Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 129 77 The Competitive Pauli

When Chen Muwu was an undergraduate, the two basic mathematics courses of the Physics Department, "Advanced Mathematics" and "Linear Algebra", were included in the compulsory course schedule in the first semester of freshman year.

So in his subconscious mind, matrices should be on the level of calculus.

But the reality is far from as simple as Chen Muwu thought.

Although as early as ancient times, people have already started to study the determinant, but it is much later than the determinant to study the matrix as a special mathematics subject.

It is generally believed that the British mathematician Arthur Cayley began to establish matrix theory in the 50s.

It was not until the middle and late nineteenth century that the theory of matrix was gradually perfected as a branch of mathematics.

In other words, the formation time of the matrix is ​​later than the time when Maxwell proposed the electromagnetic equations named after him.

Compared with the calculus invented by Leibniz and Newton in the middle and late seventeenth century, the matrix is ​​more than 200 years later.

On the whole, the matrix, a mathematical concept that has not been born for less than 50 years, is completely regarded as a new subject for physicists.

Even Heisenberg, known as the founder of "Matrix Mechanics", actually didn't know what a matrix was at the beginning.

That's why when he wrote the paper on harmonic oscillators, he spent a lot of time designing a completely "new" algorithm for quantum mechanics.

But Heisenberg didn't know it at all, he just "invented" the matrix that already existed in mathematics.

Then Heisenberg's paper was discovered by Born, who was proficient in mathematics. After a few months, the latter suddenly realized that this new algorithm, which was associated with Heisenberg, was actually the one he had learned. passed matrix.

So Born pulled his new assistant, Jordan, to make up for matrix algebra for a while, and finally wrote the second paper, which made this theory standardized.

As for de Broglie, who became a monk in ancient European history and studied physics, it is normal for him not to understand what Chen Muwu wrote in this paper.

"Chen, how did you find such a weird mathematical tool? I am very curious about Chinese education now. Why do you know so much more than others?"

Chen Muwu didn't dare to take what De Broglie said.

In fact, the matrix, a branch of mathematics, entered the Chinese literature later.

In 1922, when Chen Muwu just traveled, the concept of matrix was translated into Chinese for the first time and introduced into China.

Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for him to have learned the concept of matrix and the corresponding knowledge in the domestic Jiaotong University.

Of course, this did not stop Chen Muwu from bragging to de Broglie: "Louis, I only had a brief understanding of the concept of matrix mathematics in China, and I really came into contact with and learned it after I went to Cambridge University.

"You may not know that the founder of the matrix theory, Arthur Cayley, was also a graduate of Trinity College and stayed there as a teacher, so there are a lot of books about matrix in the library of Trinity College. I guess it's easier to understand matrices as well.

"However, France is also a strong country in mathematics, and you are so smart, I think if you want to learn matrices, it should be very easy."

De Broglie was dubious: "Alright, Chen, since you've already said that, I'll go find a few books tomorrow."

Finally managed to get past the level of de Broglie, Chen Muwu jumped into the water again and started to swim.

……

However, de Broglie in Paris was not the only one who received this issue of "Physical Yearbook".

In the heart of Bohr in Denmark, Chen Muwu is now a colleague standing firmly in the same trench as himself, and a strong supporter of the atomic model he proposed.

In particular, Chen Muwu found out the fourth quantum number and proposed that electrons have spin, which further perfected Bohr's atomic model.

He also expressed doubts about the electron spin, and personally wrote a letter to Chen Muwu, informing him that the electron spin may violate the principle of the constant speed of light in the theory of relativity.

As a result, Chen Muwu told Bohr in his reply that he did not understand the theory of relativity.

After careful calculation, it was found that Chen Muwu's words were true.

This made Bohr very embarrassed. Fortunately, he did not have a brain at that time and wrote another paper similar to BKS for publication, otherwise he would lose face again.

So when Bohr saw Chen Muwu's new paper in the new issue of "Physical Yearbook", he quickly called Heisenberg, a new assistant recruited by the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, and asked him to help translate this paper. paper.

Bohr had two face-to-face exchanges with Einstein, and went to Göttingen to give lectures for more than a week, so he himself can speak German.

But the assistant is not in vain. If someone helps, he can take advantage of this time to smoke a pipe.

I have to say that Heisenberg is easier to use than the previous Kramers. If we use the characters of the Three Kingdoms as an example, then the former is Jiang Wei, while the latter is Ma Su.

Listening to Heisenberg translating Chen Muwu's thesis word by word in the entry-level Danish that he had just learned for a few months, Bohr lit his pipe and sank comfortably into the sofa.

But listening, Bohr frowned.

"The orbit of the electron in the atom cannot be observed, but if the light emitted from the atom is emitted during the discharge process, we can directly find out its frequency and amplitude.

