Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)
Aula Conversi
Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi
Description
Planck’s constant has played various roles in our understanding of quantum theory. It has now the status of a universal constant, which was certainly not obvious at the beginning. For Planck, h was a ‘quantum of action’, a point of view leading to a very interesting expression of the Pauli principle. The orthodox Copenhagen interpretation considered h as a ‘gauge of indeterminism’, which may be reformulated in terms of a standard of quanticity. But the deep meaning of Planck’s constant is to underly the synthesis leading to the specific concepts of quantum theory. Finally, the role of Planck’s constant is by no means limited to the microscopic domain, and manifests itself in the macroscopic (human scale) and megascopic (astronomic scale) domains.
