Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Physics

Dipankar Home

Bernard d’Espagnat

Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics provides a detailed view of the conceptual foundations and problems of quantum physics, and a clear and comprehensive account of the fundamental physical implications of the quantum formalism. This book deals with nonseparability, hidden variable theories, measurement theories and several related problems. Mathematical arguments are presented with an emphasis on simple but adequately representative cases. The conclusion incorporates a description of a set of relationships and concepts that could compose a legitimate view of the world.

Jan-Markus Schwindt

David Wallace

I analyse the conceptual and mathematical foundations of Lagrangian quantum field theory (that is, the "naive" quantum field theory used in mainstream physics, as opposed to algebraic quantum field theory). The objective is to see whether Lagrangian quantum field theory has a sufficiently firm conceptual and mathematical basis to be a legitimate object of foundational study, or whether it is too ill-defined. The analysis covers renormalisation and infinities, inequivalent representations, and the concept of localised states; the conclusion is that Lagrangian QFT (at least as described here) is a perfectly respectable physical theory, albeit somewhat different in certain respects from most of those studied in foundational work.

Charles E. Burkhardt, Jacob J. Leventhal

Karim P. Y. Thébault

This Element explores the formal and conceptual foundations of phase space formulations of classical and quantum mechanics. It provides an overview of the core mathematical and physical content of Hamiltonian mechanics, stochastic phase space mechanics, contact Hamiltonian mechanics, and open and closed quantum mechanics on phase space. The formal material is unified via three interpretative themes relating to structured possibility spaces, Liouville's theorem and its failure, and the classical and quantum notions of open and closed systems. This Element book is intended for researchers and graduate students in the philosophy and foundations of physics with an interest in the conceptual foundations of physical theory.