"Knowing the number of amplitudes and the totality of the amplitudes is equivalent to knowing the orbits of electrons in so far in physics.

"Since in Mach's 'Observability Principle', only observable quantities should be accepted, it seems to me that it is only natural to introduce this whole as a representative of electron orbitals...

"...

"...periodic orbits of electrons, may not exist at all.

"What people observe directly in the experiment is only the discrete steady-state energy and spectral line intensity, and perhaps the corresponding amplitude and phase, but it is definitely not the orbit of the electron.

"I think that the only way out is to establish a new type of mechanics, in which the concept of discrete stationary states is fundamental, and the concept of electron orbits, it seems, should be abandoned..."

Okay, Chen Muwu, you big-eyed guy, dare to betray the change, oh no, you betrayed the Bohr atomic model?
Two months ago, Chen Muwu had just published the incompatibility principle, which introduced the fourth quantum number by proposing the existence of electron spin, which conclusively confirmed the existence of electron orbits.

Two months later, he started to say that electron orbits don't exist, so why is it inconsistent?
Bohr couldn't figure it out for a while.

In this paper, Chen Muwu cited a philosophical viewpoint called "Observability Principle" proposed by Mach.

Mach first proposed this point of view in order to deny the existence of atoms.

He believes that it is not necessary to attribute reality to entities that have never been observed. People have never observed atoms, so how can they believe that atoms exist?

Einstein also got inspiration from Mach's philosophy, and believed that the absolute space-time theory in Newtonian mechanics is not valid because it cannot be observed.

That's why he abandoned absolute space-time and established the theory of relativity.

It is the same in this new paper by Chen Muwu.

People can't even observe what an electron looks like, so why do they have to imagine an electron orbit?Do electron orbitals really exist?

In Bohr's atomic model, he forcibly made an orbit for the electrons outside the nucleus based on the hydrogen atom spectrum observed in experiments.

In other words, Bohr's model is "first shoot the arrow, then draw the target".

However, in Chen Muwu's paper, he completely reversed Bohr's atomic model, that is, the spectral lines cannot be calculated from the hypothetical electron orbit, but the movement of electrons should be calculated through the physical variables of the spectrum.

If the hypothetical electron orbit does not exist, the motion of the electron can still be inferred from the spectral variables.

"Stop, stop, Werner, stop reading here first, show me this paper."

The more Bohr listened, the more confused he became, and he simply stopped Heisenberg. He wanted to see with his own eyes what "fallacies and heresies" his junior brother Chen Muwu had written in his paper.

Bohr carefully read the first half of the paper "On Quantum Mechanics" from the beginning to the end, and the strange curly brackets and square brackets, p, q and other messy characters in the second half dazzled him. .

He felt as if he had been persuaded by Chen Muwu.

"Werner, take a look at this paper too. After you read it, let's communicate with each other."

After half an hour.

"finish watching?"

"Yes, Director."

"Then what do you think?"

Heisenberg replied truthfully: "I think...Mr. Chen's paper seems to have convinced me. Indeed, as he said, the orbit of the electron, as well as its position and velocity are actually 'physical quantities that cannot be observed in experiments'." .For atoms, the only physical quantities that can be observed in experiments are the frequency and intensity of the spectrum. Besides, all descriptions about atoms are just 'imaginary concepts'."

The godfather of Heisenberg was Mach, the proponent of the philosophical viewpoint quoted by Chen Muwu in his thesis.

Therefore, he had no difficulty in accepting Chen Muwu's new point of view.

He paused and continued: "It's just that the mathematical method called 'matrix' introduced in the second half of the thesis, I only understand it roughly. I think it may be because I was in a mathematics class at the University of Göttingen. , I didn’t listen carefully.”

Bohr smiled and said nothing.

He wondered in his mind, should he invite a professor of mathematics from the University of Copenhagen to the Institute of Theoretical Physics to give these big bastards, and give a lecture by himself?

……

Not only at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Pauli at the University of Hamburg also has a new issue of "Physical Yearbook" in front of him.

In Germany, he got the journal a few days earlier than Bohr in Denmark, and he also read Chen Muwu's latest paper a few days earlier.

In a rare move, Pauli did not challenge the content of the paper, nor did he write any of his three comments in the margins of the journal print.

But this does not mean that he fully agrees with Chen Muwu's paper.

Pauli believed that the new theory proposed in the first half of the paper was a wonderful physical picture, and that the quantum field finally had a new mathematical order.

It's a pity that in the second half, Chen Muwu superimposed the superfluous and ruined this new theory with a certain pure mathematical system.

But in the end, the flaws are not hidden. It seems that this Chen Muwu still has some strength, and I, Pauli, can't always stay behind.

Now that there are new theories and experimental phenomena that have always existed, Pauli intends to use Chen Muwu's method to try to see if he can completely deduce the spectrum of the hydrogen atom.

(End of this chapter)