Erwin Schrödinger — Wikipedia Summary

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 - 4 January 1961) was an Austrian theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. He devised the Schrödinger equation, which provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time. He coined the term “quantum entanglement” in 1935. Shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Paul Dirac “for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory”.

Other Contributions

Wrote on statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, dielectric physics, color theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, cosmology, unified field theory. His book What Is Life? addressed genetics from a physics viewpoint and inspired later molecular biology. Paid attention to philosophical aspects of science, ancient and oriental philosophy, ethics, religion.

Schrödinger’s Cat

Best known in popular culture for “Schrödinger’s cat”, a thought experiment illustrating the quantum measurement problem: a cat in a sealed box whose fate (alive/dead) is entangled with a quantum event (radioactive decay). In the MWI, the cat is both alive and dead in different branches of the multiverse.

Connection to MWI

In a 1952 Dublin lecture Schrödinger asserted that the multiple histories described by the wave equation are “not alternatives but all really happen simultaneously” - described by Deutsch as the earliest known reference to many-worlds. Schrödinger’s writings from the period contain elements resembling the modal interpretation. His 1935 cat paper is central to the measurement problem that MWI resolves.

Personal History

Lived with wife and mistress; left Oxford position partly due to this. Held position in Graz until Nazi takeover (1938), then fled. Long-term position in Dublin until retirement 1955. Returned to Vienna 1956. Tied for eighth in Physics World poll of greatest physicists of all time.