Tatyana Alexeyevna Afanasyeva (russian: link=no, Татья́на Алексе́евна Афана́сьева) (
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, 19 November 1876 –
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
, 14 April 1964) (also known as Tatiana Ehrenfest-Afanaseva or spelled Afanassjewa) was a Russian/Dutch mathematician and physicist who made contributions to the fields of
statistical mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic be ...
and statistical thermodynamics.
On 21 December 1904, she married Austrian
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
Paul Ehrenfest
Paul Ehrenfest (18 January 1880 – 25 September 1933) was an Austrian theoretical physicist, who made major contributions to the field of statistical mechanics and its relations with quantum mechanics, including the theory of phase transition an ...
(1880–1933). They had two daughters and two sons; one daughter,
Tatyana Pavlovna Ehrenfest
Tatyana Pavlovna Ehrenfest, later van Aardenne-Ehrenfest, (Vienna, October 28, 1905 – Dordrecht, November 29, 1984) was a Dutch mathematician. She was the daughter of Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933) and Tatyana Alexeyevna Afanasyeva (1876–1964). ...
, also became a mathematician.
Early life
Afanasyeva was born in
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. Her father was Alexander Afanassjev, a chief engineer on the Imperial Railways, who would bring Tatyana on his travels around the Russian Empire. Her father died while she was still young, so she moved to
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in Russia to live with her aunt Sonya, and uncle Peter Afanassjev, a professor at the
St Petersburg Polytechnic Institute.
Tatyana attended
normal school
A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...
in St Petersburg with a specialty in mathematics and science. At the time, women were not allowed to attend universities in Russian territory, so after graduating from normal school, Tatyana began studying mathematics and physics at the
Women's University in St Petersburg under
Orest Chvolson. In 1902, she transferred to
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
in Germany to continue her studies with
Felix Klein
Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and group ...
and
David Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many a ...
.
At the University of Göttingen, Tatyana met Paul Ehrenfest. When Ehrenfest discovered that Tatyana could not attend a mathematics club meeting, he argued with the school to have the rule changed. A friendship developed between the two, and they married in 1904, later returned to
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in 1907. Under Russian law, marriage was not allowed between two people of different religions. Since Tatyana was a Russian Orthodox and Ehrenfest was Jewish, they both decided to officially renounce their religions in order to remain married.
In 1912 they moved to
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
in the Netherlands, where Paul Ehrenfest was appointed to succeed
H.A. Lorentz as professor at the
University of Leiden
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...
, and where the couple lived throughout their career.
Works in mathematics and physics
Initially, Tatyana collaborated closely with her husband, most famously on their classic 1911 review of the
statistical mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic be ...
of
Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodyn ...
. ''The Conceptual Foundations of the Statistical Approach in Mechanics,'' by Paul and Tatyana Ehrenfest was originally published in 1911 as an article for the German ''Encyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften'' (''Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences''), and has since been translated and republished.
She published many papers on various topics such as
randomness
In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual rand ...
and
entropy
Entropy is a scientific concept, as well as a measurable physical property, that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynam ...
, and
teaching
Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the context of an educational institution. Teaching is closely re ...
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
to children.
Contact with Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
was a frequent guest in the 1920s at her home Witte Rozenstraat 57 in Leiden, witness the many signatures on the wall. Later Einstein departed for Princeton University and Afanasyeva corresponded. The archives of
Museum Boerhaave
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave is a museum of the history of science and medicine, based in Leiden, Netherlands. The museum hosts a collection of historical scientific instruments from all disciplines, but mainly from medicine, physics, and astronomy.
Th ...
in Leiden has three letters to her from Einstein.
Afanasjeva contacted Einstein for his advice on her manuscript on thermodynamics and inquired about a translator. She wanted to give thermodynamics a rigorous mathematical foundation which was lacking and describe pressure, temperature and entropy in changing systems. Einstein responded on 12 August 1947 that he applauded her approach but he also had some criticisms:
:"Ich habe den Eindruck gewonnen, dass Sie ein bisschen von logischen Putzteufel besessen sind, und dass daran die Übersichtlichkeit des Buches leide."
:(Translation: I have got the impression, that you are possessed somewhat by a logical polishing devil, and that the clarity of the book suffers.)
Einstein did not suggest a translator and sent the manuscript back to Afanasjeva who paid herself for its publication in 1956 as ''Die Grundlagen der Thermodynamik'' with
Brill Publishers
Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 27 ...
in Leiden with some, but not all of Einstein's corrections.
Legacy
The Dutch Physics Council sponsors the ''Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa thesis award''.
Notes
# . See p. 57: "In 1912 Ehrenfest succeeded Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853–1928) as professor of theoretical physics at Leiden. ... In Leiden, the Ehrenfests moved into a Russian-style villa designed by Ehrenfest’s Russian wife Tatiana Afanashewa, a mathematician."
#
P. Ehrenfest &
T. Ehrenfest (1911) ''Begriffliche Grundlagen der statistischen Auffassung in der Mechanik'', in:
Enzyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften mit Einschluß ihrer Anwendungen. Band IV, 2. Teil ( F. Klein and C. Müller (eds.). Leipzig: Teubner, pp. 3–90. Translated as ''The conceptual Foundations of the Statistical Approach in Mechanics''. New York: Cornell University Press, 1959.
# T. Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa, Die Grundlagen der Thermodynamik (Leiden 1956)
# T. Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa, ''On the Use of the Notion "Probability" in Physics'
Am. J. Phys. 26: 388 (1958)# Tatjana Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa, .
# Ed de Moo
Thesis, Utrecht (1999).
References
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
CWP UCLA biography
* Paul and Tatiana Ehrenfest:
The Conceptual Foundations of the Statistical Approach in Mechanics, translation Michael J. Moravesik, Dover publications New York 1990 (reprint of the edition of 1959), with a preface by T. Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa.'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afanasyeva, Tatyana
1876 births
1964 deaths
Scientists from Saint Petersburg
People from Kievsky Uyezd
20th-century Russian mathematicians
Mathematicians from the Russian Empire
Probability theorists
White Russian emigrants to Germany
White Russian emigrants to the Netherlands
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Netherlands
Woman scientists from the Russian Empire
20th-century women scientists
20th-century Russian scientists
20th-century women mathematicians
20th-century Russian women