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What about Von Neumann? How do his contributions to Quantum Mechanics weigh up in terms of the development of the field.
by billfruit 5y ago
What about Von Neumann? How do his contributions to Quantum Mechanics weigh up in terms of the development of the field.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kgwgk 5y agoHe was 23 years old at the time. (But he was already doing important work on QM, like the introduction of the density matrix earlier that year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Foundations_of_Quantum_Mechanics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Foundations_of_Qu... would be published five years later.)
- throwaway81523 5y agovon Neumann gave a mathematically rigorous treatment of QM, synthesizing the work by physicists that had previously gotten a confused reaction from mathematicians. In that way he explained QM and also made a mathematical platform for others to build on. It was absolutely brilliant work. But I think he didn't exactly advance QM. He took the physics version that made mathematicians say wtf, and created a mathematician version that made physicists say wtf. I think physicists mostly used Dirac's book "The Principles of QM" (1930), which went through 5 or 6 later editions and may still be in print.