Why a new approach to found quantum theory?
pp. 702-708
in: Jagdish Mehra (ed), The physicist's conception of nature, Berlin, Springer, 1973Abstract
The mathematical elegance of the theory of quantum mechanics and the crucial conceptual problems arising from it are most fascinating. The well-known books of Dirac1 and of von Neumann2 are most useful if one tries to "understand" what is meant by the "physical interpretation" of quantum mechanics. Concerning the problem of the measuring process, Heisenberg's book Die physikalischen Prinzipien der Quantentheorie 3 is very fundamental. The beauty of the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics can be felt by studying the books of Wigner4, van der Waerden5 and Weyl6, which also describe the connection between group theory and quantum mechanics. Although group-theoretical methods are essential for a logical construction of quantum mechanics (e.g. the representations of the Galilei-group in non-relativistic quantum mechanics), I would like to discuss here the problems of the foundation of quantum mechanics only.