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Early Opposition to the Copenhagen Interpretation

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Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology ((BRIEFSHIST))

Abstract

This chapter describes the decided opposition of Einstein and Schrödinger to the Copenhagen interpretation. Einstein’s understanding of Quantum Theory is described in detail based on his own writings. According to Einstein the “EPR paper” (Einstein, Podolsky , Rosen , 1935) was written by Podolsky and does not properly contain Einstein’s own stance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The probabilities may be calculated in various ways; “time”-dependent perturbation theory is the standard method used. The appendix gives another version to obtain the same result.

  2. 2.

    On the other hand, Podolsky shows that the wave function of a single system does not allow this system to have precise values of noncommuting observables simultaneously. Via some weird chain of arguments Podolsky then reaches the conclusion that the wave-function of the single system cannot be complete. One has to read the paper at least five times to follow the chain of arguments; the whole thing is so un-Einstein like if compared to the clarity of Einstein’s own publications, that it is hard to believe that Podolsky had Einstein’s approval to publish this version.

  3. 3.

    For weak interactions the probabilities are given in Born’s scattering paper. “Time”-dependent perturbation theory may also be used; equivalent results are obtained using the methods of the appendix.

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Correspondence to Herbert Capellmann .

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Capellmann, H. (2017). Early Opposition to the Copenhagen Interpretation. In: The Development of Elementary Quantum Theory. SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61884-5_8

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