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Nonlinear problems in physics

MAY 01, 1967

Interactions of matter and fields are generally nonlinear, so that nonlinear problems play a central role in physics. In fact because nonlinearity is so basic to nature, it is possible that even a theory as fundamentally linear as quantum theory may ultimately have to be replaced by a nonlinear one.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3034303

Werner Heisenberg

NONLINEAR PROBLEMS in physics are difficult to discuss for several reasons. First, what are nonlinear problems? Practically every problem in theoretical physics is governed by nonlinear mathematical equations, except perhaps quantum theory, and even in quantum theory it is a rather controversial question whether it will finally be a linear or nonlinear theory. Therefore by far the largest part of theoretical physics is devoted to nonlinear problems.

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More about the authors

Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics, Munich.

© 1967 American Institute of Physics

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This Content Appeared In

Volume 20, Number 5

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