BIOGRAPHY OF E. SCHROEDINGER http://theor.jinr.ru/~kuzemsky/ErwinS-bio.

html

BIOGRAPHY OF E. SCHROEDINGER (1887 - 1961)

born August 12, 1887, Wien, Austria.
died January 4, 1961, Wien, Austria.

Erwin Schrodinger was one of the main architects of quantum mechanics. Schrodinger
developed the wave mechanics. It became the second formulation of quantum mechanics. The
first formulation, called matrix mechanics, was developed by Werner Heisenberg. Schrodinger
wave equation (or Schrodinger equation) is one of the most basic equations of quantum
mechanics.

It bears the same relation to the mechanics of the atom as Newton equations of motions bear to
planetary astronomy. However, unlike Newton equations, which result definite and readily
visualized sequence of events of the planetary orbits, the solutions to Schrodinger wave
equation are wave functions that can only be related to probable occurrence of physical events.
Schrodinger wave equation is a mathematically sound atomic theory. It is regarded by many as
the single most important contribution to theoretical physics in the twentieth century.
Schrodinger book, What is Life? led to a great progress in biology.

It is interesting that R. Feynman called the Schrodinger wave equation

by "THE EQUATION OF LIFE"!

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Schrodinger was an unconventional man. Throughout his life he traveled with walking-boots
and rucksack and for this he had to face some difficulty in gaining entrance to the Solvay
Conference for Nobel laureates. Describing the incident Paul Dirac wrote: When he went to the
Solvay Conferences in Brussels, he would walk from the station to the hotel, carrying all his
luggage in a rucksack and looking so like a tramp that it needed a great deal of argument at the
reception desk before he could claim a room.
Schrodinger was born on August 12, 1887 in Vienna. His father Rudolf Schrodinger, who came
from a Bavarian family, which had come to Vienna generations ago, was a highly gifted man.
After studying chemistry at the Technical College in Vienna, Rudolf Schrodinger devoted
himself for years to Italian painting and then he decided to study botany. He published a series
of research papers on plant phylogeny.
Rudolf Schrodinger had inherited a small but profitable business manufacturing linoleum and
oilcloth. Schrodinger mother, Georgine Schrodinger (nee Bauer) was the daughter of Alexander
Bauer, an able analytical chemist and who became a professor of chemistry at the Technical
College, Vienna. Schrodinger was always grateful to his father for giving him a comfortable
upbringing and a good education. He described his father as a man of broad culture, a friend,
teacher and inexhaustible partner in conversation.
Schrodinger was taught by a private tutor at home until he entered the Akademisches
Gymnasium in 1898. He passed his matriculation examination in 1906. At the Gymnasium,
Schrodinger was not only attracted to scientific disciplines but also enjoyed studying grammar
and German poetry. Talking about his impression at the Gymnasium Schrodinger later said: I
was a good student in all subjects, loved mathematics and physics, but also the strict logic of the
ancient grammars, hated only memorizing incidental dates and facts. Of the German poets, I
loved especially the dramatists, but hated the pedantic dissection of their works. He was an
outstanding student of his school. He always stood first in his class. His intelligence was
proverbial. One of his classmates commenting on Schrodinger ability to grasp teachings in
physics and mathematics said: Especially in physics and mathematics, Schrodinger had a gift
for understanding that allowed him, without any homework, immediately and directly to
comprehend all the material during the class hours and to apply it. After the lecture…it was
possible for (our professor) to call Schrodinger immediately to the blackboard and to set him
problems, which he solved with playful facility.
In 1906, Schrodinger joined the Vienna University. Here he mainly focused in the course of
theoretical physics given by Friedrich Hasenohrl, who was Boltzmann student and successor.
Hasenhorl gave an extended cycle of lectures on various fields of theoretical physics
transmitting views of his teacher, Boltzmann.
Schrodinger received his PhD in 1910. His dissertation was an experimental one. It was on
humidity as a source of error in electroscopes. The actual title of the dissertation was On the
conduction of electricity on the surface of insulators in moist air. The work was not very
significant. The committee appointed for examining the work was not unanimous in
recommending him for the degree. After receiving his PhD, he undertook his voluntary military
service. After returning from military service in autumn 1911, he took up an appointment as an
assistantship in experimental physics at the University of Vienna. He was put in charge of the
large practical class for freshmen. Schrodinger had no love for experimental work but at the
same time he valued the experience. He felt that it taught him through direct observation what
measuring means. He started working in theoretical physics by applying Boltzmann-like
statistical-mechanical concepts to magnetic and other properties of bodies. The results were not
very significant. However, based on his work he could earn his advanced doctorate
(Habilitation).
At the beginning of the First World War, Schrodinger was called up for active service. He was
sent to the Italian border. It was at the warfront that Schrodinger learned about Einstein
general theory of relativity and he immediately recognized its great importance. While in war
field it was not possible for Schrodinger to keep him fully abreast of the developments in
theoretical physics. However, he continued his theoretical work. He submitted a paper for his
publication from his position on the Italian front. In the spring of 1917, Schrodinger was
transferred to Vienna, where he again could start scientific work.

