View source for Max Abraham

{{Short description|German physicist (1875–1922)}}
{{For|the music publisher|Max Abraham (publisher)}}
{{Further|History of special relativity|Mass-energy equivalence|Lorentz ether theory}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Max Abraham
|image             =Max_abraham.png
|image_size       =
|caption           = Abraham, {{circa|1905}}
|birth_date        = 26 March 1875
|birth_place       = [[Danzig]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
|death_date        = {{death-date and age|16 November 1922|26 March 1875}}
|death_place       = [[Munich]], [[Bavaria]], [[Weimar Republic]]
|residence         = 
|citizenship       = 
|nationality       = 
|ethnicity         = 
|field             = [[Physics]]
|work_institutions = {{plainlist|
*[[University of Göttingen]] (1900–1909)
*[[University of Chicago]] (1909–1909)
*[[Polytechnic University of Milan|Istituto Tecnico Superiore]] (until 1914)
*[[Technische Hochschule Stuttgart]] (until 1921)
}}
|alma_mater        = [[University of Berlin]]
|doctoral_advisor  = [[Max Planck]]
|doctoral_students = 
|known_for         =[[Abraham–Minkowski controversy]]<br>[[Abraham–Lorentz force]]
|author_abbrev_bot = 
|author_abbrev_zoo = 
|influences        = 
|influenced        = 
|prizes            = 
|religion          = 
|footnotes         = 
|signature         =
}}
{{Special relativity sidebar}}
'''Max Abraham''' ({{IPA|de|ˈaːbʀaham|lang}}; 26 March 1875 – 16 November 1922) was a German [[physicist]] known for his work on [[electromagnetism]] and his opposition to the [[theory of relativity]].

==Biography==

Abraham was born in [[Danzig]], [[Imperial Germany]] (now [[Gdańsk]] in [[Poland]]) to a family of [[Jewish]] [[merchant]]s. His father was Moritz Abraham and his mother was Selma Moritzsohn.  Attending the [[University of Berlin]], he studied under [[Max Planck]]. He graduated in 1897. For the next three years, Abraham worked as Planck's assistant.<ref>[https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Abraham_Max/ Max Abraham]. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. Retrieved January 30, 2021.</ref>

From 1900 to 1909, Abraham worked at [[Göttingen]] as a [[privatdozent]], an unpaid lecturing position. Abraham developed his theory of the [[electron]] in 1902, in which he hypothesized that the electron was a perfect sphere with a charge divided evenly around its surface. Abraham's model was competing with that developed by [[Hendrik Lorentz]] (1899, 1904) and [[Albert Einstein]] (1905) which seem to have become more widely accepted; nevertheless, Abraham never gave up his model, since he considered it was based on "[[common sense]]". Abraham was a staunch opponent of the theory of relativity.<ref>Howard, Don; Stachel, John. (1989). ''Einstein and the History of General Relativity''. Birkhäuser Boston. p. 183. {{ISBN|9780817633929}}</ref>

In 1909 Abraham travelled to the [[United States]] to accept a position at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign|University of Illinois]], but ended up returning to Göttingen after a few months. He was later invited to [[Italy]] by [[Tullio Levi-Civita]], and found work as the professor of [[Classical mechanics|rational mechanics]] at the [[Politecnico di Milano]] university until 1914.

When [[World War I]] started, Abraham was forced to return to Germany. During this time he worked on the theory of [[radio transmission]]. After the war, he still was not allowed back into Milan, so until 1921 he worked at [[Stuttgart]] as the professor of [[physics]] at [[Technische Hochschule]].

After his work at Stuttgart, Abraham accepted the position of chair in [[Aachen]]; however, before he started his work there he was diagnosed with a [[brain tumor]]. He died on 16 November 1922 in [[Munich, Germany]].

After his death, [[Max Born]] and [[Max von Laue]] wrote about him in an obituary: ''He loved his [[Absolute time and space|absolute aether]], his [[field equations]], his rigid electron just as a youth loves his first flame, whose memory no later experience can extinguish.''<ref>{{cite book |first=Abraham |last=Pais |author-link=Abraham Pais|title=Subtle is the Lord |url=https://archive.org/details/subtleislord00pais |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=0-19-280672-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/subtleislord00pais/page/n253 232]}}</ref>

