Erwin Madelung Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-11-05
A theoretical physicist who reformulated the single-electron Schrödinger equation as hydrodynamic equations, now called the Madelung equations. Writing the wave function in terms of magnitude and phase connects its evolution with a density and a flow. The formulation makes a useful bridge between quantum-wave dynamics and fluid descriptions while retaining an additional quantum contribution to the force balance.[ref]
Quantentheorie in hydrodynamischer Form by Erwin Madelung. Summary and pp. 322–326: hydrodynamic transformation of the one-electron equation