Erwin Schrodinger

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May 28th, 2012
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The mid-1920s was open season in the field of quantum theory and one of the many physicists who waded in with a new influential direction was Erwin Schrodinger. Born in Vienna, to a prosperous merchant family, Schrodinger had a grandmother who was half Austrian, and half English, the English side of the family originating from Leamington Spa, and he grew up speaking both English and German in the home. Schrodinger was taught at home by a private tutor until he was ten. The Austrian scientist developed what became known as ‘wave mechanics,’ although like others, including Einstein, he later became uncomfortable with the direction quantum theory took after doing so much in the first place to validate it.

NOT PARTICLES BUT WAVES

Schrodinger’s own development was built largely on the back of the 1924 proposal by Louis de Broglie (1892-1987) that particles could, in quantum theory, behave like waves. Whilst the Austrian Schrodinger was attracted to this explanation, he was troubled by certain implications of it. Essentially, he felt de Brogue’s equations were too simplistic and did not offer a detailed enough analysis of the behaviour of matter, particularly at the subatomic level. So he took things a stage further and removed the idea of the particle completely! In its place, he argued everything was a form of wave.

A WAVE EQUATION

Amazingly, between 1925 and 1926 he was able to calculate a ‘wave equation’ which mathematically underpinned this argument and the science of quantum wave mechanics was born. Further proof came when the theory was applied against known values for the hydrogen atom, and correct answers were obtained, for example, in calculating the level of energy in an electron. It clearly overcame some of the more woolly elements of the earlier quantum theory developed by Niels Bohr (1885-1962) and addressed the weaknesses in de Broglie’s thesis.

ADAPTING WAVE THEORY

Indeed, the theory behind wave mechanics was now applied to all sorts of other situations with great effect. Unfortunately, it too had some fundamental weaknesses and Schrodinger was not blind to these. The overriding one was, having done away with particles, it was difficult to offer a physical explanation for the properties and nature of matter. The Austrian came up with the concept of ‘wave packets’ which would give the impression of the particle as seen in classical physics, but would actually be a wave. The justifications he offered, though, were found not to add up.

THE PROBABILISTIC INTERPRETATION

This left Schrodinger’s work susceptible to being superseded by that of others, just as his had improved on those whose ideas came before him. Shortly afterwards, the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory based on the ideas of Heisenberg (1901-76) and Born (1882-1970) took hold. This effectively proposed matter did not exist in any particular place at all, being everywhere at the same time, until one attempted to measure it. At that point the equations they put forward offered the best ‘probability’ of finding the matter in a given location. Whilst this is still widely accepted as the most adequate explanation today, Schrodinger joined Einstein and others in condemning such a loose, probabilistic view of physics where nothing was explainable for certain and essentially cause and effect did not exist.

Ironically, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac(1902-84), another important influence in quantum mechanics, went on to prove Schrodinger’s wave thesis and the alternative probabilistic interpretation he abhorred were mathematically, at least, the equivalent of each other. Schrodinger shared a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933 with Dirac.

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