Biography

Pascual Jordan was a Physicien German theorist (1902-1980), professor with the Université of Göttingen. It contributed in a decisive way to the foundation of the quantum Mécanique and the Quantum theory of the fields.

Principal contributions

• September 27th, 1925 - With max Born, Jordan writes the canonical relation of commutation:

$\backslash \; left\; \backslash ,\; \backslash \; hat\; \{Q\}\; \backslash ,\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hat\; \{p\}\; \backslash ,\; \backslash \; right\; \backslash \; =\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hat\; \{Q\}\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hat\; \{p\}\; \backslash \; -\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hat\; \{p\}\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hat\; \{Q\}\; \backslash \; =\; \backslash \; I\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hbar$

In this same article, he also proposes the idea that it is also necessary to quantify the electromagnetic field , opening the way with the Quantum theory of the fields.

• November 16th, 1925 - With max Born and Werner Heisenberg, Jordan develops the first formulation of the Mécanique matrices. They introduce the canonical transformations, the theory of the disturbances, the treatment of the degenerated systems, and finally the canonical relation of commutation of the components of the kinetic moment:

$\backslash \; left\; \backslash ,\; \backslash \; hat\; \{L\}\; \_i\; \backslash ,\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hat\; \{L\}\; \_j\; \backslash ,\; \backslash \; right\; \backslash \; =\; \backslash \; I\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hbar\; \backslash \; \backslash \; epsilon\_\; \{ijk\}\; \backslash \; \backslash \; hat\; \{L\}\; \_k$

Pascual Jordan knew existing work on the matrix S and communicated them to Heisenberg who had redécouvert the algebra of the matrices for the needs for calculation.