The year 2025 is celebrating 100 years of quantum mechanics. During the Summer Term 2025, the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics will be given a re-vamp on this web site (and at its host: University of Potsdam).
Funny side remark: If you look into the 1925 volumes of the venerable journals Physikalische Zeitschrift, Zeitschrift für Physik or Annalen der Physik, you will recognise that quantum topics were all around the place. Many experiments, of course, with their “magic” explanations in terms of quantum numbers. The seminal papers by Heisenberg, Born and Jordan and, in 1926, by Schrödinger may “drown” in this flood of research. It is only with hindsight that we may recognise and date precisely the birth of radically new concepts like matrix mechanics.
Other folklore:
- Heisenberg who invented matrix mechanics did not learn about matrices in his physics studies (Born and Jordan knew).
- Schrödinger who invented the Schrödinger equation was unable to solve it (for the basic example of the Hydrogen atom). Hermann Weyl knew how to do it.