We describe and analyze the details of the first visit of the Viennese physicist Erwin Schröding-er to Spain, in the summer of 1934. The reason for the trip was the invitation he received from the International University of Santander, a meeting he attended after participating in the XIV Conference of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science that took place that same summer in Santiago de Compostela. We will discuss the impact of this visit on the first developments of quantum mechanics in Spain and see the role that personalities such as Xavier Zubiri or Blas Cabrera played in this episode. We will also put this visit in the context of Schrödinger’s personal and academic life, especially as regards the content of his talks. We will see that what he presented in Santiago and Santander should be considered as an advan-ce of his criticism of the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics. We leave for a second installment the trip he made in the spring of 1935, less than a year later, this time with his wife Annie, and in which he delivered various conferences and courses on wave mechanics in Madrid.
We describe and analyze the details of the first visit of the Viennese physicist Erwin Schröding-er to Spain, in the summer of 1934. The reason for the trip was the invitation he received from the International University of Santander, a meeting he attended after participating in the XIV Conference of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science that took place that same summer in Santiago de Compostela. We will discuss the impact of this visit on the first developments of quantum mechanics in Spain and see the role that personalities such as Xavier Zubiri or Blas Cabrera played in this episode. We will also put this visit in the context of Schrödinger’s personal and academic life, especially as regards the content of his talks. We will see that what he presented in Santiago and Santander should be considered as an advan-ce of his criticism of the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics. We leave for a second installment the trip he made in the spring of 1935, less than a year later, this time with his wife Annie, and in which he delivered various conferences and courses on wave mechanics in Madrid.
When Schrödinger returned from his summer holidays for the winter semester of the academic year 1925/26, he would have been quite unaware that he was on the verge of an outburst of creative activity that would change forever the world of physics. He had just reviewed and codified his personal world view and it was unlikely that his philosophical outlook would change in any revolutionary way. He had set down his belief in Vedanta and thus in Schopenhauer, through whom the Kantian a priori categories of space and time had been refurbished. During five carefree years in Switzerland, he had been insulated from both the hypocrisy of Vienna and the brutality of German politics. It would not be surprising if Swiss society, with its deep roots in economic security, had made him more conservative in other ways. His more unconventional beliefs, he kept to himself, and neither his inaugural lecture nor My World View was published at this time. Hermann Weyl once said that Schrödinger ‘did his great work during a late erotic outburst in his life’. His marriage with Anny was at a high point of disagreement and tension, with constant talk of breakup and divorce. Their Zürich circle provided ample opportunities for amorous adventures, and if Erwin cared to venture outside the usual academic liaisons, both Weyl and Debye were available as competent guides to the uninhibited night life of the city. Before the breakthrough The semester began on October 15, and Schrödinger had his usual heavy teaching schedule, five hours a week on Theory of Electricity, two hours on Theory of Spectra, a weekly seminar for the electricity course, and the joint seminar with E.T.H., which met for two hours every fortnight. Pieter Debye suggested that Erwin should give a seminar talk on the de Broglie thesis, which had just been published in Annales de Physique .
When schrödinger returned from his summer holidays for the winter semester of the academic year 1925/26, he would have been quite unaware that he was on the verge of an outburst of creative activity that would change forever the world of physics. He had just reviewed and codified his personal world view and it was unlikely that his philosophical outlook would change in any revolutionary way. He had set down his belief in Vedanta and thus in Schopenhauer, through whom the Kantian a priori categories of space and time had been refurbished. During five carefree years in Switzerland, he had been insulated from both the hypocrisy of Vienna and the brutality of German politics. It would not be surprising if Swiss society, with its deep roots in economic security, had made him more conservative in other ways. His more unconventional beliefs, he kept to himself, and neither his inaugural lecture nor My World View was published at this time. Hermann Weyl once said that schrödinger ‘did his great work during a late erotic outburst in his life’. His marriage with Anny was at a high point of disagreement and tension, with constant talk of breakup and divorce. Their zürich circle provided ample opportunities for amorous adventures, and if Erwin cared to venture outside the usual academic liaisons, both Weyl and Debye were available as competent guides to the uninhibited night life of the city. Before the breakthrough The semester began on October 15, and schrödinger had his usual heavy teaching schedule, five hours a week on Theory of Electricity, two hours on Theory of Spectra, a weekly seminar for the electricity course, and the joint seminar with E.T.H., which met for two hours every fortnight. Pieter Debye suggested that Erwin should give a seminar talk on the de Broglie thesis, which had just been published in Annales de Physique .
