Schrodinger's Lost Notebook from 1925
It is odd that everyone is interested in Schrodinger’s cat, when they should be looking for his notebooks :)
Schrodinger was unusual among the theoretical physicists of his time, because he bloomed very late at age 38. In contrast,
four of the giants of quantum mechanics - Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr - all crafted their greatest theories as very young men. (Dirac and Heisenberg, in fact, were accompanied by their mothers to Stockholm to accept their Nobel Prizes.)
What or rather who was Schrodinger’s secret? Nobody knows, because his 1925 notebook got lost. Here are more details from an old NY Times article:
On the other hand, his objectivity allows him to study candidly, and nonjudgmentally, two major obsessions of Schrodinger’s life - the Eastern philosophy of Vedanta and sex.
Mr. Moore informs us that Schrodinger kept a series of ‘‘little black books’’ in which he recorded the names of all his loves with a code to indicate ‘‘the denouement,’’ as the author puts it, of each affair. He unbuttons Schrodinger’s code and reveals a life of stunning promiscuity. Schrodinger admitted he detested his wife, Anny, sexually, and took on a series of mistresses, three of whom bore him illegitimate daughters. Immediately after his triumph in wave mechanics, he agreed to tutor 14-year-old twin girls named Withi and Ithi Junger. Schrodinger called the latter ‘‘Ithy-bitty’’ and regularly fondled her during their math lessons. He finally seduced her when she was 17, assuring her she wouldn’t get pregnant. She did, Schrodinger immediately lost interest in her, and the girl underwent a disastrous abortion that left her sterile. He then took on Hilde March, the wife of his assistant Arthur March, as his mistress, and she bore him a daughter. March, ever the dutiful assistant, agreed to be named the father, while his wife moved eventually into the Schrodinger household to serve as Schrodinger’s ‘‘second wife.’’ Well, the great man’s sordid affairs go on and on, and Mr. Moore faithfully serves up all of the titillating details. He concludes that Schrodinger needed ‘‘tempestuous sexual adventures’’ to inspire his great discoveries. Unfortunately, the notebook for the critical year 1925 has disappeared, so the woman who erotically guided Schrodinger to his famous wave equation, ‘‘like the dark lady who inspired Shakespeare’s sonnets,’’ the biographer tells us, ‘‘may remain forever mysterious.’‘
For a more gossipy version of origin of quantum mechanics, check this link. We will note the most hilarious part -
This man didn’t just have women, he had balls. On being invited to a prestigious ceremony but specifically told he could bring only one date, Erwin decided “hey, I’ll just ask someone else to bring my mistress for me.” A brilliant scheme worthy of a mind like his. So who does he ask to fake date his bit on the side? An undergraduate? A closet-case colleague? No. Not our Schrodinger. He asked the Archbishop of Dublin. To bring his mistress to the ceremony. The woman he was commiting adultery with. Smashing.
