Abstract
Quantum mechanics is inescapable. All physics is quantum physics, from elementary particles to the big bang, semiconductors, and solar energy cells. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the history of mankind, probably the greatest of those that will remain from the 20th century. We describe here the major ideas and experiments that led to its formalization.
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Notes
- 1.
R. P. Feynman, The Character of Physical Law, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1965.
- 2.
Max Planck, “Zur Theorie des Gesetzes der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum”. Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft. 2: 237.
- 3.
Max Jammer, The conceptual development of quantum mechanics, Mc-Graw-Hill, (1966); J. Mehra and H. Rechenberg, The historical development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 1, Chap.1, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1982; Giorgio Parisi, in Planck’s Legacy to Statistical Mechanics, https://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0101293.pdf (Jan. 2001), analyses, for the centenial, the main ideas at that time.
- 4.
“Über die beziehung dem zweiten Haubtsatze der mechanischen Wärmetheorie und der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung respektive den Sätzen über das Wärmegleichgewicht”, Wiener Berichte, Vol. 76, 1877b, pp. 373–435.
- 5.
Annalen der Physik 17, 132 (1905); translated in English by A. B. Arons and M.B. Peppard, American Journal of Physics 33, 367 (1965).
- 6.
Compton, Arthur H. “A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-Rays by Light Elements”. Physical Review. 21 (5): 483–502. (1923)
- 7.
The \(1/n^2\) behavior was known since 1886 and Balmer’s empirical discovery that Bohr had learned by chance.
- 8.
O. Donati et al., Amer. Phys. 41, p. 639 (1973); experiments are due to P. G. Merli, G. F. Missiroli and G. Pozzi, On the statistical aspect of electron interference phenomena, Amer. Jour. Phys., 44, p. 306 (1976). G. Matteuci et al., Amer. Jour. Phys. 46, p. 619 (1978).
- 9.
A. Tonomura, J. Endo, T. Matsuda, T. Kawasaki and H. Ezawa, Demonstration of Single-Electron Buildup of an Interference Pattern, American Journal of Physics 57, p. 117 (1989).
- 10.
O. Nairz, M. Arndt, A. Zeilinger, American Journal of Physics, Vol. 71, 319 (2003), and references therein.
- 11.
Stefan Gerlich et al. (5 April 2011). “Quantum interference of large organic molecules”. Nature Communications. 2: 263.
- 12.
It is surprising that de Broglie didn’t think of writing this equation, or its relativistic equivalent – since he used the relativistic energy-momentum relation \(E^2=(p^2c^2 + m^2c^4)\).
- 13.
The amazing story of Davisson’s approach is made by R. K. Gehrenbeck in Physics Today 31, p. 34 (January 1978)
- 14.
D. Shechtman, I. Blech, D. Gratias, and J. W. Cahn, Phys. Rev. Lett. bf 53, 1951 (1984). I thank Denis Gratias for his explanations and photos.
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Basdevant, JL. (2023). Quantum Phenomena. In: Lectures on Quantum Mechanics. Graduate Texts in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17635-7_2
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