Development of Concepts in the History of Quantum Theory

Reinhold Fürth

Jagdish Mehra, Helmut Rechenberg

Tulsi Dass, Yogesh N. Joglekar

An axiomatic development of dynamics of systems in the framework of histories is given which contains the history versions of classical and traditional quantum mechanics as special cases. We consider theories which admit a quasitemporal structure (a generalization of the concept of time using partial semigroups) and whose “single time” propositions have the mathematical structure of a logic; isomorphism of logics at different “instants of time” is not assumed. The concept of directed partial semigroup is introduced to incorporate the concept of direction of flow of time in quasitemporal theories. Starting with a few simple axioms, the space of history propositions is explicitly constructed and shown to be an orthoalgebra (as envisaged in the scheme of Isham and Linden [J. Math. Phys. 35, 5452–5476 (1994)]); its subspace consisting of history filters (“homogeneous histories”) is a meet semilattice. The partial semigroups employed allow semi-infinite irreducible decompositions.

Hendrik B. G. Casimir

Kholikov Kamoliddin Abdiganiyevich

This article discusses the development of views on the study of the concept of "quantum".Quantum theory describes three of the four fundamental types of interactions –electromagnetic, strong and weak. And currently, the active study of this field of physicscontinues. However, this work was based on the study of the history of the discovery of the concept of "quantum" and its physical meaning.