Heisenberg Invents Quantum Dynamics

Arkady Plotnitsky

This article considers a revolutionary transformation – physical, mathematical, and philosophical – of modern physics brought about by Heisenberg’s invention of quantum mechanics (QM). While physical and mathematical aspects of Heisenberg’s invention have been extensively commented on, and while they are essential for this article, considering the transformative philosophical aspects of Heisenberg’s thinking is rare. This article fills this lacuna through the concept of reality without realism (RWR) and the corresponding interpretations of QM, and philosophical implications of this concept.

Daniel R. Bes

JUSSI TIMONEN, D. J. Pilling, R. Bullough

Don A. Howard

What is commonly known as the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, regarded as representing a unitary Copenhagen point of view, differs significantly from Bohr's complementarity interpretation, which does not employ wave packet collapse in its account of measurement and does not accord the subjective observer any privileged role in measurement. It is argued that the Copenhagen interpretation is an invention of the mid-1950s, for which Heisenberg is chiefly responsible, various other physicists and philosophers, including Bohm, Feyerabend, Hanson, and Popper, having further promoted the invention in the service of their own philosophical agendas.

J. Oswald

Jean Michel Maillet

Heisenberg spin-1/2 chains are the archetype of quantum integrable one-dimensional models describing magnetic properties of a wide range of compounds (like the KCuF 3 crystal), which can be probed experimentally through neutron scattering experiments, while being at the same time at the root of the invention of Bethe ansatz and Yang-Baxter structures that led in turn to quantum groups discovery. The aim of this contribution is to describe these algebraic ingredients and to show how to obtain from them (using combined analytical and numerical analysis) dynamical correlation functions of integrable Heisenberg spin-1/2 chains, the Fourier transform of which, the so-called dynamical structure factors, being directly measured in inelastic neutron scattering experiments. Our method is based on the algebraic Bethe ansatz and the resolution of the quantum inverse scattering problem. It leads to recent progress in the computation of integrable Heisenberg spin-1/2 chains correlation functions that we review here. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.