''A profound change has taken place during the present century in the opinions physicists have held on the mathematical foundations of their subject. Previously they supposed that the principles of Newtonian mechanics would provide the basis for the description of the whole of physical phenomenon and that all the theoretical physicists had to do was suitably to develop and apply these principles. With the recognition that there is no logical reason why Newtonian and classical principles should be valid outside the domains in which they have been experimentally verified has come the realization that departures from these principles are indeed necessary. Such departures find their expression through the introduction of new mathematical formalisms, new schemes of axioms and rules of manipulation, into the methods of theoretical physics.''
| Year | Conceptual Development (mainly non-relativistic) |
|---|---|
| Planck 1900 |
Quantized energy in radiation. (Blackbody radiation) |
| Einstein 1905 |
Quantum nature of light (photons) |
| Bohr 1913 |
First quantum model of the hydrogen atom |
| Stern and Gerlach 1921/22 |
Experiment to detect spin via "space-quantization" |
| de Broglie 1923 |
Wave-particle nature of electrons |
| Heisenberg 1925 |
Matrix mechanics |
| Heisenberg-Schrödinger-Born 1926 |
Solution of hydrogen atom (Heisenberg and Schrödinger) -Schrödinger's wave equation- Born's probabilistic interpretation of the wavefunction |
| Dirac 1928 |
Relativistic wave equation for the electron |
| Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen 1935 |
Non-locality of quantum mechanics |
| Feynman 1947 |
Path integral |
| Bell 1964 |
Bell's inequalities |
| Benioff 1980 |
Concept of quantum computer |
| Berry 1984 |
Geometrical phase |
| Elitzur - Vaidman 1993 |
Non-invasive quantum measurement |
| Shore 1994 |
Polynomial-in-time algorithm for quantum cryptography. |