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In the following, frequent references will be made to the following three sources: E P Wigner, Group Theory and its Application to the Quantum Mechanics of Atomic Spectra, Academic Press, New York, 1959
Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol.34, No.4, 1962
E P Wigner, Symmetries and Reflections — Scientific Essays, Indiana University Press, 1967. For brevity we shall refer to these as GT, RMP and SR, respectively.
SR, p. 257.
E P Wigner, Remembering Paul Dirac, in Reminiscences about a Great Physicist: Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, (eds. B N Kursunoglu and E P Wigner), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987.
Margit Dirac, Thinking of my darling Paul, in Reminiscences about a Great Physicist: Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, (eds. B N Kursunoglu and E P Wigner), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987.
J A Wheeler, in RMP, p.873.
L Dresner and A M Weinberg in RMP, p.747.
E P Wigner, Über die Erhaltungssatze in der Quanten mechanik, Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen, Math — Physik, K1. p.375, 1927; SR, p.61.
O Laporte, Z. Phys., Vol.23, p.135, 1924; GT, Chap.18.
G T, Chaps. 15 and 16; V Bargmann in RMP, p.829; L C Biedenharn and J D Louck, Angular Momentum in Quantum Physics — Theory and Application, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications (ed. G C Rota), Addison-Wesley, Reading MA, Vol.8, 1981.
GT, Appendix to Chap.20; V Bargmann, J Math, Phys., Vol.5, p.862; 1964; L C Biedenharn and J D Louck, The Racah-Wigner Algebra in Quantum Theory, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, (ed. G C Rota), Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, Vol.9, Chap.5, 1981.
E P Wigner, Über die Operation der Zeitumkehr in der Quanten mechanik, Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Gottingen, Math-Physik, K1., p.546, 1932; GT, Chap. 26.
J von Neumann and E P Wigner, Über das Verhalten von Eigenwerten bei adiabatischen Prozessen, Phys. Z., Vol.30, p.467, 1929; see also L D Landau, and E M Lifshitz, Quantum Mechanics, Pergamon Press, Oxford, p. 279, 1965.
G C Wick, A S Wightman and E P Wigner, The intrinsic parity of elementary particles, Phys. Rev., Vol.88, p.101, 1952; see also R F Streater and A S Wightman, PCT, Spin and Statistics. and all that, W A Benjamin, New York, Chap,1, 1964.
GT, p. v.
V Weisskopf and E P Wigner, Berechnung der naturlichen Linienbreite auf Grund der Diracschen Licht theorie. Z. Phys., Vol.63, p.54, 1930; Über die naturliche Linien breite in der Strahlung des harmonischen Oszillators, ibid., Vol.65, p.18, 1930; see also M L Goldberger and K M Watson, Collision Theory, Wiley, New York, Chap.8, 1964; E Merzbacher, Quantum Mechanics, Wiley, New York, 2nd edn., Chap.18, 1970.
E P Wigner, On the quantum correction for thermodynamic equilibrium, Phys.. Rev., Vol.40, p.749, 1932; see also M Hillery, R F O’Connell, M O Scully and E P Wigner, Distribution functions in physics: Fundamentals, Phys. Rep., Vol.106, p.121, 1984.
H Weyl, The Theory of Groups and and Quantum Mechanics, Dover, NewYork, p.274, 1931; JE Moyal, Proc. Camb, Phil. Soc., Vol.45, p.99, 1949.
E P Wigner, Lower limit for the energy derivative of the scattering phase shift, Phys. Rev, Vol.98, p.145, 1955; see also M L Goldberger and K M Watson in ref. 15, Chap.8, p.492; W Brenig and R Haag, General quantum theory of collision processes, in Quantum Scattering Theory (ed. Marc Ross.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Section 3, 1963.
J von Neumann and E P Wigner, Über merkwurdige diskrete Eigenworte, Phys. Z., Vol.30, p.465, 1929; see also L E Ballentine, Quantum Mechanics, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, p.205, 1990.
P Jordan, J von Neumann and E P Wigner, On an algebraic generalization of the quantum mechanic formalism, Ann. Math., Vol.35, p.29, 1934; see also L C Biedenharn and J D Louck, in ref.10, Chap.5.
E P Wigner, On the mass defect of helium, Phys. Rev., Vol.43, p.252, 1933; Über diestreuung von neutronen an protonen, Z. Phys., Vol.83, p.253, 1933; J H Bartlett Jr., Phys. Rev., Vol.49, p.102, 1936; E Majorana, Z. Phys., Vol.82, p.137, 1933; W Heisenberg, Z. Phys., Vol.77, p.1, 1932.
