Martin Jähnert

In his PhD project Martin Jähnert studies the development of the correspondence principle in the old quantum theory as a process of adaptive reformulation. By looking at different uses of the principle the project aims to understand how physicists came to work with the principle and how the principle was shaped through its applications. The project studies this process of adaptive reformulation in the context of the dispersion of the correspondence principle throughout the networks of the old quantum theory and its simultaneous transfer into different fields of research  (e.g. atomic and molecular spectroscopy, dispersion, and collision processes). Thereby Jähnert shows how the principle became one of the most fruitful research tools of the old quantum theory.

In previous work with Christoph Lehner, Martin Jähnert has studied the early debates on the interpretation of quantum mechanics and its interplay with the development of the theory. From this perspective, the interpretational debate was understood as a reflection on the role of pictures and models within the research process. Their work aimed to clarify how physicists dealt with the methodological and epistemological challenges arising from the development of quantum mechanics.