Abstract
Starting from his considerations about the unity of physics, Weizsäcker’s program led to a proposal for that unity which put forward the idea that ‘atoms’ in the strictest sense could be the key to the fundamental problems of physics: In quantum mechanics the smallest possible objects are those with a two-dimensional state space (which he calls 'ur-objects'). These objects are indivisible, literally ‘atoma’, because parts of such an object are not even thinkable, they are impossible even conceptually. Weizsäcker based his considerations on the fact that the symmetry of the two-dimensional state space, SU(2), is 1:2-isomorphic to the rotational symmetry of ordinary three-dimensional space, SO(3). He uses this structure in order to suggest a fundamental physics based on the combination of very many of those 2-dimensional ('ur'-)objects.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain;
T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land (1923).
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Notes
- 1.
This text was originally published in: Quantum Theory and the Structures of Time and Space I (Munich: Hanser, 1975): 7–9; 213–229.
- 2.
See Heisenberg (1971).
- 3.
“Lattice Theory, Groups, and Space”, in: Castell et al. (1975).
- 4.
“Classical and quantum descriptions”, in: Mehra (1973).
- 5.
For details cf.: “Probability and Quantum Mechanics”, in: British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 24 (1973): 321–337; reprinted as “Probability and Abstract Quantum Theory”, in this vol. (MD).
- 6.
“Komplementarität und Logik. Niels Bohr zum 70. Geburtstag am 7.10.1955 gewidmet”, in: Die Naturwissenschaften, 42, 19 (1955): 521–529; Komplementarität und Logik II, 42, 20 (1955): 545–555; together with Erhard Scheibe und Georg Süßmann: “Komplementarität und Logik III: Mehrfache Quantelung”, in: Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, 13a, 9 (1958): 705–721.
- 7.
See Borges (1982).
- 8.
See Klein (1985).
References
Borges, Jorge Luis, 1982: “Tlon Uqbar Orbis Tertius”, in: Erin, Ont. (Porcupine’s Quill).
Castell, L.; Drieschner, M.; von Weizsäcker, C. F. (Eds.), 1975: Quantum Theory and the Structures of Time and Space (Munich: Hanser): 55–69.
Heisenberg, Werner, 1971/1969: Physics and Beyond (London: Allen & Unwin), translation of: Der Teil und das Ganze (Munich: Piper).
Klein, Felix, (1985): Erlanger Antrittsrede. A transcription with an English translation and a commentary was published by: Rowe, David., in: E. Historia Mathematica, 12, 2: 123–141 (Amsterdam etc.: Elsevier).
Mehra, Jagdish, 1973 (Ed.): The Physicist’s Conception of Nature (Dordrecht: Reidel): 635–667.
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von Weizsäcker, C.F. (2014). The Philosophy of Alternatives. In: Drieschner, M. (eds) Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Major Texts in Physics. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice(), vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03668-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03668-7_9
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