correspondence principle
Noun
Meaning
correspondence principle (uncountable)
(physics) the principle that classical physics is the limit of quantum physics as quantum numbers approach infinity
Synonyms
Examples
Classical quantities appear in quantum mechanics in the form of expected values of observables, and as such the Ehrenfest theorem (which predicts the time evolution of the expected values) lends support to the correspondence principle.
For example, Einstein's special relativity satisfies the correspondence principle, because it reduces to classical mechanics in the limit of velocities small compared to the speed of light (example below).
He justified this replacement by an appeal to Bohr’s correspondence principle and the Pauli doctrine that quantum mechanics must be limited to observables.
Bohr's correspondence principle demands that classical physics and quantum physics give the same answer when the systems become large.
Heisenberg leaned heavily on Bohr's correspondence principle but changed the equations so that they involved directly observable quantities, leading to the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics.
Multiperiodic motion Bohr Sommerfeld quantization Bohr's correspondence principle provided a way to find the semiclassical quantization rule for a one degree of freedom system.