Dynamical origin of quantum mechanics (Physics Letters A 230 (1997) 253)

Tosch Ono

Enrique J. Galvez

This Resource Letter lists undergraduate-laboratory adaptations of landmark optical experiments on the fundamentals of quantum physics. Journal articles and websites give technical details of the adaptations, which offer students unique hands-on access to testing fundamental concepts and predictions of quantum mechanics. A selection of the original research articles that led to the implementations is included. These developments have motivated a rethinking of the way quantum mechanics is taught, so this Resource Letter also lists textbooks that provide these new approaches.

JOHN ARCHIBALD WHEELER

Paul Benioff was a physicist and mathematician working as a research scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory. He published two papers on Everett interpretation shortly after this letter: Benioff (1977) ["Finite and infinite measurement in quantum mechanics and randomness: The Everett interpretation," Journal of Mathematical Physics 18(12), 2289] and Benioff (1978) ["A Note on the Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics," Foundations of Physics 8(9/10), 709]. In both cases, Benioff was interested in the role of infinite sequences of measurements in the Everett interpretation. In this letter, Wheeler seems to approve of Benioff's central point in the first paper (which appears to be the one he originally sent), but encourages Benioff to pass the preprint on to Everett. He also suggests that Benioff should call his topic of study the "Everett interpretation" and not the "Everett-Wheeler interpretation"—in part because Wheeler no longer subscribes to the view. The letter also includes a handwritten comment by Everett that Wheeler only accepts his interpretation on alternating Tuesdays.

Jaume Giné

E. J. Thompson, J. W. Moffat

In a complete quantum theory, one would construct it based on what we can observe in a system and operationally define in our universe. This philosophy goes back to some of the original ideals of quantum theory defined by W. Heisenberg, N. Bohr, and others as part of the Copenhagen school of thought. We argue in this letter that that if one wishes to construct a complete quantum field theory, that it is most natural to construct it based on a nonlocal theory of observable principles. If this interpretation is valid, then the one-particle nonrelativistic limit that recovers quantum mechanics would as well be dynamically nonlocal. In this interpretation we derive the nonlocal Schrödinger equation. We will as well demonstrate that the canonical position--momentum commutator and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle emerge from translation covariance.