Quantum Concepts in Physics: An Alternative Approach to the Understanding of Quantum Mechanics

Written for advanced undergraduates, physicists, and historians and philosophers of physics, this book tells the story of the development of our understanding of quantum phenomena through the extraordinary years of the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rather than following the standard axiomatic approach, this book adopts a historical perspective, explaining clearly and authoritatively how pioneers such as Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Pauli and Dirac developed the fundamentals of quantum mechanics and merged them into a coherent theory, and why the mathematical infrastructure of quantum mechanics has to be as complex as it is. The author creates a compelling narrative, providing a remarkable example of how physics and mathematics work in practice. The book encourages an enhanced appreciation of the interaction between mathematics, theory and experiment, helping the reader gain a deeper understanding of the development and content of quantum mechanics than any other text at this level.

這本書是為高年級本科生、物理學家以及歷史學家和哲學家所寫，講述了在二十世紀前三十年這段非凡時期，我們對量子現象理解的發展故事。與採用標準公理方法不同，這本書採用了歷史的觀點，清晰而權威地解釋了海森堡、薛定谔、泡利和狄拉克等先驅者如何發展了量子力學的基礎並將其融入一個連貫的理論，以及為什麼量子力學的數學基礎必須如此複雜。作者創造了一個引人入勝的敘述，提供了物理學和數學在實踐中如何運作的卓越範例。這本書鼓勵讀者更好地理解數學、理論和實驗之間的相互作用，幫助讀者比其他同級教材更深入地理解量子力學的發展和內容。