Can quantum theory be understood?

Sheldon Goldstein

Many recent results suggest that quantum theory is about information, and that quantum theory is best understood as arising from principles concerning information and information processing. At the same time, by far the simplest version of quantum mechanics, Bohmian mechanics, is concerned, not with information but with the behavior of an objective microscopic reality given by particles and their positions. What I would like to do here is to examine whether, and to what extent, the importance of information, observation, and the like in quantum theory can be understood from a Bohmian perspective. I would like to explore the hypothesis that the idea that information plays a special role in physics naturally emerges in a Bohmian universe. 1 Introduction: The Status

Selçuk Ş. Bayın

Greg Parker

Quantum theory, however taught, is always a shock to the system for a new student . This is unfortunate because a lot of 'forefront-of-technology' calculations are possible with only a rudimentary knowledge of quantum mechanics . If you can, I strongly advise you to do the following. Do not try to understand the mechanics of the theory at this stage. Use the mathematics that are presented in this chapter in order to understand the new 'low-dimensional devices' (LDDs) only. Virtually all the new quantum devices and quantum effects in semiconductor physics can be understood if you are well versed in just one quantum mechanical solution. The particular solution we are going to study is called 'the particle-in-a­ box'. This may not sound very glamorous but the theory is easily understood and the applications are far reaching. For this reason, the way I am going to introduce the quantum theory is biased with just one aim in mind, to understand the physics and applications of the particle-in-a-box.

Benjamin Liebowitz

Richard Healey

Realism comes in many varieties, in science and elsewhere. Van Fraassen’s influential formulation took scientific realism to include the view that science aims to give us, in its theories, a literally true story of what the world is like. So understood, a quantum realist takes quantum theory to aim at correctly representing the world: many would add that its success justifies believing this representation is more or less correct. But quantum realism has been understood both more narrowly and more broadly. A pragmatist considers use prior to representation and this has prompted some to dub pragmatist views anti-realist, including the view of quantum theory that the author has been developing recently. But whether a pragmatist view of quantum theory should be labeled anti-realist depends not only on its ingredients but also on how that label should be applied. Pragmatism offers a healthy diet of quantum realism.

Ralph Schiller