From the origin of quantum concepts to the establishment of quantum mechanics

M A El'yashevich

The article deals with the origins and development, in the first quarter of the 20th century, of the fundamental ideas advanced by Planck and Einstein and by Bohr and de Broglie concerning the quantum of action, the quanta of energy and the quanta of light, the stationary states of atomic systems and jumplike transitions between them, the correspondence principle, and the particle-wave dualism. It is shown how the development of the quantum concepts have led to two approaches to the creation of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Born, and Dirac in algebraic form and by Schrodinger in analytic form. The main stages in the evolution of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics are described, namely the development of wave mechanics and matrix mechanics, the proofs of their equivalence, the physical interpretation of the wave function, the generalized formulation of quantum mechanics as a unified theory, and the discovery of the uncertainty relations. The most important trends in the development of quantum mechanics in the course of its evolution are considered. A complete bibliography of the main period of evolution of quantum mechanics (July 1925–March 1928), classified by topics and by time of publication, is included.

Mark S Swanson

Ren Jinzhon

Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics, studying the movement of microscopic particles. It has realized the great leap of human understanding, from the macroscopic world to the microscopic world. In the establishing process of quantum mechanics, from the birth of quantum theory, the matrix mechanics and wave mechanics to the final establishment of quantum mechanics, the physicists, represented by Schrodinger and Heisenberg, have made an indelible contribution by using innovative thinking. The establishment illustrates the important role of creative thinking in the development of science. We should apply the concept of creative thinking to the applied talents training.

Joachim J. Włodarz

Abstract Attempts to put classical and quantum mechanics on an equal footing gave rise to establishing of many known phase‐space representations of quantum mechanics. The class of self‐dual representations occupies a distinguished position among them, as they could be endowed with a Hilbert space structure closely resembling the standard picture of quantum mechanics. Using a phase‐space variational principle and the concept of a phase‐space wave function, we established a phase‐space version of the density functional theory parallel to the original Hohenberg–Kohn formalism and the constrained‐search approach by Levy and Lieb. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.