Hostname: page-component-669899f699-swprf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-28T05:14:04.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Quantum Algebra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

P. A. M. Dirac
P. A. M. Dirac
Affiliation:
St John's College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For the purposes of atomic physics it has been found convenient to introduce the idea of quantities that do not in general satisfy the commutative law of multiplication, but satisfy all the other laws of ordinary algebra. These quantities are called q-numbers, and the numbers of ordinary mathematics c-numbers, while the word number alone is used to denote either a q-number or a c-number. Both q-numbers and c-numbers can occur together in the same piece of analysis, and even in the same equation, as numbers of the two kinds can be added together or multiplied. A c-number may, in fact, be regarded as a special case of the more general q-number. In the particular case when two numbers x; and y satisfy xy = yx, we shall say that x commutes with y. A c-number is assumed to commute with every number.

Type
Articles
Information
Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , October 1926 , pp. 412 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1926

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

* Roy. Soc. Proc. A, vol. 110, p. 561 (1926).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

* Note that a number x that commutes with every number must be a c-number, on account of the axiom that if x is a q-number, there must be a q-number b that makes bxb −1 equal an arbitrary q-number.Google Scholar