Related papers: On Max Born's "Vorlesungen ueber Atommechanik, Ers…
We examine evaluations of the contributions of Matrix Mechanics and Max Born to the formulation of quantum mechanics from Heisenberg's Helgoland paper of 1925 to Born's Nobel Prize of 1954. We point out that the process of evaluation is…
This paper appeared in a collection of papers titled "Scientific Papers Presented to Max Born on his retirement from the Tait Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh", published in 1953 (Oliver and Boyd), pages 33-40.
This paper explores the historical development of the theory of quantum mechanics between 1900 and 1927 by chronological examination of the foundational papers and ideas. Beginning with Planck's introduction of energy quantisation in…
The aim of the famous Born and Jordan 1925 paper was to put Heisenberg's matrix mechanics on a firm mathematical basis. Born and Jordan showed that if one wants to ensure energy conservation in Heisenberg's theory it is necessary and…
Heisenberg's breakthrough in his July 1925 paper that set in motion the development of Quantum Mechanics through subsequent papers by Born, Jordan, Heisenberg and also Dirac (from 1925 to 1927) is reexamined through a modern lens. In this…
An informal guide to the history of Heisenberg's matrix mechanics. It is designed for mathematicians with only a minimal background in either physics or geometry, and it is based upon Heisenberg's original arguments.
Most physics textbooks at college and university level introduce quantum physics in a historical context. However, the textbook version of this history does not match the actual history. In this article, the first in a series of articles…
Quantum Mechanics (QM) has faced deep controversies and debates since its origin when Werner Heisenberg proposed the first mathematical formalism capable to operationally account for what had been recently discovered as the new field of…
We review Bohr's atomic model and its extension by Sommerfeld from a mathematical perspective of wave mechanics. The derivation of quantization rules and energy levels is revisited using semiclassical methods. Sommerfeld-type integrals are…
Planck's introduction of the quantum of action in 1900 was followed by 25 years of trial and error in quest of the understanding of the quantum world; different ideas and directions had to be pursued until the path leading to the elementary…
In July 1925 Heisenberg published a paper [Z. Phys. 33, 879-893 (1925)] which ended the period of `the Old Quantum Theory' and ushered in the new era of Quantum Mechanics. This epoch-making paper is generally regarded as being difficult to…
This is the introduction to the section on Quantum Mechanics in the centennial collection of noteworthy articles appearing in The Physical Review and Physical Review Letters through 1983, since it all began in 1893. The selections for this…
Quantum mechanics describes successfully numerous quantum phenomena both microscopic and macroscopic, such as superconductivity. But the controversies about quantum mechanics, in the old days and present day, reveal fundamental obscurity in…
The purpose of this work is to retrace the steps that were made by scientists of XX century, like Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, Dirac, for the formulation of what today represents the modern quantum mechanics and that, within two…
The following is a translation of the paper by Walther Gerlach and Otto Stern that reported the first evidence for the quantisation of atoms in a magnetic field. The atoms have quantum states corresponding to a limited number of possible…
New insight to the principles of the quantum physics development is given. The correct ways for the construction of new versions of quantum mechanics on the second main postulate base are discussed. The conclusion on the status of the…
With the advent of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg in 1925 exactly a century ago, the quantization of the electromagnetic field became an important goal for our founding fathers, whom we are here to celebrate. It was realized very soon that…
We expose the Schr\"odinger quantum mechanics with traditional applications to Hydrogen atom. We discuss carefully the experimental and theoretical background for the introduction of the Schr\"odinger, Pauli and Dirac equations, as well as…
We discuss, from a historiographical point of view, which was the degree of certainty that the physicists directly involved in the birth of Quantum Mechanics (Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Dirac and Schr\"odinger) gave to the atomistic…
The lack of the Max Born interpretation of the wave function as a probability density describing the localization of a quantum system in configuration space is pointed out related to the recent category based model of quantum mechanics…