Physics Interest Group

Time: Friday afternoons (about every other week - see the calendar below), 1:30–3:00 pm Central time 
Meeting place: Tate Hall, room 201-20; in-person only

The physics interest group (PIG) reads and discusses works of mutual interest in the history and philosophy of physics. We select readings for a variety of reasons: to keep up on the most exciting developments in the field, to help participants scrutinize literature relevant to their research projects (faculty or graduate student research), to provide feedback on works in progress being written by participants (graduate students, faculty, and Center visitors), or to revisit classic articles in the literature. For more information, please contact Michel Janssen ([email protected]).

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Fall 2025

This semester, participants in PIG will be reading and discussing parts of Constructing Quantum Mechanics, a two-volume book by Tony Duncan and Michel Janssen on the genesis of quantum mechanics. The goal is to develop slideshows to present the material in these two volumes to an audience of advanced undergraduate students in physics and graduate students in history and philosophy of physics. Slideshows for most of the material in Vol. 1 and some of the material in Vol. 2 are already available and will be used as models for the slideshows still to be developed. After an introductory session, we will spend two sessions each on (the early stages of) the development of matrix and wave mechanics. The plan is to continue this project the next two semesters (Spring and Fall 2026).
 
Unless otherwise noted, all readings are from:
Anthony Duncan and Michel Janssen, Constructing Quantum Mechanics. Vol. 1. The Scaffold, 1900–1923. Vol. 2. The Arch, 1923–1927. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vol. 1 (2019), Vol. 2 (2023). Hereafter referred to as CQM.
  • Vol. 1: frontmatter, bibliography
  • Viol. 2: frontmatter, bibliography
 

September 12: Introduction

October 3: Matrix Mechanics (1) - CQM, Vol. 2, secs. 8.4–8.5 (pp. 19–53)


October 17: Meeting cancelled
 

November 14: Wave Mechanics (1) - CQM, Vol. 2, sec. 8.6 (pp. 53–68)
 

December 5: Matrix Mechanics (2) - CQM, Vol. 2, Ch. 11, "Heisenberg’s Umdeutung Paper" (pp. 209–254); Wave Mechanics (2) - CQM, Vol. 2, Ch. 13, "De Broglie’s Matter Waves and Einstein’s Quantum Theory of the Ideal Gas" (pp. 349–383)

 

Previous PIG topics