Questions tagged [quantum-mechanics]
The branch of physics that relates to the behavior of objects, typically particles, on small scales. Probability is very important in quantum mechanics.
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Who introduced the fermionic creation and annihilation operators?
It is strange that this is never mentioned when textbooks introduce the 2nd quantization formalism.
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I want to know the tricks to search for and find old academic journals for free
In the research of scientific and mathematical history, efficient skills in searching for and accessing old academic journals (preferably for free) are essential. However, even when using platforms ...
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Is the first paper attempting to apply Hilbert space theory to quantum mechanics in 1926 Germany available for free online?
I would like to view the quantum mechanics paper "Über die Jacobischen Transformationen der Quantenmechanik," published in Germany in 1926 by Fritz Wolfgang London. The reference is Z. Phys. ...
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Was Bell’s theorem historically seen as evidence against realism and determinism?
As Tim Maudlin points out in his paper:
Early on, Bell’s result was often reported as ruling out determinism, or hidden variables. Nowadays, it is sometimes reported as ruling out, or at least ...
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I'm searching for the original paper from 1924 where Max Born first proposed the term "quantum mechanics."
I'm searching for historical documents pertaining to quantum mechanics because I aim to write a popular essay on the topic for a web magazine. Specifically, I'm seeking free access to Max Born's paper ...
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Use of eigenvalues of operators in quantum mechanics
My very basic understanding of Quantum Mechanics and its history is that first, some physical quantities were thought to be continuous but experiments showed that they only took discrete values.
My ...
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Origin of Einstein quote "Quantum mechanics: Real Black Magic Calculus"
The description of the 1993 English translation of The Quantum Dice, by Ponomarev and Kurchatov, as well as one of the quotes for chapter 2 of Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, by Nielsen ...
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What paper or papers about molecules did Heisenberg "like", and what has Heisenberg published or otherwise commented about it?
In the 2023 film Oppenheimer based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, there seems to be two references to work by Oppenheimer on molecules:
RABI: I caught ...
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A brief history of "delocalization" of electrons
I have been studying the concepts of "resonance" and "mesomerism" recently and a common principle of these concepts is the "delocalization" (of electrons, molecular ...
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Origin of the name "Loschmidt echo" in quantum chaos studies
The name "Loschmidt echo" is used in quantum physics for the quantity
$$
M(t) \equiv \left| \langle\psi_0| e^{i H t/\hbar} e^{-i H_0 t/\hbar} |\psi_0\rangle \right|^2
$$
where
$$
H = H_0 + ...
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Dirac’s debt to Hamilton
According to Tobias Hurter’s popular exposition Too Big for a Single Mind (narrated in the present tense):
Dirac makes use of an elegant mathematical tool developed by the Irish mathematician William ...
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How did Schrödinger do quantum mechanics with wave functions?
On my way to learn about the very beginning of quantum mechanics and its different formulations, starting with Heisenberg infinite matrices and Schrödinger's wave functions, I can really not find till ...
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Why was the Greek letter psi (Ψ) chosen to represent the wave function?
When I was reading, the question just popped into my head after noticing that the Greek letter ψ looks kind of like a wave itself. Stylized, they look even more wavy:
$$\Huge \Psi\;\Huge\psi$$
This ...
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Who was the scientist who first showed that helium has a bound state, and was he a nazi?
I remember from my quantum course that the first person (I believe in 1927) to show that helium has a bound state, using the variational principle, was a nazi. It was remarked by my professors that he ...
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Who was the first to make a Stern-Gerlach experiment with two magnets?
I'm trying to fill a conceptual gap I have in the history of physics
In 1922 Stern and Gerlach make their experiment, proving that electrons have intrinsic angular momentum, however it takes a while ...
