Correspondence principle

For other uses, see Correspondence principle (disambiguation).

In physics, a correspondence principle is any one of several premises or assertions about the relationship between classical and quantum mechanics. The physicist Niels Bohr coined the term in 1920[1] during the early development of quantum theory; he used it to explain how quantized classical orbitals connect to quantum radiation.[2] Modern sources often use the term for the idea that the behavior of systems described by quantum theory reproduces classical physics in the limit of large quantum numbers: for large orbits and for large energies, quantum calculations must agree with classical calculations.[3] A "generalized" correspondence principle refers to the requirement for a broad set of connections between any old and new theory.

  1. ^ Bohr, N. (1920), "Über die Serienspektra der Elemente" [About the serial spectra of the elements], Zeitschrift für Physik (in German), 2 (5): 423–478, Bibcode:1920ZPhy....2..423B, doi:10.1007/BF01329978, S2CID 121792424 (English translation in Udden, A. D. (1976). IX. On The Series Spectra of The Elements. Vol. 3. Elsevier. pp. 241–282. doi:10.1016/s1876-0503(08)70093-8. ISBN 978-0-7204-1803-3.)
  2. ^ Bokulich, Alisa (2020-08-13). "Bohr's Correspondence Principle". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  3. ^ Tipler, Paul; Llewellyn, Ralph (2008). Modern Physics (5 ed.). W. H. Freeman and Company. pp. 160–161. ISBN 978-0-7167-7550-8.