==Publications==
*{{Cite journal
| last=Abraham, M.
| year=1902
| title=Dynamik des Electrons
| journal=Göttinger Nachrichten
|pages =20–41| title-link=s:de:Dynamik des Electrons
|language=de
}}
*{{Cite journal
| last=Abraham, M.
| year=1902
| title=Prinzipien der Dynamik des Elektrons
| journal=[[Physikalische Zeitschrift]]
| volume =4
| issue=1b
|pages =57–62| title-link=
| doi=10.1002/andp.19023150105
| bibcode=1902AnP...315..105A
|language=de
| url=https://zenodo.org/record/1424025
}}
*{{Cite journal
| last=Abraham, M.
| year=1903
| title=Prinzipien der Dynamik des Elektrons
| journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]
| volume =10
|pages =105–179
| doi=10.1002/andp.19023150105|bibcode = 1902AnP...315..105A 
| issue=1
|language=de
| url=https://zenodo.org/record/1424025
}}
*{{Cite journal
| last=Abraham, M.
| year=1904
| title=Die Grundhypothesen der Elektronentheorie
| journal=Physikalische Zeitschrift
| volume =5
|pages =576–579| title-link=s:de:Die Grundhypothesen der Elektronentheorie
|language=de
}}
*{{Cite journal
 |last        = Abraham, M.
 |year        = 1904
 |title       = Zur Theorie der Strahlung und des Strahlungsdruckes
 |journal     = Annalen der Physik
 |volume      = 14
 |issue = 7
 |pages       = 236–287
 |url         = http://www.weltderphysik.de/de/3001.php?bd=319
 |doi         = 10.1002/andp.19043190703
 |bibcode     = 1904AnP...319..236A
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070611043445/http://www.weltderphysik.de/de/3001.php?bd=319
 |archive-date = 2007-06-11
|language=de
}}
*{{Cite book
| last1=Abraham, M. |last2=Föppl. A. |authorlink2=August Föppl
| year=1904
| title= Theorie der Elektrizität: Einführung in die Maxwellsche Theorie der Elektrizität
| publisher=Teubner
|language=de
| location=Leipzig}}<ref>{{cite journal|author=Wilson, E. B.|author-link=Edwin Bidwell Wilson|title=Review: ''Theorie der Elektrizität'', vol. 1 by M. Abraham & A. Föppl|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1905|volume=11|issue=7|pages=383–387|url= https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1905-11-07/S0002-9904-1905-01236-2/S0002-9904-1905-01236-2.pdf|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1905-01236-2|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*{{Cite book
| last=Abraham, M.
| year=1905
| title= Theorie der Elektrizität: Elektromagnetische Theorie der Strahlung
| publisher=Teubner
| location=Leipzig
|language=de
| url=https://archive.org/details/theoriederelekt04fpgoog}}<ref>{{cite journal|author=Wilson, E. B.|title=Review: ''Theorie der Elektrizität'', vol. 2 by M. Abraham|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1908|volume=14|issue=3|pages=203–207|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1908-14-05/S0002-9904-1908-01601-X/S0002-9904-1908-01601-X.pdf | doi = 10.1090/S0002-9904-1908-01601-X |doi-access=free}}</ref> {{cite book|title=Zweite Auflage|year=1908|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100587372|publisher=B.G. Teubner}}<ref>{{cite journal|author=Wilson, E. B.|title=Review of ''Theorie der Elektrizität''. Zweiter Band, Zweite Auflage|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1910|volume=16|pages=545–546|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1910-16-10/S0002-9904-1910-01975-3/S0002-9904-1910-01975-3.pdf|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1910-01975-3|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*{{Cite journal
| last=Abraham, M.
| year=1912
| title=Relativitaet und Gravitation. Erwiderung auf eine Bemerkung des Herrn A. Einstein
| journal=Annalen der Physik
| volume =38
| issue=10
| pages =1056–1058
| doi = 10.1002/andp.19123431013
|language=de
| url=http://libcoll.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/elib/all_documents/Abrah_Relat_01_1912|bibcode = 1912AnP...343.1056A }}
*{{Cite journal
| last=Abraham, M.
| year=1912
| title=Nochmals Relativitaet und Gravitation. Bemerkungen zu A. Einsteins Erwiderung
| journal=Annalen der Physik
| volume =39
| issue=12
|pages =444–448
| doi = 10.1002/andp.19123441208
|language=de
|url=http://libcoll.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/elib/all_documents/Abrah_Nochm_01_1912|bibcode = 1912AnP...344..444A }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last         = Abraham, M.
 |year         = 1914
 |title        = Die neue Mechanik
 |journal      = [[Scientia (Italian journal)|Scientia]]
 |volume       = 15
 |pages        = 8–27
 |language     = de
 |url          = http://diglib.cib.unibo.it/diglib.php?inv=7&int_ptnum=15&term_ptnum=14&format=jpg
 |access-date  = 2008-06-09
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070714175320/http://diglib.cib.unibo.it/diglib.php?inv=7
 |archive-date = 2007-07-14
 |url-status   = dead
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

* {{cite encyclopedia
  | last = Goldberg
  | first = Stanley
  | title = Abraham, Max
  | encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Scientific Biography]]
  | volume = 1
  | pages = 23–25
  | publisher = [[Charles Scribner's Sons]]
  | location = New York
  | year = 1970
  | isbn = 0-684-10114-9
 }}

==External links==
* {{Wikisource author-inline}}
* {{Wikisourcelang-inline|de}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abraham, Max}}
[[Category:1875 births]]
[[Category:1922 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German physicists]]
[[Category:Deaths from brain cancer in Germany]]
[[Category:20th-century German Jews]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni]]
[[Category:Jewish German physicists]]
[[Category:Scientists from the Province of Prussia]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Polytechnic University of Milan]]
[[Category:Relativity critics]]
[[Category:Scientists from Gdańsk]]
[[Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty]]