Erwin Schrodinger

claimed by: Patrick Fleming 12/5/2015 3:49pm

Erwin Schrodinger was a Nobel Prize-winning Physicist famous for his developments in Quantum Mechanics and his Schrodinger's Cat philosophical experiment. Erwin Schrodinger wrote on many Physics Fields including but not limited to: statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, dielectrics, colour theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology. Erwin also worked on fields other than Physics with works also in genetics, philosophy, ethics, religion, and theoretical biology. The work he did with his mentor, Friedrich Hasenhorl, laid the foundation for a great amount of his final work. Erwin Schrodinger

Early Life

Erwin Schrodinger was born in Vienna, Austria on August 12, 1887 as the only child of parents that highly valued education. As a young man he enjoyed botany and painting. Erwin had interest in Eastern religions and was from a religious household but considered himself an atheist. In his early years Schrodinger was strongly influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer and this fueled his extensive works in colour theory and philosophy. Erwin participated in World War One as a commissioned officer in the Austrian fortress artillery. From 1921 to 1934 Schrodinger worked in Germany at the University of Zurich, 1921-1927, then at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, 1927-1934, eventually moving over disliking the German's growing antisemitism. Schrodinger became a felow of Magdalen College at the University of Oxford where he received the Nobel Prize along with Paul Dirac. Schrodinger did not stay at Oxford long, the University did not find it acceptable that he shared living quarters with two women and Schrodinger then moved to Princeton University, but did not accept a full time position of similiar problems with living with his wife and mistress. After many struggles of obtaining full time tenure position he corresponded with Albert Einstein to create what is now the Schrodinger's cat thought experiment.

Later Life

Schrodinger dealt with political harassment and pursuit from Germany after openly opposing Nazism in his later years. He lost his job at the University of Graz for political unreliability after apologizing to Germany for previous statements against Nazism. Schrodinger then fled to Italy with his wife, but ended residing in Ireland and helping establish the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin. He then moved to Clontarf, Dublin and became the Director of the School for Theoretical Physics in 1940 and remained for 17 years. He became a naturalized citizen of Ireland in 1948, but still retained his Austrian citizenship. Schrodinger retired in 1955 and passed away on January 4th, 1961 where he was born in Vienna, Austria.

Quantum Mechanics

Schrodinger familiarized himself with the works of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Arnold Sommerfeld, and others in his earlier years. This laid the basics for his later works in the Quantum field. Schrodinger's first publications came in the beginning of the 1920's and were based on atomic theory and the theory of spectra. From early in his career a particular interest of Schrodinger was the introduction of relativistic considerations in quantum theory. In the autumn of 1922 Schrodinger analyzed the orbits of electrons in an atom using methods developed by Hermann Weyl. This work was important for Schrodinger's large quantum discovery of wave mechanics. Earlier in 1922 Schrodinger created the Schrodinger equation for relativistic Doppler effect for a spectral lines, based on the hypothesis of light quanta and considerations of energy and momentum. The idea that energy could be a statistical concept was a lifelong attraction for Schrodinger and he discussed this idea in several reports and publications.

Wave Mechanics

Schrodinger published the paper "Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem" on wave mechanics in January of 1926 and revealed what is now known as the Schrodinger equation. In his paper he gave a derivation of wave equation for time independent systems and showed it gave the correct energy eigenvalues for a hydrogen like atom. This discovery has been celebrated as one of the most important achievements of the twentieth century and changed the way physicists thought of most areas of quantum mechanics and all chemistry and physics. Schrodinger then submitted a second paper that solved the quantum harmonic oscillator, rigid rotor, and diatomic molecule problems and gave a new derivation of the Schrodinger equation all in four weeks. A third and fourth paper were then submitted that gave the treatment of the Stark effect and showed how to treat problems that systems change with time. These papers were Schrodinger's best achievement and have progressed the way we think of Physics.

Schrodinger's Cat

Schrodinger's cat is an illustration of the principle in quantum theory of superposition. Schrodinger's cat serves to show the conflict between what quantum theory tells us to be true about behavior on a microscopic level. The experiment starts with placing a live cat in a steel chamber along with a vile of acid. If a single atom of the acid decays during the test period the vial will break and kill the cat. The observer does not know if the vial has decayed and subsequently killed the cat. According to quantum laws, the cat is both dead and alive, which is called a superposition of states. We only learn the state of the cat when we break open the box and learn if the cat is dead or alive. [[1]]

All Published Works

1. The List of Erwin Schrödinger's publications, compiled by Auguste Dick, Gabriele Kerber, Wolfgang Kerber and Karl von Meyenn's Erwin Schrödinger: Publications
2. Science and the human temperament Allen & Unwin (1935), translated and introduced by James Murphy, with a foreword by Ernest Rutherford
3. Nature and the Greeks and Science and Humanism Cambridge University Press (1996) ISBN 0-521-57550-8.
4. The interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Ox Bow Press (1995) ISBN 1-881987-09-4.
5. Statistical Thermodynamics Dover Publications (1989) ISBN 0-486-66101-6.
6. Collected papers Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn (1984) ISBN 3-7001-0573-8.
7. My View of the World Ox Bow Press (1983) ISBN 0-918024-30-7.
8. Expanding Universes Cambridge University Press (1956).
9. Space-Time Structure Cambridge University Press (1950) ISBN 0-521-31520-4.[31]
10. What Is Life? Macmillan (1944).
11. What Is Life? & Mind and Matter Cambridge University Press (1974) ISBN 0-521-09397-X.

Connectedness

1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?

Edwin Schrodinger was a very influential man that progressed the field of Physics and other scientific communities a long way. It is interesting to learn his life story.

1. How is it connected to your major?

Quantum mechanics has a mathematical structure and interprets small events as probabilities of occurrence.

1. Is there an interesting industrial application?

There are many applications of Schrodinger's work in an industrial sense as it is considered an equation that changed the world.

Further reading

1. John Gribbin (2012), Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution, Bantam Press.
2. Medawar, Jean; Pyke, David (2012). Hitler's Gift : The True Story of the Scientists Expelled by the Nazi Regime (Paperback). New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61145-709-4.
3. Moore, Walter J (29 May 1992). "Schrödinger, life and thought". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43767-7. Retrieved 7 November 2011..
4. Moore, Walter J (2003). A Life of Erwin Schrödinger (Canto ed.). Cambridge University Press. Bibcode:1994les..book.....M. ISBN 0-521-46934-1..

References

https://plus.maths.org/content/schrodinger-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger#Quantum_mechanics http://famousphysicists.org/erwin-schrodinger/ http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger.jpg http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Schrodingers-cat https://youtu.be/7SjFJImg2Z8