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The First World War resulted in total collapse of the economy of Austria. It also ruined
Schrodinger family. Schrodinger had no option other than to seek a career in the wider
German-language world of Central Europe. Between spring 1920 and autumn 1921,
Schrodinger took up successively academic positions at the Jena University (as an assistant to
Max Wien, Wilhelm Wein brother, at the Stuttgart Technical University(extraordinary
professor), the Breslau University (ordinary professor), and finally at the University of Zurich,
where he replaced von Laue. Soon after arriving at Zurich, Schrodinger was diagnosed with
suspected tuberculosis and he was sent to an alpine sanatorium in Arosa to recover. While
recuperating at Arosa, Schrodinger wrote one of his most important papers, On a Remarkable
Property of the Quantized Orbits of an Electron. At Zurich he stayed for six years. This was his
most productive and beautiful period of his professional life.
It was at Zurich that Schrodinger made his most important contributions. He first studied
atomic structure and then in 1924 he took up quantum statistics. However, the most important
moment of his professional career was when he came across Louis de Broglie work. On
November 03, 1925, Schrodinger wrote to Einstein: A few days ago I read with great interest the
ingenious thesis of Louis de Broglie, which I finally got hold of ... And then on 16th November
he wrote: I have been intensely concerned these days with Louis de Broglie ingenious theory. It
is extraordinarily exciting, but still has some very grave difficulties. After reading de Broglie
work Schrodinger began to think about explaining the movement of an electron in an atom as a
wave and eventually came out with a solution. He was not at all satisfied with the quantum
theory of the atom developed by Niels Bohr, who was not happy with the apparently arbitrary
nature of a good many of the quantum rules. Schrodinger did not like the generally accepted
dual description of atomic physics in terms of waves and particles. He eliminated the particle
altogether and replaced it with wave alone. His first step was to develop an equation for
describing the movement of electrons in an atom. The de Broglie equation giving the wavelength
\Lambda=h/mv (where h is the Planck constant and mv the momentum) represented too simple
a picture to match the reality particularly with the inner atomic orbits where the attractive
force of the nucleus would result in a very complex and variable configuration. Schrodinger
eventually succeeded in developing his famous wave equation. His equation was very similar to
classical equations developed earlier for describing many wave phenomena—sound waves, the
vibrations of a string or electromagnetic waves. In Schrodinger wave equation there is an
abstract entity, called the wave function and which is symbolized by the Greek letter \psi(psi).
When applied to the hydrogen atom, Schrodinger wave equation yielded all the results of Bohr
and de Broglie. However, despite the considerable predictive success of Schrodinger wave
mechanics, Schrodinger had to overcome certain problems. First how he as going to attach some
physical meaning to the ideas of an electron if it was nothing but wave and also he had to show
what exactly represented by the wave function.
Schrodinger unsuccess- fully tried to account these. He tried to visualize electron as wave
packets made up of many small waves so that these wave packets would behave in the same way
as a particle in classical mechanics. However, these packets were later shown to be unstable. He
interpreted the wave function as a measure of the spread of an electron. But this was also not
acceptable. The interpretation was provided by Max Born. He stated that the wave function for
a hydrogen atom represents each of its physical states and it can be used to calculate the
probability of finding the electron at a certain point in space. What does it mean? It means that
if the wave function is nearly zero at a certain point then the probability of finding the electron
there is extremely small. But where the wave function is large the probability of finding the
electron is very large. The wave mechanics cannot be used to determine the motion of a particle
or in other words its position and velocity at any given moment. The wave equation simply tells
us how the wave function evolves in space and time and the value of the wave function would
determine the probability of finding the electron in a particular point of space.
He published his revolutionary work in a series of papers in 1926. Schrodinger wave equation
was the second theoretical explanation for the movement of electrons in an atom, the first being
Werner Heisenberg matrix mechanics. Schrodinger approach was preferred by many physicists
as it could be visualized. On the other hand Heisenberg approach was strictly mathematical and
it involved such a complex mathematics that it was difficult to understand. Physicists appeared

