Operator calculus: the lost formulation of quantum mechanics. A mathematical reconstruction

DOI10.1007/S00407-020-00262-ZMaRDI QIDQ2029469zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Gonzalo Gimeno, Mercedes Xipell, Marià Baig

Publication date 3 June 2021

Published in Archive for History of Exact Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-020-00262-z

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of quantum theory (81-03)

Review text

The paper gives a detailed mathematical discussion of the operator calculus of Max Born and Norbert Wiener. The paper argues cogently that Born and Wiener did not actually achieve their purported goal of extending matrix mechanics to linear motion and continuous energy spectra. The authors go on to demonstrate that a proper treatment of continuous spectra using Born and Wiener's methods would have required the precocious invention of Dirac's delta functions.

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Cited in

(2)

• Time, chrono-operators and time dependent function
• The Reasoning of Quantum Mechanics

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