1) Erwin Schrödinger arrived in Zurich in 1921 at age 34 to take a position as professor of theoretical physics. However, he was physically and mentally exhausted from his move and negotiations.
2) He took a 9-month break in Arosa to recover from bronchitis and mild tuberculosis. During this time, he wrote two influential articles laying the foundations for his breakthroughs in quantum physics.
3) In 1925, Schrödinger was inspired by Louis de Broglie's theory that matter possesses wave properties. Over the following year, known as his "annus mirabilis," Schrödinger revolutionized physics by formulating the famous Schrödinger wave
1) Erwin Schrödinger arrived in Zurich in 1921 at age 34 to take a position as professor of theoretical physics. However, he was physically and mentally exhausted from his move and negotiations.
2) He took a 9-month break in Arosa to recover from bronchitis and mild tuberculosis. During this time, he wrote two influential articles laying the foundations for his breakthroughs in quantum physics.
3) In 1925, Schrödinger was inspired by Louis de Broglie's theory that matter possesses wave properties. Over the following year, known as his "annus mirabilis," Schrödinger revolutionized physics by formulating the famous Schrödinger wave
1) Erwin Schrödinger arrived in Zurich in 1921 at age 34 to take a position as professor of theoretical physics. However, he was physically and mentally exhausted from his move and negotiations.
2) He took a 9-month break in Arosa to recover from bronchitis and mild tuberculosis. During this time, he wrote two influential articles laying the foundations for his breakthroughs in quantum physics.
3) In 1925, Schrödinger was inspired by Louis de Broglie's theory that matter possesses wave properties. Over the following year, known as his "annus mirabilis," Schrödinger revolutionized physics by formulating the famous Schrödinger wave
a versatile and eclectic scholar, who was granted not merely an a ssociate was at home in all subjects, but who professorship, but full tenure. The had not yet produced work of any real Schrödingers took a spacious apart- significance – at what was already con- ment, appropriate to their status, at sidered an advanced age for physicists. Huttenstrasse 9 in Zürich-Oberstrass. When he moved with his wife, Annie, In addition to exhaustion, Schrö- from Breslau to Zurich in 1921, a Nobel dinger had also brought with him from Prize must have seemed to him a dis- Germany a dangerous and insidious tant prospect. Schrödinger, whom his illness. Hardly had he begun lecturing biographer Walter J. Moore described when he was forced by severe bron- as a “brilliant only child, occasionally chitis to take a break. His respiratory led astray by intellectual exuberance,” troubles lasted the whole winter. Fi- suffered from his lack of success and nally, a mild pulmonary tuberculosis Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 “for the discovery recognition. And his position as chair was diagnosed and rest prescribed. of new productive forms of atomic theory” at the University confronted him with Thus it came that, in 1922, Erwin a most daunting legacy: He followed Schrödinger withdrew to the holiday * 12 August 1887 in Vienna-Erdberg in the formidable footsteps of none less † 4 January 1961 in Vienna than Albert Einstein, Peter Debye, and “Schrödinger was a brilliant only 1921–1927 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Max von Laue – all subsequent Nobel child, occasionally led astray by the University of Zurich laureates. Nonetheless, Schrödinger intellectual exuberance.” would go on to spend six years in Walter J. Moore Zurich, a time in which he ultimately revolutionized physics. First, however, he had to recover his and health resort of Arosa, a place that strength. When he arrived in Z urich, would prove to be steeped in destiny. Alpine Air and he was exhausted, both physically and He stayed there for nine months,
the Wave Equation mentally: “I was so worn out that I was
incapable of intelligent thought,” he cared for devotedly by his wife. The high-altitude cure was successful, the When Erwin Schrödinger was ap- later wrote to Wolfgang Pauli. The new symptoms disappeared, and at the be- pointed to the chair for theoretical professor blamed this on the stress of ginning of November Schrödinger was physics at the University of Zurich in moving, the “constant decisions about back in Zurich and teaching again. He the fall of 1921 – a position that had his own future,” and the negotiations was able to work, but tired quickly. In been vacant since 1914 – no one im- over his appointment, the latter of which Arosa, he had written two articles, one agined that six years later he would he was not cut out for, as he noted. of which, “Über eine bemerkenswerte leave the University and the city hailed With the move to Zurich, Schrö- Eigenschaft der Quantenbahnen eines as a genius by luminary figures such as dinger left behind him a Germany einzelnen Elektrons” (On a notable Albert Einstein and Max Planck, and shattered by war and still haunted property of the quantum orbits of a celebrated as a star. by hunger and misery. And he was single electron), in Walter J. Moore’s Schrödinger arrived in Zurich aged freed from his financial worries: Un- words, could “well be described as an 34. Born in Vienna, he was regarded as like his illustrious predecessors, he original breakthrough into a new era.”
