In physics, the Heisenberg picture is a formulation (made by Werner Heisenberg while on Heligoland in the 1920s) of quantum mechanics in which the operators (observables and others) incorporate a dependency on time, but the state vectors are time-independent. It stands in contrast to the Schrödinger picture in which the operators are constant and the states evolve in time. The two models only differ by a basis change with respect to time-dependency, which is the difference between active and passive transformation. The Heisenberg picture is the formulation of matrix mechanics in an arbitrary basis, in which the Hamiltonian is not necessarily diagonal.
Read more about Heisenberg Picture: Mathematical Details, Deriving Heisenberg's Equation, Commutator Relations
Famous quotes containing the word picture:
“When you’ve been blind as long as I have, you learn to see through your senses. I can’t explain it exactly, but you get a feeling about people when you meet them. You see a picture of them in your mind. Not just what they look like, but what they really are. You see them much more clearly than you do with your eyes. Maybe that’s why they say looks are deceptive.”
—George Bricker. Jean Yarbrough. Helen Page (Jane Adams)