Abstract
The notion of a zero-point energy is a result of quantum theory and has no proper counterpart in classical physics. It was introduced by Planck in 1911, more than a decade before the emergence of modern quantum mechanics. Planck’s so-called second quantum theory, on which the zero-point energy was based, was discussed for a brief period of time, but by 1920 at the latest it was abandoned by most physicists. On the other hand, although Planck’s theory was dismissed, the idea of a zero-point energy lived on. No one could tell whether it was more than just an idea.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Bohr (1922, p. 10), a translation of an address given to the Danish Physical Society on 20 December 1913 and published in Danish in Fysisk Tidsskrift 12 (1914), pp. 97–114.
- 3.
The unpublished paper, intended to appear in the April 1916 issue of Philosophical Magazine, was entitled “On the Application of the Quantum Theory to Periodic Systems.” Due to Arnold Sommerfeld’s new formulation of the quantum theory of atoms, Bohr decided to withdraw it shortly before it was to be published. Incidentally, Sommerfeld ignored the zero-point energy, which is not mentioned in any of the editions (1919–1924) of his influential book Atombau und Spektrallinien (Atomic Structure and Spectral Lines).
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Kragh, H.S., Overduin, J.M. (2014). Planck’s Second Quantum Theory. In: The Weight of the Vacuum. SpringerBriefs in Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55090-4_3
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