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Niels Bohr’s “correspondence principle” is typically believed to be the requirement that in the limit of large quantum numbers (n→∞) there is a statistical agreement between the quantum and classical frequencies. A closer reading of Bohr’s writings on the correspondence principle, however, reveals that this interpretation is mistaken. Specifically, Bohr makes the following three puzzling claims: First, he claims that the correspondence principle applies to small quantum numbers as well as large (while the statistical agreement of frequencies is only for large n); second, he claims that the correspondence principle is a law of quantum theory; and third, Bohr argues that formal apparatus of matrix mechanics (the new quantum theory) can be thought of as a precise formulation of the correspondence principle. With further textual evidence, I offer an alternative interpretation of the correspondence principle in terms of what I call Bohr’s selection rule. I conclude by showing how this new interpretation of the correspondence principle readily makes sense of Bohr’s three puzzling claims.
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References found in this work BETA
Reexamining the Quantum-Classical Relation: Beyond Reductionism and Pluralism.Alisa Bokulich - 2008 - Cambridge University Press.
The Causality Problem in Atomic Physics.Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg & Evert Willem Beth - 1958 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 23 (1):66-66.
From C-Numbers to Q-Numbers: The Classical Analogy in the History of Quantum Theory.O. Darrigol & A. J. Kox - 1995 - Annals of Science 52 (2):206-206.
On the Verge of Umdeutung in Minnesota: Van Vleck and the Correspondence Principle.Anthony Duncan & Michel Janssen - unknown
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Citations of this work BETA
Conceptual Problems in Quantum Electrodynamics: A Contemporary Historical-Philosophical Approach.Mario Bacelar Valente - unknown
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