Born rule: probabilistic interpretation of the wave function
Interpretación probabilística de la función de onda
- Date
- 1926 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Göttingen, Germany
- Credited to
- Max Born
- People
- 👤 Max Born1882–1970
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The square of the modulus of the wave function gives the probability of finding the particle: quantum mechanics only predicts probabilities. It introduces fundamental indeterminism into physics and gives rise to the Einstein-Bohr debate.
It appears in a footnote of a paper on collisions; belated Nobel Prize in 1954.
What it led to
- Copenhagen interpretation
- Debate on determinism (EPR, Bell)
- Quantum theory of measurement
- Quantum computing (probability amplitudes)
Built on
- Matrix mechanics1925
- Schrödinger equation (wave mechanics)1926
- Collision theory
Made possible
- Adiabatic theorem1928
- Quantum random-number generators