Gert Heckmann (Radboud/NL)

History and ramifications of the Kepler problem

Three episodes will be discussed. First the 17th century with Kepler’s formulation of his three laws of planetary motion, and Newton’s proof of them using his two laws. Subsequently the period 1885 to 1924 lead to the old quantum theory for the hydrogen atom, mainly by work of Balmer, Planck and Bohr. The third period took place in the year 1925 with the foundation of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Born, Jordan and Pauli. This will be a lecture for a general mathematical audience on physics by an out-of-the-field teacher with interest in geometry and symmetry