Niels Bohr's discussions with Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schroedinger: the origins of the principles of uncertainty and complementarity

Journal Article · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987 · Found. Phys.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01559698· OSTI ID:5999501

Mehra, J

In this paper, the main outlines of the discussions between Niels Bohr with Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schroedinger during 1920-1927 are treated. From the formulation of quantum mechanics in 1925-1926 and wave mechanics in 1926, there emerged Born's statistical interpretation of the wave function in summer 1926, and on the basis of the quantum mechanical transformation theory - formulated in fall 1926 by Dirac, London, and Jordan - Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle in early 1927. At the Volta Conference in Como in September 1927 and at the fifth Solvay Conference in Brussels the following month, Bohr publicly enunciated his complementarity principle, which had been developing in his mind for several years. The Bohr-Einstein discussions about the consistency and completeness of quantum mechanics and of physical theory as such - formally begun in October 1927 at the fifth Solvay Conference and carried on at the sixth Solvay Conference in October 1930 - were continued during the next decades. All these aspects are briefly summarized.

• Research Organization: Instituts Internationaux de Physique et de Chimie (Solvay), Brussels, Belgium
• OSTI ID: 5999501
• Journal Information: Found. Phys.; (United States), Journal Name: Found. Phys.; (United States) Vol. 17:5; ISSN FNDPA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BOHR THEORY
COLLISIONS
COMPTON EFFECT
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DIRAC EQUATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
INTERACTIONS
MATRICES
MECHANICS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PERSONNEL
PROFESSIONAL PERSONNEL
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUANTUM MECHANICS
RADIATIONS
REVIEWS
SCATTERING
SCHROEDINGER EQUATION
SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL
STATISTICAL MECHANICS
UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE
VISIBLE RADIATION
WAVE EQUATIONS
WAVE FUNCTIONS