Constructing Quantum Mechanics: Volume 1: The Scaffold: 1900-1923
ISBN: 9780191880681
Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Computational Physics History of Physics;

Constructing Quantum Mechanics is the first of two volumes on the genesis of quantum mechanics. It covers the key developments in the period 1900-1923, which provided the scaffold on which the arch of modern quantum mechanics was built. This volume traces the early contributions by Planck, Einstein, and Bohr to the theories of black-body radiation, specific heats, and spectroscopy, all showing the need for drastic changes to the physics of their day. It examines the efforts by Sommerfeld and others to provide a new theory, now known as the old quantum theory. After some striking initial successes (explaining the fine structure of hydrogen, X-ray spectra, and the Stark effect), the old quantum theory ran into serious difficulties (failing to provide consistent models for helium and the Zeeman effect) and eventually gave way to matrix and wave mechanics.

The book breaks new ground, both in its treatment of the work of Sommerfeld and his associates, and also in its offering of new perspectives on classic papers by Planck, Einstein, and Bohr. Throughout this volume, the authors provide detailed reconstructions of the central arguments and derivations of the physicists involved, allowing for a full and thorough understanding of the key principles.


Anthony Duncan, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA,Michel Janssen, Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA

Michel Janssen is a historian of modern physics at the University of Minnesota. He has a Master's in physics from the University of Amsterdam and a PhD in history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh. Before his current position in Minnesota, he was an editor at the Einstein Papers Project. He co-authored The Genesis of General Relativity (Springer, 2007) and co-edited The Cambridge Companion to Einstein (Cambridge, 2014). More recently he has published a series of papers co-authored with Anthony Duncan on the genesis of quantum mechanics.

Anthony Duncan received his PhD in theoretical elementary particle physics in 1975 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the supervision of Steven Weinberg. Following postdoctoral and junior faculty positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Columbia University in New York, he joined the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh in 1981 as Associate Professor of Physics. He has taught a wide range of courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, including courses on the history of modern physics. He is now (since 2015) professor emeritus of Physics at the University of Pittsburgh.

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