Pauli's Exclusion Principle: The Origin and Validation of a Scientific Principle

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ISBN: 9780521839112 | 0521839114
Cover: Hardcover
Copyright: 9/19/2005

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There is hardly another principle in physics with wider scope of applicability and more far-reaching consequences than Pauli's exclusion principle. This book explores the principle's origin in the atomic spectroscopy of the early 1920s, its subsequent embedding into quantum mechanics, and later experimental validation with the development of quantum chromodynamics. The reconstruction of this crucial historic episode provides an excellent foil to reconsider Kuhn's view on incommensurability. The author defends the prospective rationality of the revolutionary transition from the old to the new quantum theory around 1925 by focusing on the way Pauli's principle emerged as a phenomenological rule 'deduced' from some anomalous phenomena and theoretical assumptions of the old quantum theory. The subsequent process of validation is historically reconstructed and analysed within the framework of 'dynamic Kantianism'. The variety of themes skilfully interwoven in this book will appeal to philosophers, historians, scientists and anyone interested in philosophy.

Note on translation

Preface

Epigraph

xiv

Introduction

(6)

1 The exclusion principle: a philosophical overview

(28)

1.1 Introduction

(2)

1.2 From Poincaré's conventionalism to Popper and Lakatos on the nature of the exclusion principle

(4)

1.3 From Reichenbach's coordinating principles to Friedman's relativized a priori principles

(8)

1.4 Constitutive versus regulative

(10)

1.4.1 Kant on the regulative principle of systematicity

(3)

1.4.2 Ernst Cassirer and the architectonic of scientific knowledge

(3)

1.5 The exclusion principle: a Kantian perspective

(4)

2 The origins of the exclusion principle: an extremely natural prescriptive rule

(43)

2.1 The prehistory of Pauli's exclusion principle

(17)

2.1.1 Atomic spectra and the Bohr -Sommerfeld theory of atomic structure

(8)

2.1.2 The doublet riddle and the riddle of statistical weights

(4)

2.1.3 The anomalous Zeeman effect and the mystery of half-integral quantum numbers

(5)

2.2 Bohr, Heisenberg, and Pauli on spectroscopic anomalies

(21)

2.2.1 Niels Bohr: nothing but a 'non-mechanical constraint'?

(3)

2.2.2 Heisenberg's first core model: the sharing principle. Does success justify the means?

(5)

2.2.3 Heisenberg's second core model: the branching rule and a new quantum principle

(5)

2.2.4 Pauli: from the electron's Zweideutigkeit to the exclusion rule

(8)

2.3 The turning point

(5)

3 From the old quantum theory to the new quantum theory: reconsidering Kuhn's incommensurability

(34)

3.1 The revolutionary transition from the old quantum theory to the new quantum theory

(3)

3.2 Reconsidering Kuhnian incommensurability

(22)

3.2.1 Kuhn on scientific lexicons: incommensurability as untranslatability

(5)

3.2.2 Kuhn's argument for untranslatability and Hacking's taxonomic solution to the new-world problem

(5)

3.2.3 Lexical taxonomies: the Aristotelian tradition and the nominalist criticism

(2)

3.2.4 How should we read lexical taxonomies? A Kantian reading

(4)

3.2.5 Reintroducing history in scientific lexicons: a lesson from the crisis of the old quantum theory

(6)

3.3 The prospective intelligibility of the revolutionary transition from the atomic core model to the electron's Zweideutigkeit

103

(9)

3.3.1 The electron's Zweideutigkeit and Pauli's exclusion rule as the conclusions of two nested demonstrative inductions

103

(9)

4 How Pauli's rule became the exclusion principle: from Fermi–Dirac statistics to the spin–statistics theorem

112

(33)

4.1 Introduction

112

(3)

4.2 Pauli's rule prescribes a new exclusion: Fermi–Dirac statistics

115

(4)

4.3 The non-relativistic quantum mechanics of the magnetic electron: Pauli's spin matrices

119

(3)

4.4 Group theory enters the scene

122

(1)

4.5 From quantum electrodynamics to quantum field theory: the exclusion principle re-expressed in terms of anticommutation relations

123

(5)

4.6 Towards relativistic quantum mechanics: the Dirac equation for the electron and the hole theory

128

(5)

4.7 Pauli against the hole theory: the Pauli–Weisskopf 'anti-Dirac' paper

133

(5)

4.8 Pauli's first proof of the spin–statistics theorem

138

(1)

4.9 Pauli's final proof of the spin–statistics theorem

138

(3)

4.10 How Pauli's rule gained the status of a scientific principle

141

(4)

5 The exclusion principle opens up new avenues: from the eightfold way to quantum chromodynamics

145

(39)

5.1 Introduction

145

(2)

5.2 From the eightfold way to quarks

147

(7)

5.3 Revoking or retaining the exclusion principle?

154

(18)

5.3.1 Revoking the strict validity of the exclusion principle: quarks as parafermions

154

(8)

5.3.2 Retaining the exclusion principle: coloured quarks and quantum chromodynamics

162

(10)

5.4 The Duhem–Quine thesis: epistemological holism and the validation of the exclusion principle

172

(12)

5.4.1 The validating role of negative evidence

175

(4)

5.4.2 Quinean underdetermination and the rationality of retaining a threatened principle

179

(5)

Conclusion

184

(5)

References

189

(15)

Index

204

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Pauli's Exclusion Principle: The Origin and Validation of a Scientific Principle

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