Who discovered the Schrödinger equation and when was it published?
Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist, postulated the equation in 1925 and published it in 1926. The work it anchored earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.
Questions about Schrödinger equation
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What does the Schrödinger equation describe in quantum mechanics?
The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a non-relativistic quantum-mechanical system. It gives the evolution of the wave function over time, allowing calculation of the probability of different measurement outcomes via the Born rule.
What is the difference between the time-dependent and time-independent Schrödinger equation?
The time-dependent Schrödinger equation describes how a quantum system evolves over time in the most general case. The time-independent version applies when the Hamiltonian does not explicitly depend on time, and its solutions are stationary states, called atomic orbitals in chemistry and energy eigenstates in physics.
What is the physical meaning of the wave function in the Schrödinger equation?
Max Born established in 1926 that the wave function is a probability amplitude, and its modulus squared gives a probability density. Schrödinger himself later described the wave function as the means for predicting the probability of measurement results.
How does the Schrödinger equation differ from the Dirac equation?
The Schrödinger equation is nonrelativistic, with a first derivative in time and a second derivative in space, so time and space are not on equal footing. The Dirac equation, formulated by Paul Dirac, incorporates special relativity and is first-order in both space and time; it describes spin-1/2 particles and reduces to the Schrödinger equation in the nonrelativistic limit.
For which atom has the Schrödinger equation been solved exactly?
The hydrogen atom is the only atom for which the Schrödinger equation has been solved exactly. Multi-electron atoms require approximate methods such as perturbation theory and variational techniques.