Quantum Concepts in Physics

Written for advanced undergraduates, physicists, and historians and philosophers of physics, this book tells the story of the development of our understanding of quantum phenomena through the extraordinary years of the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rather than following the standard axiomatic approach, this book adopts a historical perspective, explaining clearly and authoritatively how pioneers such as Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Pauli and Dirac developed the fundamentals of quantum mechanics and merged them into a coherent theory, and why the mathematical infrastructure of quantum mechanics has to be as complex as it is. The author creates a compelling narrative, providing a remarkable example of how physics and mathematics work in practice. The book encourages an enhanced appreciation of the interaction between mathematics, theory and experiment, helping the reader gain a deeper understanding of the development and content of quantum mechanics than any other text at this level.

• Explains how pioneers such as Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Pauli and Dirac developed a coherent theory of quantum mechanics
• First book on quantum mechanics to avoid an axiomatic approach – it explains where the axioms in quantum mechanics come from and why the mathematical infrastructure has to be as complicated as it is
• Reveals much more about the roots of quantum mechanics than standard books, leading to a deepened understanding of the content of quantum mechanics and the parallel development of theory and experimental discovery