,Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 423–34,ISBN978-0-19-853907-0.
• Saha; Srivasthava,Heat and thermodynamics.
• Pitaevskii, Lev;Stringari, Sandro (2003),Bose–Einstein Condensation,Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Wali, Kameshwar C(2009),Satyendra Nath Bose: his life and times(selected works with commentary), Singapore: World Scientific,ISBN978-981-279-070-5
• O'Connor, John J.;Robertson, Edmund F.,"Satyendra Nath Bose",MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,University of St Andrews
• "Bosons – The Birds That Flock and Sing Together",Vigyan Prasar,IN,January 2002(biography of Bose and Bose–Einstein Condensation).
• S.N. Bose Scholars Program,Wisc.
• The Quantum Indians: film on Bose, Raman and SahaonYouTubebyRaja Choudhuryand produced by PSBT andIndian Public Diplomacy.