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Erwin Schrödinger and the quantum revolution / John Gribbin.

Van Pelt Library QC16.S265 G75 2012
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Gribbin, John, 1946-
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Schrödinger, Erwin, 1887-1961.
Schrödinger, Erwin.
Physicists--Austria--Biography.
Physicists.
Austria.
Physics--Philosophy.
Physics.
Quantum theory.
Genre:
Biographies.
Physical Description:
xii, 321 pages ; 25 cm
Place of Publication:
Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, 2013.
Summary:
"This books takes us into the heart of the quantum revolution. He tells the story of Schrödinger's surprisingly colorful life (he arrived for a position at Oxford University with both his wife and mistress). And with his trade mark accessible style and popular touch explains the fascinating world of quantum mechanics, which underpins all of modern science"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
1 Nineteenth-Century Boy 7
Antecedents
Early years
An empire's last hurrah
Scientific stirrings
From schoolboy to undergraduate
2 Physics before Schrödinger 22
Newton and the world of particles
Maxwell and the world of waves
Boltzmann and the world of statistics
3 Twentieth-Century Man 44
Student life
Life beyond the lab
War service on the Italian Front
Back to Vienna
The aftermath
The peripatetic professor
4 The First Quantum Revolution 67
When black bodies are bright
Enter the quantum
The quantum becomes real
Inside the atom
Tripping the light fantastic
Einstein again
5 Solid Swiss Respectability 91
The university and the ETH
Personal problems and scientific progress
Physics and philosophy
Life and love
"My world view"
Quantum statistics
6 Matrix Mechanics 112
Half-truths
What you see is what you get
Matrices don't commute
Justice isn't always done
7 Schrödinger and the Second Quantum Revolution 124
Science and sensuality
Riding the wave
A quantum of uncertainty
The Copenhagen consensus
8 The Big Time in Berlin 148
Making waves in America
Berlin and Brussels
The golden years
Back to the future
People and politics
9 The Coming of the Quantum Cat 172
Back in the USA
Oxford and beyond
Faster than light?
The cat in the box
From Oxford with love
10 There, and Back Again 187
Whistling in the dark
Reality bites
The unhappy return
Belgian interlude
11 "The Happiest Years of My Life" 201
"Dev"
Settling in
Early days at the DIAS
"Family" life in Dublin
The post-war years
Many worlds
12 What Is Life? 224
Life itself
Quantum chemistry
The green pamphlet
Schrödinger's variation on the theme
The double helix
13 Back to Vienna
Farewell to Dublin
Home is the hero
Declining years
The triumph of entropy
14 Schrodinger's Scientific Legacy 259
Hidden reality and a mathematician's mistake
The Bell test and the Aspect experiment
Quantum cryptography and the "no cloning" theorem
Quantum teleportation and classical information
The quantum computer and the multiverse
Quantum physics and reality.
Notes:
Originally published: Great Britain : Bantam Press, 2012.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781118299265
1118299264
OCLC:
788294097

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