N Bohr, Nature, Vol.137, p.344, 1936; G Breit and E P Wigner, Capture of slow neutrons, Phys. Rev., Vol.49, p.519, 1936.
E P Wigner, Resonance reactions and anomalous scattering, Phys. Rev., Vol.70, p.15, 1946; Resonance reactions, Phys. Rev. Vol.70, p.606, 1946; L Eisenbud and E P Wigner, Higher angular momenta and low-range interaction in resonance reactions, Phys. Rev., Vol.72, p.29, 1947; SR, p.93; E Vogt, in RMP, p.723.
E P Wigner, On the consequences of the symmetry of the nuclear Hamiltonian on the spectroscopy of nuclei, Phys. Rev., Vol.51, p.106, 1937; reprinted in F J Dyson, Symmetry Groups in Nuclear and Particle Physics, W A Benjamin, New York, 1966.
W Heisenberg, Z. Phys., Vol.77, p.1, 1932.
See, for instance, the reprint group 3 in F J Dyson, ref. 24.
E P Wigner, Gatlinberg Conf. on Neutron Physics, Oak Ridge Natl. Lab. Rept. No.ORNL-2309, p.59; On the statistical distribution of thc widths and spacings of nuclear resonance levels, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., Vol.47, p.790, 1951.
F J Dyson, J. Math. Phys., Vol.3, No.140, p.1191, 1962; F J Dyson and M L Mehta, J. Math. Phys., Vol.4, p.701, 1963; M L Mehta, Random Matrices, Academic Press, New York, 1967.
P A M Dirac, Proc. R. Soc. London, Vol.A114, p.243, 1927.
P Jordan, and E Wigner, Über das Paulische Aquivalenzverbot, Z. Phys., Vol.47, p.631, 1928.
H S Kragh, Dirac — A Scientific Biography, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.128–129, p.289, 338, 1990.
P A M Dirac, Proc. R. Soc. London, Vol.A117, p.610, 1928; Vol.A118, p.351.
E Majorana, Nuovo Cim., Vol.9, p.335, 1932; P A M Dirac, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, Vol.A155, p.447, 1936; Al. Proca, J. Phys. Road., Vol.7, p.347, 1936.
E Wigner, On unitary representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group, Ann. Math., Vol.40, p.149, 1939.
Quoted in ref. 13.
Harish-Chandra, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, Vol.A189, p.372, 1947; I M Gel’fand and M A Naimark, Izv. Akad. Nauk. SSSR, Vol.11, p.411, 1947.
V Bargmann, Ann. Math., Vol.48, p.568, 1947.
P A M Dirac, in RMP, p.592.
E P Wigner, Invariance in physical theory, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., Vol.93, p.521, 1949; reprinted in SR, pp.8–9.
V Bargmann, and E P Wigner, Group theoretic discussion of relativistic wave equations, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, Vol.34, p.211, 1948.
T D Newton, and E P Wigner, Localized states for elementary systems, Rev. Mod. Phys., Vol.21, p.400, 1949.
E Inonu and E P Wigner, On the contraction of groups and their representations, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol.39, p.510, 1953.
H Salecker and E P Wigner, Quantum limitations of the measurement of space-time distances, Phys. Rev., Vol.109, p.571, 1958; SR, pp.62 ff.
E P Wigner and H van Dam, Classical relativistic mechanics of interacting point particles, Phys. Rev., Vol.B138, p.1576, 1965.
E P Wigner, The problem of measurement, Am. J. Phys., Vol.31, p.6, 1963; Remarks on the mind-body question, in The Scientist Speculates (ed. I J Good), William Heinemann, London, 1961; Two kinds of reality, The Monist, Vol.48, No.2, 1964; all reprinted in SR, pp.153, 171, 185.
F London, and E Bauer, La Theorie de I’Observation en Mecanique Quantique, Hermann et Cie, Paris, 1939.
J von Neumann, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1955.
G Wannier, in RMP, p.645.
SR, p.126.
Dresner Lawrence and A M Weinberg, in RMP, p.747.
V Bargmann et al., in RMP, p.588.
SR, p. 186.
In addition to the articles included in SR, see also R M F Houtappel, H van Dam, and E P Wigner, The conceptual basis and use of the geometric invariance principles, Rev. Mod. Phys., Vol.37, p.595, 1965.
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N Mukunda is at the Centre for High Energy Physics, IISc, Bangalore. His interests are classical and quantum mechanics, theoretical optics and mathematical physics.
Reproduced from Current Science, Vol.69, No.4, 25 August 1995.
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Mukunda, N. Eugene Paul Wigner — A tribute. Reson 14, 944–969 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-009-0092-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-009-0092-7