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) foi um físico austríaco, um grande cientista que viveu em um contexto europeu de mudança e turbulência, mas isso não o impediu de ter uma vida muito intensa, tanto em sua pesquisa científica quanto em sua vida pessoal. Seu trabalho mais famoso, publicado em 1926, inclui sua teoria da mecânica ondulatória, no qual consta a famosa equação que tem hoje o seu nome. Ele mostrou que a equação funcionava adequadamente para calcular os níveis de energia do átomo de hidrogênio. Em outros trabalhos, publicados no mesmo período, mostrou outras aplicações designadas ao oscilador harmônico e uma generalização para o caso dependente do tempo. Sua dedicação aos sistemas quânticos lhe rendeu o Prêmio Nobel em 1933. É sobre esse homem fascinante e complexo que se apresenta um recorte histórico com potencial para atrair não apenas os cientistas, mas qualquer pessoa interessada na história de nossos tempos, na vida e no pensamento de um dos maiores cientistas do século XX. O presente artigo nasceu do fato de que, embora muito se fale sobre Schrödinger, não há textos em língua portuguesa que ultrapassem os limites biográficos, apesar de sua extrema relevância teórica para a pesquisa acadêmica. Nesse sentido, tem-se por objetivo visitar algumas obras que relatam os acontecimentos ou fatos econômicos, políticos, sociais e culturais que resultaram no período mais produtivo da carreira de Schrödinger.A historical overview of Erwin Schrödinger’s contributions to Quantum MechanicsAbstractErwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) was an Austrian physicist, a great scientist who lived in a European context of change and turmoil, but this did not stop him from living a very intense life, both in his scientific research and in his personal life. His most famous work, published in 1926, includes his theory of wave mechanics, which contains the famous equation that bears his name today. He showed that the equation worked properly for calculating the energy levels of the hydrogen atom. In other works, published in the same period, he showed other applications assigned to the harmonic oscillator and a generalization for the time dependent case. His dedication to quantum systems won him the Nobel Prize in 1933. It is about this fascinating and complex man who presents a historical snippet with the potential to attract not only scientists, but anyone interested in the history of our times, life and thought from one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. This article was born from the fact that, although much is said about Schrödinger, there are no texts in Portuguese that go beyond biographical limits, despite its extreme theoretical relevance for academic research. In this sense, the objective is to visit some works that report the economic, political, social and cultural events or facts that resulted in the most productive period of Schrödinger's career.Keywords: Quantum mechanics; Schrödinger; History of Physics.
Vienna today is one of the capitals of research on foundations of quantum physics. We reconstruct the development of modern physics in Vienna, with a focus on foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM), which is a sub-field of quantum mechanics. We show that the influence of Erwin Schrödinger and, in more recent years, the initiatives of Anton Zeilinger-the two main intuitive reasons-cannot alone account for today's outstanding research landscape on FQM in Vienna. We highlight four additional factors that played a crucial role in the development of foundational research in Vienna: 1) the Viennese heritage of the cultural golden age just before World War II; 2) the long-lasting institutional connection between the faculty of physics and philosophy; 3) a rise of several initiatives that gave forum to the interplay of physics and philosophy; and 4) the influence of several external scholars in the Viennese scientific landscape. Our analysis is informed by interviews with the most pertinent scientists, a detailed survey of the relevant social networks, and review of the main primary literature.
Abstract Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) was hailed as a mathematical and scientific genius from the beginning of his student years in Vienna. He was one of the small band of theoretical physicists who wrought a revolution in the perception of matter and the Universe in the years just before and after the First World War. Schrodinger’s most celebrated monument is the invention of wave mechanics, a description of the behaviour of fundamental particles, which he, with others, later showed to be the obverse of quantum mechanics. In 1927, he was elected, as successor to Max Planck, to a professorial chair at Berlin University, then the Mecca of theoretical physics. There he became closely associated with Albert Einstein, a friendship that endured intermittently, though with stormy vicissitudes, until a few years before Einstein’s death in 1955.
El paper central d’Schrodinger en l’adveniment de la Mecanica Quantica es ampliament reconegut pel relat historic oficial. Menys conegudes son, pero, les grans diferencies que va mantenir amb el corrent majoritari de la fisica teorica un cop establerta aquesta teoria. La seva lluita (1935-1961) es va centrar en revisar les bases de la teoria quantica, posant especial emfasi en la interpretacio. En aquest article elaborem un esquema historic dels arguments que va aportar, principalment en relacio amb la questio de la constitucio elemental de la materia. Argumentem que les idees tardanes d’Schrodinger, sovint malinterpretades, poden aportar contingut util a un debat encara vigent. The central role of Schrodinger in the birth of Quantum Mechanics is widely acknowledged by the official historical accounts. However, his refusal of the main stream in theoretical physics once the quantum theory was established is less known. His struggle (1935-1961) focused in revisiting the foundations of the quantum theory, with special stress on interpretation. In this paper we give a historical outline of his claims, specially with regard to the elementary constitution of matter. We argue that the latter ideas of Schrodinger, often misunderstood, can provide useful insight into a debate which is still alive.