What is a wave function good for? Everett, Wheeler, Bohr and a new interpretation of quantum theory

Nature celebrated, on the cover of its 2007 June issue, the 50th anniversary of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. The cover illustrated the current status of this interpretation, widely studied by physicists and philosophers. However, the history of its development and origins rem...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Freitas, Fábio, Freire Jr, Olival
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:Brasil
Recursos:Sociedade Brasileira de História da Ciência (SBHC)
Repositorio:Revista Brasileira de História da Ciência (Online)
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.rbhciencia.emnuvens.com.br:article/384
Acesso em linha:https://rbhciencia.emnuvens.com.br/revista/article/view/384
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:teoria quântica
controvérsias científicas
história da Física
Hugh Everett
John A. Wheeler
Niels Bohr
quantum theory
scientific controversies
history of physics
Descrição
Resumo:Nature celebrated, on the cover of its 2007 June issue, the 50th anniversary of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. The cover illustrated the current status of this interpretation, widely studied by physicists and philosophers. However, the history of its development and origins remained an open problem in the historiography of physics. This paper is dedicated to exam the historical origins of this interpretation during Hugh Everett’s doctoral work at Princeton between 1953-57. This work led John A. Wheeler, and the creator of the complementarity interpretation, Niels Bohr, into a debate. Bohr’s opposition to Everett’s ideas, and the way the debate was conducted, contributed to the end of Everett’s career in Physics and left his interpretation forgotten at least for the next 15 years.