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to be divided into two groups. However, soon Schrodinger showed that the two theories were
identical but expressed differently.
Schrodinger students at Zurich found his lectures extremely stimulating and impressive. One of
his students, who attended his lectures, later recalled: At the beginning he stated the subject and
then gave a review of how one had to approach it, and then he started exposing the basis in
mathematical terms and developed it in front of our eyes. Sometimes he would stop and with a
shy smile confess that he had missed a bifurcation in his mathematical development, turn back
to the critical point and start all over again. This was fascinating to watch and we all learned a
great deal by following his calculations, which he developed without ever looking at his notes,
except at the end, when he compared his work on the blackboard with his notes and said this is
correct. In summertime when it was warm enough we went to the bathing beach on the Lake of
Zurich, sat with our own notes on the grass and watched this lean man in bathing trunks
writing his calculations before us on an improvised blackboard which we had brought along. At
the time few people came to the bathing beach in the morning and those that did watched us
from a discreet distance and wondered what that man was writing on the blackboard.
After the retirement of Max Plank from Berlin University as Professor of Theoretical Physics,
three persons were short-listed for the post: Sommerfeld, Schrodinger and Max Born.
Schrodinger testimonial drawn up for the purpose beautifully summarised his academic
achievements till that time. It said: For some years already he has been favourably known
through his versatile, vigorously powerful, and at the same time very profound style in seeking
new physical problems that interested him and illuminating them through deep and original
ideas, with the entire set of techniques w hich mathematical and physical methods at present
provide. He has proved this method of working to be effective in the treatment of problems in
statistical mechanics, the analysis of optical interference, and the physical theory of colour
vision. Recently he has succeeded in an especially daring design through his ingenious idea for
the solution of the former particle mechanics by means of wave mechanics in the differential
equation he has set up for the wave function. Schrodinger himself has already been able to
deduce many consequences from this fortunate discovery, and the new ideas that he has inspired
with it in many fields are even more numerous ...it may be added that in lecturing as in
discussions Schrodinger has a superb style, marked by simplicity and precision, the
impressiveness of which is further emphasized by the temperament of a South German.
Sommerfeld was the first choice and when he declined to leave Munich the offer went to
Schrodinger. Even for Schrodinger it was not easy for taking a decision to leave Zurich. Ioan
James has written: Every effort was made to persuade him to stay in Zurich. The physics
students organized a torchlight parade around the university to the courtyard of his house,
where they presented him with a petition. Schrodinger was deeply moved, but in the end it was a
personal appeal from Planck that persuaded him to accept the Berlin offer; as the result of
doing so he automatically became a German national. Before taking up the appointment at
Berlin, Schrodinger traveled to Brussels to attend the Solvay physics conferences. This time the
topic was electrons and photons. Schrodinger was invited to deliver one of the prestigious
lectures. He took this opportunity to elaborate on his wave mechanics. His views caused
considerable debate. Born and Heisenberg attacked it quite vehemently.
Schrodinger joined the Berlin University on October 01, 1927, where he became a colleague of
Albert Einstein. The course given by him at the Berlin University was considered the best
among the science courses at the University. His style of lecturing was informal. He lectured
without notes while many professors at the University practically read their lectures. His dress
was also quite informal compared to other professors. He was elected to the Berlin Academy of
Science at the age of forty-two. He happened to be youngest member of this august body.
Like many other scientists Schrodinger had to leave Germany after the Nazis seized power. The
Nazis had no problems with Schrodinger but it was Schrodinger who did not like policies
pursued by the Nazis. In fact Schrodinger disgust for the Nazis was so strong that he was
prepared to leave Germany. Initially Scgrodinger thought the Nazi madness will pass over
within a couple of years but soon he realized that the Nazis are going to stay in power for a long
time. Finally Schrodinger left Germany for Oxford. It was possible for intervention of
Frederick Alexander Lindemann (1886-1957), the head of the physics department at Oxford

