Pioneer Quantum Mechanics and Its Interpretation

Quantum mechanics was created in a unique effort of a small group of ingenious physicists during the period of 1922 to 1927. The leading pioneers were Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, Pascual Jordan, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac. By 1928 the new mechanics was sufficiently developed to be applied to the properties of atoms, molecules, solids and radiation. The first really authoritative text was Dirac’s “The Principles of Quantum Mechanics” of 1930. Von Neumann’s brilliant “Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik” of 1932 contributed much to the mathematical refinement of the new theory, while Pauli’s article “Die allgemeinen Prinzipien der Wellenmechanik” in the “Handbuch der Physik” of 1933 gives an encyclopedic coverage from a more physical point of view. In spite of their slightly different positions, we regard the expositions in these classical works by Dirac (1930), von Neumann (1932) and Pauli (1933) as aspects of one single theory which we call pioneer quantum mechanics. More recent accounts of pioneer quantum mechanics are the monograph by Bohm (1951) and by Ludwig (1954).