Abstract
In this article, I use a number of remarks made by Eugene Wigner to defend the claim that the nature of the connection between symmetries and conservation laws is different in quantum and in classical mechanics. In particular, I provide a list of three differences that obtain between the Hilbert space formulation of quantum mechanics and the Lagrangian formulation of classical mechanics. I also show that these differences are due to the fact that conservation laws are not the only consequence that symmetries have in quantum mechanics and to the fact that, in classical mechanics, the connection between symmetries and conservation laws does not always obtain.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
History and Philosophy of Science,Philosophy,History
Reference20 articles.
1. Which symmetry? Noether, Weyl, and conservation of electric charge
2. �ber die Erhaltungss�tze der Elektrodynamik
3. Wigner, E. 1928. “Über die erhaltungssätze in der quantenmechanik.” Nachrichten der Gesellschaft de Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse, 375–81.
4. Einige Folgerungen aus der Schr�dingerschen Theorie f�r die Termstrukturen