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University and a close friend of Winston Churchill who could persuade Magdalen College,
Oxford, to offer Schrodinger a Fellowship. Lindemann had visited Germany in the spring of
1933 to try to arrange positions in England for some young Jewish scientists from Germany.
Schrodinger appointment at Magdalen was to be supplemented by a research appointment in
industry so that his income became comparable to that of an Oxford professor. The
confirmation of his appointment was accompanied by the news that he had just been awarded
Nobel Prize in physics, jointly with Paul Dirac. Schrodinger reached Oxford on November 04,
1933. Lindemann and other tried their best to make Schrodinger stay at Oxford comfortable.
However, Schrodinger was not satisfied with his status at Oxford. He had received an offer of a
permanent position at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton during his visit there in
the spring of 1934 for giving an invited lecture. However, finally Schrodinger did not accept the
offer.
In 1935 Schrodinger’s published a three-part essay on The present situation in quantum
mechanics. It was in this essay the much talked about Schrodinger cat paradox appears. This
paradox was a thought experiment, where a cat in a closed box either lived or died according to
whether a quantum event occurred or not. Schrodinger appointment at Oxford was extended
for another two years. But he did not stay there. He left for his own country Austria to take up
an appointment at the University of Graz. While waiting for the official confirmation of his
appointment at Graz he received an offer of a professorship at Edinburgh. However, the
necessary permission for permanent British residence did not come before the official
confirmation came from Graz. He finally moved to Graz where he was given a full professorship
and also an honorary professorship at Vienna.
While working at Graz, Schrodinger was hoping that eventually he would get an appointment at
Vienna. But this did not happen. In 1938, the Nazis extended their anti-Semitic policies pursued
in Germany to Austria. The newly appointed Nazi Rector of the University of Graz persuaded
Schrodinger to make a repentant confession. The confession began as follows: In the midst of
the exultant joy which is pervading our country, there also stand today those who indeed
partake fully of this joy but not without deep shame because until the end they had not
understood the right course. And it continued in more or less in the same vein. The confession
duly appeared in the press. Many of his friends thought that Schrodinger could write such a
confession only under pressure. But there was no pressure.
Afterwards Schrodinger, of course, always regretted his decision to write such a confession.
Explaining the reason for writing such a confession to Einstein, Schrodinger wrote: I wanted to
remain free — and could not do so without great duplicity. Schrodinger attended the celebration
of the eightieth birthday of Max Plank, where he was warmly welcomed. But he was no longer
acceptable to the Nazi authorities because they did not forget the insult he caused to them by
fleeing from Berlin in 1933. His so-called repentant confession was of no use. First he was
dismissed from his honorary position at Vienna and then on August 26, 1938 he was also
dismissed from his regular post at Graz. The reason cited for his dismissal was his political
unreliability. The official in Vienna, whom Schrodinger consulted, advised him to get a job in
industry. They also told him that he will not be allowed to leave the country. Schrodinger
immediately realized the danger of staying in Austria. So he hurriedly left for Italy. They had no
time even to take their belongings with them. They boarded the train to Rome with a few
suitcases. Schrodingers were received at the station in Italy by Enrico Fermi, who also lent them
some money. From Rome Schrodinger wrote to the Irish statesman Eamon De Valera
(1882-1975), then President of the League of Nations (predecessor of the United Nations).
Schrodinger met De Valera at Geneva. Devalera offered Schrodinger a position at the Institute
of Advanced Studies that he was trying to set up at Dublin. De Valera also advised Schrodinger
to leave Italy at the earliest and go for Ireland or England, as according to him the war was
imminent. Schrodinger accepted de Valera’s offer of appointment at the proposed Institute at
Dublin. However, he did not directly proceed to Dublin. Instead he went back to Oxford, where
he received an offer of one year visiting professorship at the University of Ghent in Belgium. At
Ghent he wrote a significant paper on the expanding universe. From Ghent Schrodinger
alongwith his family went to Oxford. Lindemann and others who had earlier welcomed
Schrodingers at Oxford was no longer ready to welcome them again. Now Schrodingers were

