Article ID: CBB000933682

The Emergence of Selection Rules and Their Encounter with Group Theory, 1913--1927 (2009)

unapi

Borrelli, Arianna (Author)


Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Volume: 40
Pages: 327--337


Publication Date: 2009
Edition Details: Part of a special Issue: Proceedings from the HQ2 Conference
Language: English

In today's quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, the observable signature of a symmetry is often sought in the form of a selection rule: a missing radiation frequency, a particle that does not decay in another one, a scattering process which fails to take place. The connection between selection rules and symmetries is effected thanks to the mathematical discipline of group theory. In the present paper, I will offer an overview of how the productive synergy between selection rules and group theory came to be. The first half of the work will be devoted to the emergence of the idea of spectroscopic selection rules in the context of the old quantum theory, showing how this notion was linked with an interpretive scheme of theoretical nature which, once combined with group theory, would bear many fruits. In the second part of the paper, I will focus on the actual encounter between selection rules and group theory, and on the person largely responsible for it: Eugene Wigner. I will attempt to reconstruct the path which led Wigner, of all people, to be the agent effecting this connection.

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Article Dongen, Jeroen van; Dieks, Dennis; Uffink, Jos; Kox, A. J. (2009) On the History of the Quantum: Introduction to the HQ2 Special Issue. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (p. 277). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000933682/

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Authors & Contributors
Seth, Suman
Navarro, Jaume
Freire, Olival, Jr.
Leyla Joaquim
Rana, Adele La
Josh Hunt
Concepts
Quantum mechanics
Physics
Philosophy of science
Controversies and disputes
Philosophy
Science and society
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
Places
Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
Great Britain
United States
Italy
Germany
Brussels (Belgium)
Institutions
Solvay Conferences
Royal Society of London
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