Could Pauli Have Discovered Quantum Mechanics? A Clue from Freeman Dyson

[Hans de Vries]

Amusing,

Probably the right place here to post this ...

A quote from Freeman Dyson about a conversation with Wolfgang Pauli:

"I have a clear memory of Pauli saying to me, "If I had not wasted so
much time trying to make sense of five-dimensional relativity (the Kaluza-
Klein theory and similar attempts), I might have discovered quantum
mechanics myself." I believe he said that when he was in Princeton in 1954."

http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-8/p11.html

In light of the current heated String Theory discussions. Saying that, I
have my copy as well of "Modern Kaluza-Klein Theories" from Appelquist
and al. which has all the original papers going back to 1921, until some
of the first String Theory papers. I bought this way back in 1987, never
managed then to get far in it though. (and I only came back to Physics
recently)


Regards, Hans

 

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[marcus]

A quote from Freeman Dyson about a conversation with Wolfgang Pauli:

"I have a clear memory of Pauli saying to me, "If I had not wasted so
much time trying to make sense of five-dimensional relativity (the Kaluza-
Klein theory and similar attempts), I might have discovered quantum
mechanics myself." I believe he said that when he was in Princeton in 1954."

What a coincidence, something quite similar happened to me! Edward Witten and I were sharing a pizza in 2010 not long after Freidel and Loll discovered Z mechanics, and I have a clear memory of him saying "If I had not wasted so much time trying to make sense of those extra dimensions, I might have discovered Z mechanics myself."

 

[arivero]

http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-8/p11.html

Hey, I had missed that page! Thanks very much Hans.

 

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[Hans de Vries]

Hey, I had missed that page! Thanks very much Hans.

Next to Dysons letter you'll also find a letter from Luis J. Boya, to which you
must be well familliar,

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-th/pdf/9411/9411081.pdf

Renormalization in 1-D Quantum Mechanics: contact interactions
from Luis J BOYA, Alejandro RIVERO †


A while ago I read Luis's paper on how it took Niels Bohr's over a decade to
accept Einstein's photon which he had vehemently rejected until he finally
came up with the complementarity principle.
Historically very interesting!

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0212/0212090.pdf


Regards, Hans.

 

[arivero]

Next to Dysons letter you'll also find a letter from Luis J. Boya, to which you
must be well familliar,

(...)

A while ago I read Luis's paper on how it took Niels Bohr's over a decade to
accept Einstein's photon which he had vehemently rejected until he finally
came up with the complementarity principle.
Historically very interesting!

http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0212090

Yep Hans, my old Advisor takes very seriously the record of history!

Curiously we are complementary in this field: he concentrates in the XXth century, I take excursions on Newton and Democritus. We have a series of sparse papers that someday could do an, imho, entertaining book. (As for the arguments about Pauli correspondence with Heisenberg, am not sure if we had available -now we have them- the complete correspondence at the time of the physicstoday discussion. Still, the argument of Schucking and von Meyenn from these letters is a bit extreme)

On the modern side, LJ has been always very fond of strings, and I like to remember a remark time ago in a divulgative lecture, arguing that the whole deductive process of strings was so perfect that "if it fails, we would go back before Newton".

In some sense, LQG is before Newton. (not the only one, also non commutative calculus is "before Newton", according Majid)

 

[marcus]

... we would go back before Newton".

In some sense, LQG is before Newton. (not the only one, also non commutative calculus is "before Newton", according Majid)

What about Loll-type dynamical triangulations? Also before Newton?

 

[arivero]

Hmm could be. Sort of "dynamical differential triangle"?