Schrödinger and Dirac equations for the hydrogen atom, and Laguerre polynomials (Q610709)

The aim of this paper is to clarify the claim of some mathematicians involved in the theory of special functions that the Laguerre polynomials were popularized by Schrödinger when creating wave mechanics. It is argued that it is true that these polynomials were not very popular in classical mathematical physics because they had been little used therein, and it is shown that these functions had been rediscovered independently several times during the nineteenth century. The authors' main point is that it is only partly true that they were popular by Schrödinger's work because Schrödinger did not immediately identify them in studying the hydrogen atom. This identification first was given by Pidduck in the context of Gordon's and Darwin's exact solution of the Dirac equation for an electron in a Coulomb field. It is men-tioned that parts of the story concerning quantum mechanics can already be found in Mehra's and Rechenberg's work on the history of quantum theory.