Fritz London and the scale of quantum mechanisms |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. College of Industrial Technology, Nihon University, 2-11-1 Shin-ei, Narashino, Chiba 275-8576, Japan;2. Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom;3. Institute of Philosophy, Research Center for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Országház utca 30, 1014 Budapest, Hungary;1. INRIM, Electromagnetism Division, strada delle Cacce 91, 10135 Torino (TO), Italy;2. Università di Torino, Dipartimento di Chimica, via P. Giuria 9, 10125 Torino (TO), Italy;1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China;2. Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China;3. Joint Center for Particle, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology (J-CPNPC), PMO-NJU, Nanjing 210008, China |
| |
Abstract: | Fritz London's seminal idea of “quantum mechanisms of macroscopic scale”, first articulated in 1946, was the unanticipated result of two decades of research, during which London pursued quantum-mechanical explanations of various kinds of systems of particles at different scales. He started at the microphysical scale with the hydrogen molecule, generalized his approach to chemical bonds and intermolecular forces, then turned to macrophysical systems like superconductors and superfluid helium. Along this path, he formulated a set of concepts—the quantum mechanism of exchange, the rigidity of the wave function, the role of quantum statistics in multi-particle systems, the possibility of order in momentum space—that eventually coalesced into a new conception of systems of equal particles. In particular, it was London's clarification of Bose-Einstein condensation that enabled him to formulate the notion of superfluids, and led him to the recognition that quantum mechanics was not, as it was commonly assumed, relevant exclusively as a micromechanics. |
| |
Keywords: | Fritz London Quantum mechanisms Quantum statistics |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|