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classed as enemy aliens. But Lindemann made it possible for Schrodingers to reach Dublin in
October 1939. Schrodinger adjusted well in the new environs and under his leadership the
Institute of Advanced Studies of Dublin became an important centre of theoretical physics. He
remained in Dublin until he retired in 1956.
At the beginning of his stay at Dublin, Schrodinger studied electromagnetic theory and
relativity and began to publish on unified field theory. As we know Einstein was also working
on the same problem at the similarly named Princeton University. In 1947 Schrodinger believed
that he had a real breakthrough in his efforts toward creating unified field theory. Schrodinger
was so excited about his new theory that he decided to present it to the Irish Academy without
examining it critically. Schrodinger announcement was widely publicized in the media as an
epoch-making discovery. However, after seeing Einstein comments Schrodinger realized his
folly. He was really devastated by the episode. It was certainly a great embarrassment. After
this debacle Schrodinger turned to philosophy. His study of Greek science and philosophy is
summarised in Nature and the Greeks, which was published in 1954.
Schrodinger most important contribution at the Dublin Institute was his book called What is
Life?. This was the result of a series of lectures given at the Institute in 1943. The book was
published in 1944. It is regarded as one of the most important scientific writings of the twentieth
century. Francois Ducheseneau wrote: As a contribution to the Dublin Institute series of public
lectures, Schrodinger, who was an engaging speaker, delivered several in February 1943 under
the title: What is Life? In these popular scientific lectures Schrodinger, who had only a very
slight knowledge of the literature on the physical bases of life, dragged his audience into and
then out of a series of blind alleys, leaving them at the end just about where he began.
Nonetheless these lectures, printed the following year, achieved an immediate and great
reputation with both physicists and biologists, and rank still today as one of the most overrated
scientific writings of the twentieth century. The book influenced a good many talented young
physicists particularly those who were disillusioned by the destruction caused by atom bombs in
Japan and wanted no part in atomic physics. Schrodinger showed these physicists a discipline,
which was free from military applications and at the same time very significant and largely
unexplored. The book represented the transfer of new concepts of physics into biology.
Schrodinger presented a determinist vision of the role of genes. He wrote: In calling the
structure of the chromosome fibers a code-script we mean that the all-penetrating mind, once
conceived by Laplace, to which every causal connection lay immediately open, could tell from
their structure whether the egg would develop, under suitable conditions, into a black cock or
into a speckled hen, into a fly or a maize plant, a rhododendron, a beetle, a mouse or a woman.
It was Schrodinger who first used the word code to describe the role of gene. He also observed
that with the molecular picture of the gene it is no longer inconceivable that the miniature
should precisely correspond with a highly complicated and specified plan of development.” The
book with such passages, written with more insight than that contained in most contemporary
biochemical works inspired a generation of scientists to look for such a code and which was
eventually found. The book helped to shape the discipline that we call today molecular biology.
Michel Morange wrote: Schrodinger book was a remarkable success. Many of the founders of
molecular biology claimed that it played an important role in their decision to turn to biology.
Gunther Stent, a geneticist (and a historian of genetics), has argued that for the new biologists it
played a role like that of Uncle Tom Cabin. Schrodinger presented the new results of genetics in
a lively, the book has lost none of its seductiveness: its clarity and simply make it a pleasure to
read.
In 1955, Schrodinger returned to Vienna. On his arrival he was treated as a celebrity. He was
appointed to a special professorship at the University of Vienna. Though he retired from the
university in 1958, he continued to be an emeritus professor till his death. In Vienna he wrote
his last book describing his metaphysical views.

