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History 181B:  Modern Physics
Class 25 (3/14/01)
Making sense of quantum mechanics
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Outline The second route to quantum mechanics

     The (old) quantum theory of radiation (last time)

     Schrödinger's wave mechanics (1926)
          Distaste for the school of atomic theory
          An alternative framework:  continuous, visualizable waves
          The meaning of the wavefunction (Round 1)

Towards a resolution:  consolidating matrix mechanics and wave mechanics

     Formal identity — but what does this mean physically?
     Born's statistical interpretation of the wavefunction
          Collisions of particles
          The nature of statistics in quantum mechanics

Making interpretive sense of the theory

     Heisenberg and uncertainty
          How far can we continue to use classical concepts?
          A thought experiment:  the gamma-ray microscope
          Two consequences
               Intrinsic limitations on information, and how we speak about them
               Breakdown of the law of causality

     The Copenhagen Interpretation
     And those who, like Einstein, objected

Names and terms 
Primary Secondary
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), NP 1933
matter waves
indeterminacy
"On the physical [or perceptual] content of quantum kinematics and mechanics" (1927)
DpDq >= h-bar / 2
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
complementarity
eigenvalue problem
Copyright © Cathryn Carson 2001