Inhaltsangabe

Contents Part 2.- III The Creation of Wave Mechanics.- III. 1 Scientific Exchange with Planck and Einstein.- Interaction with Colleagues in Zurich.- Growing Reputation and the Solvay Conference of 1924.- The Innsbruck Naturforscherversammlung.- Planck s Lecture and Other Interesting Lectures.- Einstein, the Nature of Light and Bose Statistics.- First Correspondence with Einstein.- Planck s Preliminary Response to Einstein.- Schrödinger s Analysis of Entropy Definitions.- Planck s Last Word.- A New Stimulus from Einstein.- The Energy States of the Ideal Gas.- Continued Scientific Exchange with Berlin.- III. 2 First Steps Towards the Hydrogen Equation.- Philosophical Interlude: Consciousness and Continuity.- Lecture Course on Spectra.- Obtaining the Thesis of Louis de Broglie.- Phase Waves and Stationary Orbits of Atoms.- New Description of Radiation and Exchange with Landé.- The Zurich Kolloquium.- Memorandum on the Eigenvibrations of the Hydrogen Atom.- Solution of the Relativistic Hydrogen Equation.- The Failure of the Relativistic Hydrogen Equation.- On Einstein s Gas Theory.- Application of the Darwin-Fowler Method.- Phase Waves in Gas Theory.- Relations Between Gas Theory and the Hydrogen Equation.- III. 3 The Nonrelativistic Hydrogen Equation.- An Important Correspondence with Wien.- On the Nature of Radiation and a Repetition of the Michelson Experiment.- A Breakthrough During the Christmas Vacation.- The Notebook on Eigenwertproblem des Atoms. I (First Part).- Assistance from Colleagues in Zurich.- Quantization as a Variational Principle.- Discrete and Continuous Eigenvalues of the Nonrelativistic.- Hydrogen Equation.- III. 4 Sources of Undulatory Mechanics.- Preliminary Arguments Given in the First Paper.- Louis de Broglie s Mechanical-Optical Analogy.- Hamilton s Optical-Mechanical Analogy.- Relations Between Wave and Geometrical Optics.- A Hertzian Formulation of General Relativity and the Mechanical-Optical Analogy.- III. 5 Foundations of Undulatory Mechanics.- First Response from Munich.- Relation to the Old Theory of Ritz?.- Preparations for the Second Communication.- Does the Scheme Presented Exhaust the Undulatory Content?.- The Mechanical Analogue of the Debye-Laue Construction.- Undulatory Mechanics and the Wave Equation.- IV Early Response and Applications.- IV. 1 The Scheme Starts to Work.- The Discovery of Hilbert s Mathematics .- The Oscillator in Wave Mechanics.- Several Degrees of Freedom and Degeneracy.- The Rotator and the Diatomic Molecule in Wave Mechanics.- Undulatory Perturbation Theory.- The Transcription of Epstein s Calculation of the Stark Effect.- Perturbation Theory for Many Degrees of Freedom.- IV. 2 Response to Wave Mechanics I. The Early Phase.- Continuation of the Correspondence with Wilhelm Wien and Arnold Sommerfeld.- Letters to and from Berlin.- Some Penetrating Questions by Hendrik Lorentz.- IV. 3 Formal Equivalence of Wave Mechanics and the Quantum Mechanics of Born, Heisenberg, Jordan and Dirac.- First Hints of a Relation of Wave Mechanics to Quantum Mechanics.- A Paper by Lanczos on the Field-like Representation of Quantum Mechanics.- Operators and Equivalence of Wave and Matrix Equations.- A Letter by Wolfgang Pauli.- Pauli, Lanczos Field-like Formulation and the Born-Wiener Approach.- A Combination of Schrödinger s and Lanczos Theory.- The Solution of the Equations of Quantum Dynamics: Carl Eckart s Equivalence Demonstration.- IV. 4 Response to Wave Mechanics II. Applications and Extensions.- The Stuttgart Meeting: Talks by Fues and Wentzel.- Band Spectra in Undulatory Mechanics.- Intensity Calculations of Schrödinger, Pauli, Wentzel and Fues.- European-American Competition on the Stark Effect and the Hydrogen Spectrum.- Collision Processes in Wave Mechanics.- Cracking the Helium Problem.- The Advent of Fermi Statistics.- Symmetry Properties of Wave Functions and Quantum Statistics.- IV. 5 Towards an Undulatory Interpretation of Atomic Phenomena.- Early Expressions of Schrodinger s Un

Klappentext

Quantum Theory, together with the principles of special and general relativity, constitute a scientific revolution that has profoundly influenced the way in which we think about the universe and the fundamental forces that govern it. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is a definitive historical study of that scientific work and the human struggles that accompanied it from the beginning. Drawing upon such materials as the resources of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics, the Niels Bohr Archives, and the archives and scientific correspondence of the principal quantum physicists, as well as Jagdish Mehra's personal discussions over many years with most of the architects of quantum theory, the authors have written a rigorous scientific history of quantum theory in a deeply human context. This multivolume work presents a rich account of an intellectual triumph: a unique analysis of the creative scientific process. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is science, history, and biography, all wrapped in the story of a great human enterprise. Its lessons will be an aid to those working in the sciences and humanities alike.