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Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

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Compendium of Quantum Physics

Attempts to establish a relativistic quantum mechanics – an integration of ►quantum theory and the theory of relativity – predate the emergence of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. Shortly after Niels Bohr had proposed his ►atom model in 1913, he and a few others realized that ►quantum theory might be improved by using relativity rather than classical mechanics. These efforts culminated in 1916–17 when Arnold Sommerfeld in Munich devised a modified version of Bohr’s model by incorporating the relativistic variation of the mass of an electron moving around an atomic nucleus.

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Kragh, H. (2009). Relativistic Quantum Mechanics. In: Greenberger, D., Hentschel, K., Weinert, F. (eds) Compendium of Quantum Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70626-7_184

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70626-7_184

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