Uma breve história da Física Quântica

An informed list of the most profound scientific developments of the 20th century is likely to include general relativity, quantum mechanics, big bang cosmology, the unraveling of the genetic code, evolutionary biology, and perhaps a few other topics of the reader's choice. Among these, quantum mechanics is unique because of its profoundly radical quality. Quantum mechanics forced physicists to reshape their ideas of reality, to rethink the nature of things at the deepest level, and to revise their concepts of position and speed, as well as their notions of cause and effect.

Although quantum mechanics was created to describe an abstract atomic world far removed from daily experience, its impact on our daily lives could hardly be greater. The spectacular advances in chemistry, biology, and medicine—and in essentially every other science—could not have occurred without the tools that quantum mechanics made possible. Without quantum mechanics there would be no global economy to speak of, because the electronics revolution that brought us the computer age is a child of quantum mechanics. So is the photonics revolution that brought us the Information Age. The creation of quantum physics has transformed our world, bringing with it all the benefits—and the risks—of a scientific revolution. Unlike general relativity, which grew out of a brilliant insight into the connection between gravity and geometry, or the deciphering of DNA, which unveiled a new world of biology, quantum mechanics did not spring from a single step. Rather, it was created in one of those rare concentrations of genius that occur from time to time in history. For 20 years after their introduction, quantum ideas were so confused that there was little basis for progress; then a small group of physicists created quantum mechanics in three tumultuous years. These scientists were troubled by what they were doing, and in some cases distressed by what they had done. The unique situation of this crucial yet elusive theory is perhaps best summarized by the following observation: Quantum theory is the most precisely tested and most successful theory in the history of science. Nevertheless, not only was quantum mechanics deeply disturbing to its founders, today—75 years after the theory was essentially cast in its current form—some of the luminaries of science remain dissatisfied with its foundations and its interpretation, even as they acknowledge its stunning power. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Max Planck's creation of the quantum concept. In his seminal paper on thermal radiation, Planck hypothesized that the total energy of a vibrating system cannot be changed continuously. Instead, the energy must jump from one value to another in discrete steps, or quanta, of energy. The idea of energy quanta was so radical that Planck let it lay fallow. Then Albert Einstein, in his wonder year of 1905, recognized the implications of quantization for light. Even then the concept was so bizarre that there was little basis for progress. Twenty more years and a fresh generation of physicists were required to create modern quantum theory.To understand the revolutionary impact of quantum physics one need only look at pre-quantum physics. From 1890 to 1900 physics journals were filled with papers on atomic spectra and essentially every other measurable property of matter, such as viscosity, elasticity, electrical and thermal conductivity, coefficients of expansion, indices of refraction, and thermo-elastic coefficients. Spurred by the energy of the Victorian work ethic and the development of ever more ingenious experimental methods, knowledge accumulated at a prodigious rate. What is most striking to the contemporary eye, however, is that the compendious descriptions of the properties of matter were essentially empirical. Thousands of pages of spectral data listed precise values for the wavelengths of the elements, but nobody knew why spectral lines occurred, much less what information they conveyed. Thermal and electrical conductivities were interpreted by suggestive models that fitted roughly half the facts. There were numerous empirical laws but they were not satisfying. For instance, the Dulong-Petit law established a simple relation between specific heat and the atomic weight of a material. Much of the time it worked; sometimes it didn't. The masses of equal volumes of gas were, for the most part, in the ratios of integers. The Periodic Table, which provided a key organizing principle for the flourishing science of chemistry, had absolutely no theoretical basis. Among the greatest achievements of the revolution is this: Quantum mechanics has provided a quantitative theory of matter. We now understand essentially every detail of atomic structure—the Periodic Table has a simple and natural explanation, and the vast arrays of spectral data fit into an elegant theoretical framework. Quantum theory permits the quantitative understanding of molecules, of solids and liquids, and of conductors and semiconductors. It explains bizarre phenomena such as superconductivity and superfluidity, and exotic forms of matter such as the stuff of neutron stars and Bose-Einstein condensates, in which all the atoms in a gas behave like a single superatom. Quantum mechanics provides essential tools for all the sciences and for every advanced technology. Quantum physics actually encompasses two entities. The first is the theory of matter at the atomic level: quantum mechanics. It is quantum mechanics that allows us to understand and manipulate the material world. The second is the quantum theory of fields. Quantum field theory plays a totally different role in science, to which we shall return later. Quantum Mechanics The clue that triggered the quantum revolution came not from studies of matter but from a problem in radiation. The specific challenge was to understand the spectrum of light emitted by hot bodies: blackbody radiation. The phenomenon is familiar to anyone who has stared at a fire. Hot matter glows, and the hotter it becomes the brighter it glows. The spectrum of the light is broad, with a peak that shifts from red to yellow and finally to blue (although we cannot see that) as the temperature is raised. It should have been possible to understand the shape of the spectrum by combining concepts from thermodynamics and electromagnetic theory, but all attempts failed. However, by assuming that the energies of the vibrating electrons that radiate the light are quantized, Planck