The Interaction of Matter and Radiation: The Physics of C.V. Raman, S.N. Bose and M.N. Saha. Part 2: Physics Highlights

TL;DR

This paper discusses three groundbreaking physics discoveries from colonial India—Saha ionization, Bose statistics, and the Raman effect—and their impact on the development of physics, highlighting their historical and scientific significance.

Contribution

It provides a detailed historical and scientific analysis of three major discoveries in physics made in colonial India, emphasizing their context and influence.

Findings

Saha ionization equation explained the ionization of gases.

Bose statistics introduced new quantum statistical methods.

Raman effect revealed inelastic scattering of light by molecules.

Abstract

Three extraordinary physics discoveries were made from colonial India, which did not have any previous tradition of research in modern physics: Saha ionization equation (1920), Bose statistics (1924), Raman effect (1928). All the three discoverers were founding faculty members of the new small physics department of Calcutta University, which started functioning from 1916. These discoveries were all in the general topic of interaction between matter and radiation. In Part 1, we have described the social and the intellectual environment in which these discoveries were made. Now, in Part 2, we shall first give a background of the revolutionary developments taking place in physics at that time. Then we shall provide a non-technical account of the three discoveries and point out the kind of impact these discoveries made in the subsequent development of physics.