Schrödingern.
/ˈʃrəːdɪŋə//ˈʃrəʊdɪŋə/ Physics.
Used attributively and in the possessive to designate concepts developed by Schrödinger.
a. Schrödinger equation n. (also Schrödinger's equation, Schrödinger's wave equation, Schrödinger wave equation) a differential equation whose solution is the Schrödinger function; this equation became the basis of the quantum-mechanical description of matter.
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > wave mechanics > [noun] > wave function > equation producing
wave equation1926
Schrödinger equation1927
1927 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 114 251 The Hamiltonian function will now provide a Schrödinger wave equation.
1955 W. Heisenberg in W. Pauli Niels Bohr & Devel. Physics 23 His point of attack is..the fact that the wave function representing the system changes discontinuously when the observer takes cognizance of a result of measurement. Janossy asserts that this reduction cannot be deduced from Schrödinger's equation.
1961 J. L. Powell & B. Crasemann Quantum Mech. ii. 59 Many of the properties of ψ which are of physical interest are brought out more clearly by the Schrödinger equation than by the direct representation of ψ in terms of its harmonic components.
1968 M. S. Livingston Particle Physics iii. 51 The Schrödinger wave equation is based on the well-known differential equation for a traveling wave in a homogeneous medium.
1974 G. B. Gill & M. R. Willis Pericyclic Reactions i. 17 Now the energy can be calculated by substitution into the Schrödinger equation appropriate to the system.
b. Schrödinger function n. (also Schrödinger wave function, Schrödinger ψ-function) a complex function ψ of space and time such that the square of its absolute value is a measure of the local spatial probability density for a particle in the state (or with the probability amplitude) ψ, i.e., |ψ|2 represents the average particle density at a given location in space and time.
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > wave mechanics > [noun] > wave function
wave function1925
eigenfunction1926
Schrödinger function1935
partial wave1953
1935 L. Pauling & E. B. Wilson Introd. Quantum Mech. iii. 53 The function Ψ(x, t) is called the Schrödinger wave function including the time.
1938 R. W. Lawson tr. G. von Hevesy & F. A. Paneth Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) viii. 90 In wave mechanics a vibration law is formulated for the atom which is quite similar to the law of the mechanical vibrations of strings. But here we are not dealing with the motion of material particles, but with that of an abstract quantity called the Schrödinger ψ-function, which is only mathematically intelligible.
1968 G. Ludwig Wave Mech. i. iii. 42 Hence..the Schrödinger functions ϕ(x) are nothing other than the representation of the Hilbert space corresponding to the position operator.
Draft additions October 2011
Schrödinger's cat n. (also Schrödinger cat) an imaginary cat which features in a thought experiment or paradox concerning the quantum-mechanical superposition of states (see note below); (in extended use) any system or entity in which incompatible states are held to coexist until resolved by observation or another event.The cat is imagined as enclosed in a box with a radioactive source and a poison that will be released when the source (unpredictably) emits radiation, the cat being considered (according to quantum mechanics) to be simultaneously both dead and alive until the box is opened and the cat observed. Schrödinger conceived of it as a thought experiment to illustrate (or ridicule) an interpretation of the quantum-mechanical superposition of states (associated with Niels Bohr), according to which the quantum state of a particle could not be known until an observation was made; prior to that it had to be described physically in terms of all possible states.The concept was described by Schrödinger in Naturwissenschaften (1935) 23 812.
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1957 Jrnl. Philos. 54 737 The counter-paradox of the Schrödinger cat apparently killed by the ‘measurement’ of looking to see whether a photon-operated gun has shot it or not.
1963 Science 22 Feb. 745/2 The perfectly possible case of a macro-object whose position is partly determined by the outcome of a quantum mechanically uncertain event (as in the famous ‘Schrödinger's Cat’ Gedankenexperiment).
1976 Physics Rep. 25 58 It suffers from the conceptual difficulties best illustrated by Schrödinger's ‘cat experiment’. Indeed, it would seem to grant to Schrödinger's cat during the radioactive decay of the ‘trigger’ a status intermediate between life and death!
1996 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 1 June d8 The main object of the beryllium experiments was to create the atomic equivalent of ‘Schrödinger's cat’.
1997 J. Updike Toward End of Time 116 Before Christ ascended, He was in what quantum theory calls superposition—neither here nor there, up nor down. He was Schrödinger's cat.
2005 R. Leighton Different Universe v. 50 The Schrödinger cat has grown over time to become a symbol of transcendence, a meaning exactly opposite to the one Schrödinger himself intended.
2006 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Mar. 12/3 In a so-called Schrödinger cat state, all the qubits will give the same result—0 or 1—on being measured, even though the choice between 0 and 1 is totally random.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1982; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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