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Ehrenfest Theorems

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Compendium of Quantum Physics
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The Ehrenfest theorems establish a formal connection between the time dependence of quantum mechanical expectation values of ► observables and the corresponding classical equations of motion. Although mean values alone are insufficient to derive classical behavior from quantum mechanics, the validity of the Ehrenfest relations is an important requirement for a partial derivation of classical physics.

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Primary Literature

  1. P. Ehrenfest: Bemerkung über die angenäherte Gültigkeit der klassischen Mechanik innerhalb der Quantenmechanik. Z. Phys 45, 455–457 (1927)

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Secondary Literature

  1. F. Haake: Quantum signatures of chaos (Springer, Berlin, 2001)

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Joos, E. (2009). Ehrenfest Theorems. 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_58

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70626-7_58

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-70622-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70626-7

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