Heisenberg's principles

Jeanne Peijnenburg, David Atkinson

Abstract How certain is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle? Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is at the heart of the orthodox or Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. We first sketch the history that led up to the formulation of the principle. Then we recall that there are in fact two uncertainty principles, both dating from 1927, one by Werner Heisenberg and one by Earle Kennard. Finally, we explain that recent work in physics gives reason to believe that the principle of Heisenberg is invalid, while that of Kennard still stands.

Lisa Paul Streitfeld

Antônio Sérgio Teixeira Pires

Horandstrasse, Jever, Germany, Ilija Barukčić

oday the so-called Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics dominated description of the physical world still denies the possibility to assign exact simultaneous values to (all) physical quantities. A prime example is claimed to be the fundamental and universal relationship between position and momentum of a particle. According to Heisenberg's quantum mechanical uncertainty principle for position and momentum, the more precisely the momentum (position) of a particle is given, the less precisely can one say what its position (momentum) is and vice versa.\nThe purpose of this publication is to provide a mathematical proof that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle for position and momentum is refuted under any circumstances. As we shall see, accept Heisenberg's uncertainty principle as valid then you must accept too that +0 = +1, which is a logical contradiction. Thus far, it is possible to derive a logical contradiction out of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is refuted.

David Atkinson, Jeanne Peijnenburg

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is a milestone of twentieth-century physics. We sketch the history that led to the formulation of the principle, and we recall the objections of Grete Hermann and Niels Bohr. Then we explain that there are in fact two uncertainty principles. One was published by Heisenberg in the Zeitschrift für Physik of March 1927 and subsequently targeted by Bohr and Hermann. The other one was introduced by Earle Kennard in the same journal a couple of months later. While Kennard’s principle remains untarnished, the principle of Heisenberg has recently been criticized in a way that is very different from the objections by Bohr and Hermann: there are reasons to believe that Heisenberg’s formula is not valid. Experimental results seem to support this claim.

Leonard Eisenbud