Practicing the Correspondence Principle in the Old Quantum Theory

This book presents a history of the correspondence principle from a new perspective. The author provides a unique exploration of the relation between the practice of theory and conceptual development in physics. In the process, he argues for a new understanding of the history of the old quantum theory and the emergence of quantum mechanics.The analysis looks at how the correspondence principle was disseminated and how the principle was applied as a research tool during the 1920s. It provides new insights into the interaction between theoretical tools and scientific problems and shows that the use of this theoretical tool changed the tool itself in a process of transformation through implementation. This process, the author claims, was responsible for the conceptual development of the correspondence principle. This monograph connects to the vast literature in the history of science, which analyzed theoretical practices as based on tacit knowledge, skills, and calculation techniques. It contributes to the historical understanding of quantum physics and the emergence of quantum mechanics. Studying how physicists used a set of tools to solve problems, the author spells out the ‟skillful guessing” that went into the making of quantum theoretical arguments and argues that the integration and implementation of technical resources was a central driving force for the conceptual and theoretical transformation in the old quantum theory.

“His writing is also clear, to be sure … . No doubt this novel interpretation will be carefully scrutinized by experts in the near future, as it clearly involves an interesting new twist on how quantum mechanics arose, in particular a new view of the immediate events that led up to Heisenberg’s breakthrough.” (David Rowe, NTM, Vol. 29 (3), September, 2021)“This book provides an original contribution to the study of the history of quantum mechanics. … The monograph is carefully written and logically organised, it further provides valuable insights based on a rich historical documentation.” (Bassano Vacchini, zbMATH 1428.81004, 2020)

Martin Jähnert is a historian of science focused on conceptual developments in 19th- and 20th-century physics. As a fellow at the Berlin Center for the History of Knowledge he is currently working on the history of photometry as practiced at lighthouses in the 19th century. He was part of the project History and Foundation of Quantum Physics at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science where he worked on the conceptual development of the old quantum theory, in particular of the correspondence principle and the interpretational debate on quantum mechanics in the 1920s. Jähnert studied History and Physics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and completed his Ph.D. thesis Practicing the Correspondence Principle in the Old Quantum Theory at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the Technische Universität Berlin. Currently he is a post-doc at the Berlin Center for the History Knowledge with the project “Photometry at the Lighthouse”.