Speakers
Description
The Department of Physics at the University of Milan has long shown a strong commitment to the conceptual and formal development of quantum mechanics, both in research and in teaching. A clear indication of this attention is that, as early as the 1926–1927 academic year, a series of lectures was delivered by A. Pontremoli—then Professor of Theoretical Physics—explicitly devoted to matrix and wave mechanics, making Milan one of the first Italian universities to include quantum mechanics in its curriculum. From the late 1950s onward, foundational aspects of quantum theory began to attract particular interest among several faculty members. Among them, G.M. Prosperi (1931–2025) stands out for his significant contributions, most notably the 1962 paper Quantum Theory of Measurement and Ergodicity Conditions, co-authored with A. Daneri and A. Loinger. As the title suggests, the paper addresses the quantum measurement problem—widely debated between the early 1930s and late 1950s—reinterpreted through the conceptual framework proposed by Jordan and Ludwig. The Milan group devoted several years to establishing a formal basis for this conjecture using tools from quantum statistical mechanics. The paper, still cited today, had a major impact at the time and was discussed by leading physicists such as Wigner, Bohm, and Rosenfeld, as well as by historians and philosophers of science. The aim of this presentation is to illustrate the aforementioned aspects, with particular emphasis on the scientific legacy of Prosperi.
