Erwin Schrödinger: The Father of Wave Mechanics

A Viennese Youth Between Arts and Sciences

Born on August 12, 1887 in Vienna (Austria-Hungary) into a wealthy and cultured family, Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) grew up in a stimulating environment, immersed in both science (his father was a botanist) and the arts. He studied theoretical physics at the University of Vienna under Fritz Hasenöhrl (1874-1915), where he developed a passion for statistical mechanics and color theory. After earning his doctorate in 1910, he served as an artillery officer during World War I, while continuing his research on radioactivity.

The Quantum Revolution: The Wave Equation (1926)

In 1926, Schrödinger published a series of foundational papers introducing:

• The wave equation describing the time evolution of quantum systems
• The concept of the wave function \(\Psi\), central to quantum mechanics
• A wave interpretation of particles, unifying the ideas of Louis de Broglie (1892-1987)

His approach, initially in competition with Werner Heisenberg's matrix mechanics (1901-1976), was mathematically proven equivalent by John von Neumann (1903-1957). He received the Nobel Prize in 1933 (shared with Paul Dirac (1902-1984)) for this major discovery.

Schrödinger's Cat Paradox and Philosophical Debates

In 1935, Schrödinger proposed his famous cat paradox to illustrate the interpretation problems of quantum mechanics (superposition of states, measurement). This paradox became a cornerstone of discussions about the Copenhagen interpretation, which he strongly criticized. His exchanges with Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and Niels Bohr (1885-1962) marked the history of physics, opposing realism and probabilism.

Exile and Intellectual Commitments

Opposed to Nazism, Schrödinger left Germany in 1933 and taught at Oxford, Graz, and then Dublin (where he founded the IAS).

• Theoretical biology with his book What is Life? (1944), inspiring James Watson and Francis Crick in their DNA research
• The philosophy of science and the unification of knowledge (influenced by the Indian Vedas)
• Thermodynamics and color theory

He returned to Austria in 1956 and died in Vienna on January 4, 1961, leaving an interdisciplinary legacy.