A Schrödinger equation without Schrödinger?

17 Sept 2026, 09:15
40m
The Physics of the Cat History of Physics in 20th Century

Speaker

Darrigol, Olivier (CNRS-Université Denis Diderot)

Description

It is easy to see that the Schrödinger equation was implicitly contained in earlier work by other theorists: first, in a remark by Louis de Broglie in his dissertation of November 1924, and second, in the new quantum mechanics proposed by Werner Heisenberg in July 1925. Yet the equation first appeared in a famous article sent to Annalen der Physik by Erwin Schrödinger in late January 1926. We will investigate why the equation was not obtained before Schrödinger and assess how this may have influenced the subsequent development of quantum theory.

Author

Darrigol, Olivier (CNRS-Université Denis Diderot)

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