Intrinsic Symmetries in Quantum Mechanics

相对论(狭义和广义)和量子理论代表了20世纪的两次伟大的科学革命，这两次革命不仅改变了物理学本身，也改变了我们的一般世界观。这些理论在物理学、历史学和科学哲学中的影响仍在研究之中。为了充分理解量子理论的意义和影响，还需要进行大量的研究。根据这项研究拨款，米勒博士正在研究这一系列项目中最重要的领域之一。他正在研究内在(或内部)对称性在量子力学中的引入、解释和发展，从1926年维尔纳·海森伯格(Werner Heisenberg)通过沃尔夫冈·保利(Wolfgang Pauli)1940年关于自旋、统计学和洛伦兹不变性之间的联系的经典论文对这一概念的表述开始。这一研究领域的其他关键人物还有尼尔斯·玻尔、P·A·M·狄拉克、列夫·兰道、鲁道夫·佩尔斯、维克多·魏斯斯科普夫和尤金·维格纳。量子力学中内在对称性概念的发展带来了空间、时间、因果和物质等概念的广泛变化，这些概念是我们世界观的核心概念。因此，对这些发展的理解将有助于科学的历史和哲学以及文化史，因为社会已经开始理解这一理论迫使世界上因果关系和确定性的意义发生了根本性的转变。

Relativity theory (both special and general) and quantum theory represent the two great scientific revolutions of the 20th century which not only have changed physics itself but also our general world view. The repercussions of these theories are still being worked out in physics, history, and philosophy of science. In order to understand fully the meanings and impacts of quantum theory, an enormous range of studies remain to be carried out. Dr. Miller, under this research grant, is examining one of the most important areas of this range of projects. He is investigating the introduction, interpretation, and development of intrinsic (or internal) symmetries into quantum mechanics, starting with Werner Heisenberg's formulation of the concept in 1926 through Wolfgang Pauli's classic paper of 1940 on the connection among spin, statistics and Lorentz invariance. Other key figures in this area of research are Niels Bohr, P. A. M. Dirac, Lev Landau, Rudolf Peierls, Victor Weisskopf, and Eugene Wigner. The development of the concept of intrinsic symmetries in quantum mechanics brought about wide-ranging transformations in the notions of space, time, causality, and substance -- central concepts for our view of the world. An understanding of these developments thus promises to contribute to both the history and the philosophy of science as well as to cultural history as society has come to understand the radical shifts that this theory has forced on the meaning of causality and certainty in the world.