The Origins of Wave Mechanics

Gareth Davies

On the Origin of Atomic Structure and Physical Chemistry De-mystifying Electron Orbitals; Wave Mechanics Without Schrödinger's Equation

Erwin Schrödinger

Louis de Broglie

William Hunter McCrea

A review of The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Volume 5; Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 1 Schrödinger in Vienna and Zurich 1887–1925, and Part 2 The Creation of Wave Mechanics; Early Response and Applications. By Jagdish Mehra and Helmut Rechenberg. (Springer, 1987.) Part 1 [Pp. xviii+336.] £32·40 ISBN 3540 96284 0. Part 2 [Pp. 367–980]. £48·50. ISBN 3540 96377 4. This volume is dedicated to the memory of Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) on the centenary of his birth.

Anthony Duncan A, Michel Janssen B

Abstract This chapter explores Schrödinger’s introduction of wave mechanics. After briefly covering Schrödinger’s earlier work, it turns to the investigations that led him to write a four-part paper in 1926 introducing and applying wave mechanics. The chapter provides a detailed analysis of these four papers, in which the analogy of the new theory to the Hamilton-Jacobi formulation of classical mechanics plays a central role, as well as the paper written in between the second and the third installment on the relation between wave and matrix mechanics. The chapter also discusses Schr "odinger’s original interpretation of his wave functions and the reception of his theory by the physics community.

Erwin Schrödinger