Schrodinger died on January 04, 1961. Commenting on Schrodinger personal traits his
biographer Walter Moore wrote: Schrodinger was a passionate man, a poetic man, and the fire
of his genius would be kindled by the intellectual tension arising from the desperate situation of
the old quantum theory…It seems also that psychological stress, particularly that associated

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with intense love affairs, helped rather than hindred his scientific creativity.

===========================================================================

Erwin Schrodinger was perhaps the most complex figure in twentieth-century discussions of
quantum mechanical uncertainty. In his early career, Schrodinger was a great exponent of
fundamental chance in the universe. He followed his teacher Franz S. Exner, who was himself a
student of the great Ludwig Boltzmann. Boltzmann used randomness in molecular collisions to
derive the increasing entropy of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Most physicists,
mathematicians, and philosophers believed that the chance described by the calculus of
probabilities was actually completely determined. The "bell curve" or "normal distribution" of
random outcomes was itself so consistent that they argued for deterministic laws governing
individual events. They thought that we simply lack the knowledge necessary to make exact
predictions for these individual events. Pierre-Simon Laplace was first to see in his "calculus of
probabilities" a universal law that determined the motions of everything from the largest
astronomical objects to the smallest particles. On the other hand, in his inaugural lecture at
Zurich in 1922, Schrodinger argued that the evidence did not justify our assumptions that
physical laws were deterministic and strictly causal. His inaugural lecture was modeled on that
of Franz Serafin Exner in Vienna in 1908. "Exner assertion amounts to this: It is quite possible
that Nature laws are of thoroughly statistical character. The demand for an absolute law in the
background of the statistical law — a demand which at the present day almost everybody
considers imperative - goes beyond the reach of experience. Such a dual foundation for the
orderly course of events in Nature is in itself improbable. The burden of proof falls on those
who champion absolute causality, and not on those who question it. For a doubtful attitude in
this respect is to-day by far the more natural." Several years later Schrodinger wrote "Fifty
years ago it was simply a matter of taste or philosophic prejudice whether the preference was
given to determinism or indeterminism. The former was favored by ancient custom, or possibly
by an a priori belief. In favor of the latter it could be urged that this ancient habit demonstrably
rested on the actual laws which we observe functioning in our surroundings. As soon, however,
as the great majority or possibly all of these laws are seen to be of a statistical nature, they
cease to provide a rational argument for the retention of determinism. "If nature is more
complicated than a game of chess, a belief to which one tends to incline, then a physical system
cannot be determined by a finite number of observations. But in practice a finite number of
observations is all that we can make. All that is left to determinism is to believe that an infinite
accumulation of observations would in principle enable it completely to determine the system.
Such was the standpoint and view of classical physics, which latter certainly had a right to see
what it could make of it. But the opposite standpoint has an equal justification: we are not
compelled to assume that an infinite number of observations, which cannot in any case be
carried out in practice, would suffice to give us a complete determination. Despite these strong
arguments against determinism, just after he completed the wave mechanical formulation of
quantum mechanics in June 1926 (the year Exner died), Schrodinger began to side with the
determinists, including especially Max Planck and Albert Einstein. Schrodinger's wave
equation is a continuous function that evolves smoothly in time, in sharp contrast to the
discrete, discontinuous quantum jumps of the Bohr-Heisenberg matrix mechanics. His equation
seemed to Schrodinger to restore the continuous nature of classical mechanics and dynamics. It
could be visualized as wave packets moving in space time. Bohr and Heisenberg insisted that
visualization of quantum events was not possible. Max Born, Werner Heisenberg's mentor and
the senior partner in the team that created matrix mechanics, shocked Schrodinger with the
interpretation of the wave function as a "probability amplitude." It was true, said Born, that
the wave function evolves deterministically, but its significance is that it predicts only the
probability of finding an atomic particle somewhere. When and where particles would appear -
to an observer or observing system like a photographic plate - was completely and irreducibly
random, said Born. Schrodinger could not restore continuous deterministic behavior and return
physics to strict causality. Schrodinger did not like this idea and never accepted it despite the
great success of quantum mechanics, which uses Schrodinger wave functions to calculate

