Erwin Schrödinger and Walter Heitler

Erwin Schrödinger came to Zurich in 1921 and remained at the University of Zurich until 1927. He proved that electrons, like light, can have the properties of waves or particles. In 1925/26 he formulated the wave equation for the electron, the Schrödinger equation.

The equation is one of the great breakthroughs in physics and is still a foundation of quantum mechanics today. Schrödinger received the Nobel Prize for it in 1933.

Walter Heitler worked with Schrödinger in Zurich in the 1920s and was a professor at the University of Zurich from 1949 until his retirement in 1974. Together with Fritz London, he developed the Heitler-London theory (1927), which explained chemical bonds quantum mechanically for the first time. He also showed how electron pair bonds result from quantum mechanics, which forms the basis of modern quantum chemistry.
 

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Walter Heitler (left) and Leon Rosenfeld (right), 1934 or 1937, picture: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

Portrait of Schrödinger and Heitler by Irina Morell

From waves to particles: Schrödinger and Heitler in Zurich

Prev:Quantum Mechanics and Zurich
Next: Wolfgang Pauli and Gregor Wentzel

• The 1920's in cosmopolitan Zurich
• Quantum Mechanics and Zurich
• Erwin Schrödinger and Walter Heitler
• Wolfgang Pauli and Gregor Wentzel
• Wave or particle?
• Self-Interference
• Entanglement
• Superposition
• How do quanta get into mechanics?
• Everything out of focus
• Tunneling
• Nobel Prizes
• Technical Applications
• Research at UZH: Particle Physics
• Research at UZH: Condensed Matter