Introducing groups into quantum theory (1926–1930)

Abstract

In the second half of the 1920s, physicists and mathematicians introduced group-theoretic methods into the recently invented “new” quantum mechanics. Group representations turned out to be a highly useful tool in spectroscopy and in giving quantum-mechanical explanations of chemical bonds. H. Weyl explored the possibilities of a group-theoretic approach to quantization. In his second version of a gauge theory for electromagnetism, he even started to build a bridge between quantum theoretic symmetries and differential geometry. Until the early 1930s, an active group of young quantum physicists and mathematicians contributed to this new challenging field. But around the turn to the 1930s, opposition to the new methods in physics grew. This article focuses on the work of those physicists and mathematicians who introduced group-theoretic methods into quantum physics.