Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Schrödinger
Name	Erwin Schrödinger
Caption	Schrödinger in 1933
Birth date	12 August 1887
Birth place	Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Death date	4 January 1961
Death place	Vienna, Austria
Fields	Physics, Theoretical physics
Alma mater	University of Vienna
Known for	Schrödinger equation, Schrödinger's cat, Wave mechanics
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1933), Max Planck Medal (1937)
Spouse	Annemarie Bertel

Erwin Schrödinger was a pioneering Austrian physicist and one of the founders of quantum mechanics. He is most famous for formulating the Schrödinger equation, a fundamental equation that describes how the quantum state of a physical system changes over time. His work earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933, which he shared with Paul Dirac. Schrödinger also made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, color theory, and the philosophy of science, most notably through his famous thought experiment involving a hypothetical cat.

Early life and education

Born in Vienna to a family with academic interests, his father, Rudolf Schrödinger, was a botanist and his mother was the daughter of Alexander Bauer, a professor of chemistry. He was educated at home by private tutors until the age of eleven. Schrödinger then attended the Akademisches Gymnasium in Vienna, where he excelled in mathematics and physics. He entered the University of Vienna in 1906, studying under renowned physicists like Franz Serafin Exner and Friedrich Hasenöhrl, who introduced him to the ideas of Ludwig Boltzmann. He received his doctorate in 1910 and subsequently served as an assistant to Exner at the university's Second Physics Institute.

Scientific career and contributions

After serving as an artillery officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, Schrödinger held academic positions at the University of Jena, University of Stuttgart, University of Breslau, and the University of Zurich. It was in Zurich in 1926 that he published his seminal series of papers, "Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem," which introduced wave mechanics and the Schrödinger equation. This work provided a powerful alternative formulation to the matrix mechanics developed by Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan. In 1927, he succeeded Max Planck to the prestigious chair of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin, joining a faculty that included Albert Einstein. With the rise of the Nazi Party, he left Germany in 1933, eventually becoming a fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Schrödinger's cat thought experiment

In 1935, Schrödinger published a paper responding to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics championed by Niels Bohr. To illustrate the perceived absurdity of applying quantum superposition to macroscopic objects, he devised the Schrödinger's cat paradox. The thought experiment describes a cat in a sealed box, whose life depends on a random quantum event, such as the decay of a radioactive atom. According to the theory, until observed, the cat exists in a superposition of being both alive and dead. This provocative idea became a cornerstone of discussions in the philosophy of physics and the interpretation of quantum theory, influencing debates about quantum measurement and quantum entanglement.

Later life and philosophical work

In 1939, after brief stays in Graz and a flight from the Anschluss, Schrödinger was invited to help establish the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland by Éamon de Valera. He served as Director of the School for Theoretical Physics until his retirement in 1955. During this period, he wrote extensively on philosophy and the unified field theory, seeking a connection between general relativity and electromagnetism. His 1944 book, What Is Life?, which applied thermodynamic and quantum ideas to biology, profoundly influenced the development of molecular biology and inspired scientists like Francis Crick and James Watson.

Awards and honors

Schrödinger's most prestigious honor was the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded jointly with Paul Dirac "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory." He was also a recipient of the Max Planck Medal in 1937. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1949. Several institutions bear his name, including the Erwin Schrödinger International Institute for Mathematics and Physics in Vienna and the Schrödinger crater on the far side of the Moon.

Personal life and legacy

Schrödinger married Annemarie Bertel in 1920, but his personal life was complex and unconventional, involving numerous relationships. He had a daughter with Hilde March, the wife of his colleague Arthur March. He returned to Vienna in 1956 as a professor at the University of Vienna. He died of tuberculosis in 1961 and was buried in Alpbach, Tyrol. His legacy is monumental; the Schrödinger equation remains the fundamental tool of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, essential for understanding atomic physics, quantum chemistry, and solid-state physics. His interdisciplinary work continues to inspire fields from biology to philosophy.

Category:Austrian physicists Category:Nobel laureates in Physics Category:Quantum mechanics