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Physics Bulletin

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory Volume 1 Parts 1 and 2: The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld – Its Foundation and the Rise of its Difficulties 1900–1925

Maurice Ebison

Published Jun 1, 1985• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

J Mehra and H Rechenberg 1982 Berlin: Springer Part 1 xlvii + 372 pp price DM75 ISBN 3 540 90642 8, Part 2 vi + 878 pp price DM85 ISBN 3 540 90667 3 These two volumes, which are the first of a massive ten-part enterprise, provide an exhaustive treatment of the foundation of quantum theory by Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld and the advent of its difficulties in the first quarter of the 20th century. The chief aim of the authors was to use the written resources and the recollections of leading physicists to describe the main ideas of and events in the birth of quantum theory.

DOI
10.1088/0031-9112/36/6/027

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J Mehra and H Rechenberg 1982 Berlin: Springer Part 1 xlvii + 372 pp price DM75 ISBN 3 540 90642 8, Part 2 vi + 878 pp price DM85 ISBN 3 540 90667 3 These two volumes, which are the first of a massive ten-part enterprise, provide an exhaustive treatment of the foundation of quantum theory by Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld and the advent of its difficulties in the first quarter of the 20th century. The chief aim of the authors was to use the written resources and the recollections of leading physicists to describe the main ideas of and events in the birth of quantum theory.
Abstract This is the first of two volumes on the genesis of quantum mechanics. It covers the key developments in the period 1900–1923 that provided the scaffold on which the arch of modern quantum mechanics was built in the period 1923–1927 (covered in the second volume). After tracing the early contributions by Planck, Einstein, and Bohr to the theories of black‐body radiation, specific heats, and spectroscopy, all showing the need for drastic changes to the physics of their day, the book tackles the efforts by Sommerfeld and others to provide a new theory, now known as the old quantum theory. After some striking initial successes (explaining the fine structure of hydrogen, X‐ray spectra, and the Stark effect), the old quantum theory ran into serious difficulties (failing to provide consistent models for helium and the Zeeman effect) and eventually gave way to matrix and wave mechanics. Constructing Quantum Mechanics is based on the best and latest scholarship in the field, to which the authors have made significant contributions themselves. It breaks new ground, especially in its treatment of the work of Sommerfeld and his associates, but also offers new perspectives on classic papers by Planck, Einstein, and Bohr. Throughout the book, the authors provide detailed reconstructions (at the level of an upper‐level undergraduate physics course) of the cental arguments and derivations of the physicists involved. All in all, Constructing Quantum Mechanics promises to take the place of older books as the standard source on the genesis of quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics is one of the great success stories of modern physics, making sense of the very small just as Einstein's theory of relativity made sense of the very large. But, for most students, the ideas that make quantum mechanics powerful can be confusing and counterintuitive. This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Great Ideas in Science series provides a history of quantum mechanics from the early breakthroughs of Planck and Einstein, at the beginning of the 20th century, to the present frontiers of quantum computing and quantum gravity. The approach is entirely non-technical, and is aimed at the general reader who may not have much mathematical background but who has a strong curiosity about some of the most important developments in modern science. Quantum Mechanics: A Historical Perspectivetraces the history of this powerful theory, including: ; The early discoveries by Max Planck and Albert Einstein regarding the quantization of radiation ; The early quantum theory, including Neils Bohr's theory of the atom ; The birth of modern quantum mechanics through the work of Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Born, Dirac and others ; Applications of quantum mechanics in chemistry, nuclear physics, electronics, and many other areas ; Recent work in quantum computation and quantum information theory The book emphasizes the fact that despite the great success of quantum mechanics, many exciting intellectual frontiers remain open for further researchers to explore. It includes a glossary, a timeline, and a bibliography of accessible resources for further research.
Abstract This is the second of two volumes on the genesis of quantum mechanics in the first quarter of the twentieth century. It covers the period 1923–1927. It traces how the old quantum theory of Bohr and Sommerfeld gave way to the matrix mechanics of Heisenberg and others, and to the wave mechanics of Schrödinger. It then turns to the emergence of statistical transformation theory and the Hilbert space formalism unifying these two forms of the new quantum theory. It uses the metaphor of an arch built on a scaffold to capture these developments. The volume provides detailed analyses of the classic papers of Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Pauli, Dirac, De Broglie, Einstein, Schrödinger, von Neumann, and others, which helped to lay the foundations of modern quantum mechanics. Drawing on correspondence and later reminiscences of these authors and synthesizing much of the extensive secondary literature on the breakthrough to modern quantum mechanics in the mid-1920s, this volume presents an authoritative new account of the genesis of quantum mechanics.