obtained an expression that agreed beautifully with experiment. But as he recognized all too well, the theory was physically absurd, "an act of desperation," as he later described it. Planck applied his quantum hypothesis to the energy of the vibrators in the walls of a radiating body. Quantum physics might have ended there if in 1905 a novice—Einstein—had not reluctantly concluded that if a vibrator's energy is quantized, then the energy of the electromagnetic field that it radiates—light—must also be quantized. Einstein thus imbued light with particle-like behavior, notwithstanding James Clerk Maxwell's theory, and over a century of definitive experiments testified to light's wave nature. Experiments on the photoelectric effect in the following decade revealed that when light is absorbed its energy actually arrives in discrete bundles, as if carried by a particle. The dual nature of light—particle-like or wavelike depending on what one looks for—was the first example of a vexing theme that would recur throughout quantum physics. The duality constituted a theoretical conundrum for the next 20 years. The first step toward quantum theory had been precipitated by a dilemma about radiation. The second step was precipitated by a dilemma about matter. It was known that atoms contain positively and negatively charged particles. But oppositely charged particles attract. According to electromagnetic theory, therefore, they should spiral into each other, radiating light in a broad spectrum until they collapse. Once again, the door to progress was opened by a novice: Niels Bohr. In 1913 Bohr proposed a radical hypothesis: Electrons in an atom exist only in certain stationary states, including a ground state. Electrons change their energy by "jumping" between the stationary states, emitting light whose wavelength depends on the energy difference. By combining known laws with bizarre assumptions about quantum behavior, Bohr swept away the problem of atomic stability. Bohr's theory was full of contradictions, but it provided a quantitative description of the spectrum of the hydrogen atom. He recognized both the success and the shortcomings of his model. With uncanny foresight, he rallied physicists to create a new physics. His vision was eventually fulfilled, although it took 12 years and a new generation of young physicists. At first, attempts to advance Bohr's quantum ideas—the so-called old quantum theory—suffered one defeat after another. Then a series of developments totally changed the course of thinking. In 1923 Louis de Broglie, in his Ph.D. thesis, proposed that the particle behavior of light should have its counterpart in the wave behavior of particles. He associated a wavelength with the momentum of a particle: The higher the momentum, the shorter the wavelength. The idea was intriguing, but no one knew what a particle's wave nature might signify or how it related to atomic structure. Nevertheless, de Broglie's hypothesis was an important precursor for events soon to take place. In the summer of 1924, there was yet another precursor. Satyendra N. Bose proposed a totally new way to explain the Planck radiation law. He treated light as if it were a gas of massless particles (now called photons) that do not obey the classical laws of Boltzmann statistics but behave according to a new type of statistics based on particles' indistinguishable nature. Einstein immediately applied Bose's reasoning to a real gas of massive particles and obtained a new law—to become known as the Bose-Einstein distribution—for how energy is shared by the particles in a gas. Under normal circumstances, however, the new and old theories predicted the same behavior for atoms in a gas. Einstein took no further interest, and the result lay undeveloped for more than a decade. Still, its key idea, the indistinguishability of particles, was about to become critically important. Suddenly, a tumultuous series of events occurred, culminating in a scientific revolution. In the three-year period from January 1925 to January 1928: • Wolfgang Pauli proposed the exclusion principle, providing a theoretical basis for the Periodic Table. • Werner Heisenberg, with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, discovered matrix mechanics, the first version of quantum mechanics. The historical goal of understanding electron motion within atoms was abandoned in favor of a systematic method for organizing observable spectral lines. • Erwin Schrödinger invented wave mechanics, a second form of quantum mechanics in which the state of a system is described by a wave function, the solution to Schrödinger's equation. Matrix mechanics and wave mechanics, apparently incompatible, were shown to be equivalent. • Electrons were shown to obey a new type of statistical law, Fermi-Dirac statistics. It was recognized that all particles obey either Fermi-Dirac statistics or Bose-Einstein statistics, and that the two classes have fundamentally different properties. • Heisenberg enunciated the Uncertainty Principle. • Paul A.M. Dirac developed a relativistic wave equation for the electron that explained electron spin and predicted antimatter. • Dirac laid the foundations of quantum field theory by providing a quantum description of the electromagnetic field. • Bohr announced the complementarity principle, a philosophical principle that helped to resolve apparent paradoxes of quantum theory, particularly wave-particle duality. The principal players in the creation of quantum theory were young. In 1925 Pauli was 25 years old, Heisenberg and Enrico Fermi were 24, and Dirac and Jordan were 23. Schrödinger, at age 36, was a late bloomer. Born and Bohr were older still, and it is significant that their contributions were largely interpretative. The profoundly radical nature of the intellectual achievement is revealed by Einstein's reaction. Having invented some of the key concepts that led to quantum theory, Einstein rejected it. His paper on Bose-Einstein statistics was his last contribution to quantum physics and his last significant contribution to physics. That a new generation of physicists was needed to create quantum mechanics is hardly surprising. Lord Kelvin described why in a letter to Bohr congratulating him on his 1913 paper on hydrogen. He said that there was much truth in Bohr's paper, but he would never understand it himself. Kelvin recognized that radically new physics would need to come from unfettered minds. ... Read more here/Leia mais aqui: 4physics +++++ Vote neste blog para o prêmio TOPBLOG 2010.