The emergence of selection rules and their encounter with group theory, 1913-1927

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

In today's quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, the observable signature of a symmetry is often sought in the form of a selection rule: a missing radiation frequency, a particle that does not decay in another one, a scattering process which fails to take place. The connection between selection rules and symmetries is effected thanks to the mathematical discipline of group theory. In the present paper, I will offer an overview of how the productive synergy between selection rules and group theory came to be. The first half of the work will be devoted to the emergence of the idea of spectroscopic selection rules in the context of the old quantum theory, showing how this notion was linked with an interpretive scheme of theoretical nature which, once combined with group theory, would bear many fruits. In the second part of the paper, I will focus on the actual encounter between selection rules and group theory, and on the person largely responsible for it: Eugene Wigner. I will attempt to reconstruct the path which led Wigner, of all people, to be the agent effecting this connection.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Jahrgang40
Ausgabenummer4
Seiten (von - bis)327-337
Anzahl der Seiten11
ISSN1355-2198
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 12.2009
Extern publiziertJa

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Organizational Practices for the Aging Workforce
  2. Recognizing Guarantees and Assurances of Non-Repetition
  3. Tree-tree interactions and crown complementarity
  4. Crop rotation modelling
  5. The Use of Anti-Windup Techniques in Didactic Level Systems
  6. Analysis of life cycle datasets for the material gold
  7. Degrees of Integration
  8. Design of a Real Time Path of Motion Control for Manufacturing Applications
  9. Plural valuation in space: mapping values of grasslands and their ecosystem services
  10. Studying embodied encounters
  11. Wer wird subventioniert?
  12. Comparison of Panel Cointegration Tests
  13. Relativity in Social Cognition: Basic processes and novel applications of social comparisons
  14. A panel cointegrating rank test with structural breaks and cross-sectional dependence
  15. Levels of indicator development for education for sustainable development
  16. Co-EM Support Vector learning
  17. Smart cities, smart borders. Sensing networks and security in the urban space
  18. Scaffolding im Rahmen von Inquiry-based Learning.
  19. Managing and accounting for corporate biodiversity contributions mapping the field
  20. Factors shaping European rabbit abundance in continuous and fragmented populations of central Spain
  21. BBS futur 2.0
  22. Towards a Relational Materialism
  23. Farmers’ perceptions and knowledge of natural enemies as providers of biological control in cider apple orchards
  24. Georeferencing System for Maneuvering of Autonomous Truck in Mining Environment
  25. An Adaptive Lyapunovs Internal PID Regulator in Automotive Applications
  26. Index und Irritation
  27. POR UMA ESCOLA PLURAL, INTEGRADA E COM PARTIDOS
  28. Whatever we negotiate is not what I like
  29. A cognitive mess
  30. Observations of Microstructure-Oriented Crack Growth in a Cast Mg-Al-Ba-Ca Alloy under Tension, Compression and Fatigue
  31. Energy transitions in small-scale regions – What we can learn from a regional innovation systems perspective.