Foundations of quantum mechanics: Building on von Neumann's heritage

• Published in: International journal of quantum chemistry Vol. 65; no. 5; pp. 379 - 387
• Main Author: Emch, Gérard G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 1997
• ISSN: 0020-7608; 1097-461X
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-461X(1997)65:5<379::AID-QUA2>3.0.CO;2-T

From 1927 to 1943, the mathematical and conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics, and their prolongations into the formulation of statistical mechanics, were either the direct subject of or one of the primary motivations for several publications by von Neumann. We contrast the reception received by the work done during the first 5 years (1927–1932) and that received by the monumental mathematical constructs wrought in the second period (1934–1943); we describe how the latter were to lead to the elaboration of a formalism generalizing the fundamental structures of quantum mechanics so that they can encompass and deal consistently with situations typical of the quantum many‐body problems of statistical mechanics. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 65: 379–387, 1997