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Heisenberg's matrix elements for atomic transition probabilities. Discouraged, Schrodinger

wrote to his friend Willie Wien in August 1926 "[That discontinuous quantum jumps]...offer
the greatest conceptual difficulty for the achievement of a classical theory is gradually becoming
even more evident to me."...[yet] today I no longer like to assume with Born that an individual
process of this kind is "absolutely random." i.e., completely undetermined. I no longer believe
today that this conception (which I championed so enthusiastically four years ago) accomplishes
much. From an offprint of Born's work in the Zeitsch f. Physik I know more or less how he
thinks of things: the waves must be strictly causally determined through field laws, the
wavefunctions on the other hand have only the meaning of probabilities for the actual motions
of light- or material-particles." Why did Schrodinger not welcome Born's absolute chance? It
was strong evidence that Boltzmann assumption of chance in atomic collisions was completely
justified. Exner thought chance was absolute, but did not live to see how fundamental it was to
physics. And the early Epicurean idea that atoms sometimes "swerve" could be replaced by the
insight that atoms are always swerving - when near other atoms. Could it be that senior
scientists like Max Planck and Albert Einstein were so delighted with Schrodinger's work that it
turned his head? Planck, universally revered as the elder statesman of physics, invited
Schrodinger to Berlin to take Planck's chair as the most important lecturer in physics at a
German university. And Schrodinger worked closely with Einstein in their failed attempts to
develop a unified (and deterministic) field theory. He won the Nobel prize in 1933. But how
different our thinking about absolute chance would be if the greatest theoretician of quantum
mechanics had accepted it in 1926. In his vigorous debates with Neils Bohr and Werner
Heisenberg, Schrodinger attacked the probabilistic Copenhagen interpretation of his wave
function with a famous thought experiment called Schrodinger's Cat. On Determinism and Free
Will Schrodinger mystical epilogue to What Is Life? (1944), in which he "proves God and
immortality at a stroke" but leaves us in the dark about free will.

References:
1. Erwin Schrodinger. What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches.
(Cambridge University Press, 1992);
2. William T. Scott. Erwin Schroedinger: An Introduction to his Writings. University of
Massachusetts Press. 1967. 175pp.
3. Dr. Subodh Mahanti. Erwin Schrodinger. The Founder of Quantum Wave Mechanics.
4. C. Cohen-Tannoudji, B. Diu, F. Laloe: Quantum Mechanics. Two Vols. (Wiley, 1977);
5. J. J. Sakurai: Modern Quantum Mechanics. Revised Edition (Addison Wesley, 1994);
6. B. H. Brandsden, C. J. Joachain: Quantum Mechanics. 2nd edition (Prentice Hall, 2000);
7. D. I. BLOKHINTSEV, Quantum Mechanics, Dordrecht, Reidel, Netherlands: Kluwer
Academic Publishers. 1964;
8. Jagdish Mehra. Erwin Schroedinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. (New York: Springer-
Verlag. 1987) 392pp;
9. V. V. Raman, P. Forman: Why was it Schroedinger who developed de Broglie ideas?
Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 1 (1969), 291;
10. L. Wessels: Schroedinger route to wave mechanics. Studies in the History and Philosophy of
Science. 10 (1977), 311;
11. H. Kragh: Erwin Schroedinger and the wave equation: the crucial phase. Centaurus. 26
(1982), 154;
12. M. Jammer: The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics. (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1966);
13. J. Mehra and H. Rechenberg: The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. (New York:
Springer, vols. 1-6);
14. Schrodinger, Centenary Celebration of a Polymath. Editor Clive William Kilmister, (CUP
Archive, 1987); ISBN 0521340179, 9780521340175;
15. Walter J. Moore, Schrodinger: Life and Thought (Cambridge University Press, 1992);
16. Michel Bitbol. Schroedinger's Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. (Dordrecht, Netherlands:
Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1996), 285pp.

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BIOGRAPHY OF E. SCHROEDINGER http://theor.jinr.ru/~kuzemsky/ErwinS-bio.html

A. L. Kuzemsky ©, 2013.

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