www.nobelpreis.uzh.ch/en_schroedinger.html Erwin Schrödinger – Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 1/4
Indeed, the alpine air of Arosa seemed swimming trunks, as he outlined his annus mirabilis, a phase, lasting some to inspire Schrödinger, and he was to theories on an improvised blackboard twelve months, of concentrated, crea- return there frequently. Years later, this that he had brought along.” tive work that revolutionized physics. was where he again devoted himself And so the time passed, with teach- Schrödinger felt that he was on the to electrons and quanta, and thus laid ing, marital rows, and affairs, yet track to something big. On 27 Decem- the foundations for his breakthrough no scholarly tour de force. Then, in ber he wrote to his physicist colleague, in quantum physics. the summer semester of 1925, Erwin Wilhelm Wien, “At the moment I am After his convalescence, Schrödinger Schrödinger read the doctoral thesis of bothered by a new atomic theory. If taught and researched, and enjoyed the a young Frenchman, Louis de Broglie, only I were better at mathematics! I’m good life in Zurich. He and his wife who proposed that matter – such as very optimistic about this, and hope were part of an academic clique that electrons – also possessed wave prop- that it will turn out beautifully as long met regularly for picnics and to go to erties. This contradicted the prevail- as I can manage the calculations.” the newly opened public baths at the ing opinion of leading physicists of On his return from Arosa, a col- Mythenquai; it was a lifestyle that led the time, who assumed that electrons league asked Schrödinger whether to friendships and love affairs, such were particles. Albert Einstein was im- he had enjoyed the skiing. He an- as the one between Hermann Weyl, mediately fascinated by de Broglie’s swered that he had been distracted Professor for Geometry at ETH, and “by some calculations.” These cal- Schrödinger’s wife, Annie. For his part, culations resulted in his first article, A vacation in clandestine Schrödinger, together with Weyl and “Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem. female company signaled the his predecessor Peter Debye, then Pro- Erste Mitteilung” (Quantization as a beginning of Schrödinger’s fessor at ETH, enjoyed Zurich’s night- problem of proper values, part one), annus mirabilis, the year he life, not to mention his own share of which he sent to the Annalen der Physik revolutionized physics. extramarital affairs. The marriage suf- on 26 January 1926. In this paper, he fered from the absence of children: first formulated his famous wave equa- Schrödinger longed for a son. From bold theory, while other researchers, tion, which has gone down in physics’ time to time, the couple considered such as Max Planck, reacted with ini- history as the “Schrödinger equation.” divorce, though in the end they stayed tial disbelief. De Broglie also gave Er- The wave equation makes it possible to together all their lives. win Schrödinger cause for thought – in calculate the energy levels of electrons Schrödinger was popular with his an extremely productive fashion, as it in an atom, thus solving one of the students. He was regarded as a good turned out. great problems in quantum physics. teacher, and his lectures as “intel- Schrödinger focused intensively on This first paper was followed by three lectual delights” (Walter J. Moore). Broglie’s proposition that all matter more over the next six months. Ulti- When appointed in 1927 as successor has wave properties. What were the mately, Schrödinger’s revolutionary to Max Planck in Berlin, his students properties of such waves of matter? calculations proved the wave nature organized a torchlight procession to He attempted to formulate laws and of matter proposed by de Broglie. Schrödinger’s house to persuade him equations that would define them. His After Schrödinger’s wave equa- to stay. Schrödinger was touched, but breakthrough came extraordinarily tion, nothing in the world of physics still left for Germany. His open-air lec- quickly, and under unexpected cir- was the same again. The dispute as tures, held in good weather by the lake, cumstances. Schrödinger spent Christ- to whether quantum objects such as were legendary. One of his students, mas and New Year 1925/26 on holiday electrons, atoms, or molecules were Alexander von Muralt, recalled: “In in Arosa. Not, however, with his wife, waves or particles was settled – but in summer, when it was warm enough, but with an unknown companion, a most surprising fashion: Schrödinger we went to the shores of Lake Zurich, often referred to as the “dark lady.” demonstrated that electrons could sat in the grass with our notebooks, This vacation in clandestine female have the properties of either waves or and watched this scrawny figure in his company was the beginning of his particles, but are neither the one nor
