Pascual Jordan* (1902 - 1980), “at fourteen, had a plan of writing a big book on all the fields of science” ([MR], p. 45). In a sense, he remained faithful to his teens' dream: at the University of Gottingen he studies the regular courses in mathematics, physics and zoology; on top of his main input to the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory he works (and publishes papers and books) on cosmology, biology, psychology, philosophy, religion. May be, such an encyclopedic outlook, along with some personal traits and his elitist political preferences, had conspired to deprive him, alone among the creators of quantum theory, of the Nobel Prize? In the words of the French historian of science, [D]: Among the creators of quantum mechanics Pascual Jordan is certainly the least known, although he contributed more than anybody else to the birth of quantum field theory.

[D] O. Darigol, The origin of quantized matter waves, Hist. Stud. Phys. Sci. 16/2 (1986) 189-253
[MR] J. Mehra, H. Rechenberg, The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 3: The Formulation of Quantum Mechanics and Its Modifications 1925-1926, Springer, New York 1982
*[S] S. S. Schweber, QED and the Men Who Made It: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994 (Sect. 1.2) p. 5

Key words: Pascual Jordan, quantum mechanics

   

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GEORGI NADJAKOV INSTITUTE OF SOLID STATE PHYSICS
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Created: 7 October 2011
Updated: 22 October 2015