dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaOn the verge of Umdeutung in Minnesota: Van Vleck and the correspondence principle (Part One)
| Authors | Anthony Duncan, Michel Janssen |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0610192 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0610192 |
Abstract
In October 1924, the Physical Review, a relatively minor journal at the time, published a remarkable two-part paper by John H. Van Vleck, working in virtual isolation at the University of Minnesota. Van Vleck combined advanced techniques of classical mechanics with Bohr's correspondence principle and Einstein's quantum theory of radiation to find quantum analogues of classical expressions for the emission, absorption, and dispersion of radiation. For modern readers Van Vleck's paper is much easier to follow than the famous paper by Kramers and Heisenberg on dispersion theory, which covers similar terrain and is widely credited to have led directly to Heisenberg's "Umdeutung" paper. This makes Van Vleck's paper extremely valuable for the reconstruction of the genesis of matrix mechanics. It also makes it tempting to ask why Van Vleck did not take the next step and develop matrix mechanics himself.
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"abstract": "In October 1924, the Physical Review, a relatively minor journal at the time,\npublished a remarkable two-part paper by John H. Van Vleck, working in virtual\nisolation at the University of Minnesota. Van Vleck combined advanced\ntechniques of classical mechanics with Bohr\u0027s correspondence principle and\nEinstein\u0027s quantum theory of radiation to find quantum analogues of classical\nexpressions for the emission, absorption, and dispersion of radiation. For\nmodern readers Van Vleck\u0027s paper is much easier to follow than the famous paper\nby Kramers and Heisenberg on dispersion theory, which covers similar terrain\nand is widely credited to have led directly to Heisenberg\u0027s \"Umdeutung\" paper.\nThis makes Van Vleck\u0027s paper extremely valuable for the reconstruction of the\ngenesis of matrix mechanics. It also makes it tempting to ask why Van Vleck did\nnot take the next step and develop matrix mechanics himself.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0610192",
"authors": [
"Anthony Duncan",
"Michel Janssen"
],
"categories": [
"physics.hist-ph"
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"title": "On the verge of Umdeutung in Minnesota: Van Vleck and the correspondence principle (Part One)",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0610192"
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