www.nobelpreis.uzh.ch/en_schroedinger.html Erwin Schrödinger – Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 2/4
the other; their state can be calculated Created in Zurich: Geiger counter. The hammer then breaks only with a degree of probability. the glass bottle, the poison is released, In a burst of creativity, spurred A New Atomic Theory and the cat dies. If we can observe the box on by a high-altitude erotic interlude “Schrödinger’s equation” is one of the great only from outside, we cannot say whether with his mysterious companion, Erwin breakthroughs in the history of physics. Er- the cat is alive or dead, as we do not know Schrödinger shifted the foundations of win Schrödinger worked it out within a few whether or when the nucleus disintegrates. his subject. What followed was fame months at the end of 1925 and the begin- We can only be certain when we open the and honor. While still employed in ning of 1926, and published his findings and box. Until that happens, the cat can be si- calculations in the Annalen der Physik be- multaneously dead or alive. tween January and June 1926. At this time, It is the same with particles in quantum Schrödinger demonstrated that the best physicists in the world, including physics as with the cat: Their condition can electrons could have the Niels Bohr, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, be definitively determined only when they properties of either waves or and Albert Einstein, were struggling to un- are measured. Until then, it is only possible particles, but are neither derstand the atom. Among the unsolved to discuss the state of the particle in terms the one nor the other. puzzles was the behavior of electrons in of probability. an atom. It was unclear whether electrons This uncertainty irritated Schrödinger’s Zurich, Schrödinger was invited to were particles or waves. The revolutionary contemporaries, who were unwilling to the USA where he held 50 lectures in aspect of Schrödinger’s equation was that it believe that physics is governed by chance. three months at the major universities was based on the assumption that electrons Albert Einstein reacted with the remark that and was offered several professorships. were waves that filled space. God doesn’t play dice. The physical and phil- Schrödinger turned down all the of- The equation gave Schrödinger an ele- osophical consequence of this insight is the fers, for he had something better in gant means of calculating the energy level question of whether nothing is real – the cat view – the succession to Max Planck in of the electron in the hydrogen atom. Inter- is neither dead nor alive – or everything is Berlin. He had already moved in time estingly, German physicist Werner Heisen- real – the cat is simultaneously dead and to celebrate his fortieth birthday, on berg had come to the same conclusion at alive. It is a fundamental question that re- 12 August 1927. Schrödinger’s years in the same time, albeit with another method mains unanswered to this day – a question Zurich thus came to an end as did his of calculation that was based on the con- that indeed may be unanswerable. (TG) most productive phase as a scholar – cept of electrons as particles. one that set him among the greats of This showed that electrons could have his subject. Thomas Gull the properties of both particles and waves, a discovery with far-reaching consequences Source: Margrit Wyder: Einstein und Co. – Nobelpreisträger in Zürich; Verlag NZZ libro, for quantum physics: It means that the na- Zürich 2015 Illustration: Aline Telek ture of the particle in and of itself cannot be Translation: University of Zurich determined because the act of observation influences the phenomenon observed. Schrödinger explained this paradox in 1935 with a thought experiment that has gone down in the annals of physics as “Schrödingers Cat.” A cat is placed for one hour in a closed box with an unstable atomic nucleus that can disintegrate at any time (but we don’t know when), a Geiger counter, a hammer, and a glass bottle con- taining cyanide. When the nucleus disin- tegrates, the radiation is detected by the
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Erwin Schrödinger (middle) was part of an academic clique that met regularly in the public baths at Zurich’s Mythenquai, which opened in 1923. Photo: Ruth Braunizer/Austrian Central Library for Physics.
Developed a new atomic theory in Zurich:
physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Photo: Nobel Foundation
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