This paper summarizes the basic principles of the common-sense interpretation of quantum physics that we have been exploring over the past few years. We also touch on some areas we did not explore before. We note, for example, that the ring current model of matter-particles must also come with a dynamic view of the fields surrounding charged particles. Potential barriers -or their corollary: potential wells – should, therefore, not be thought of as static fields: they vary in time. They result from two or more charges moving around and creating some joint or superposed field. Hence, a particle breaking through a ‘potential wall’ or coming out of a potential ‘well’ probably just uses an opening which corresponds to a classical trajectory. This should offer a new perspective on the foundations of quantum mechanics.
This paper summarizes the basic principles of the common-sense interpretation of quantum physics that we have been exploring over the past few years. We also touch on some areas we did not explore before. We note, for example, that the ring current model of matter-particles must also come with a dynamic view of the fields surrounding charged particles. Potential barriers -or their corollary: potential wells – should, therefore, not be thought of as static fields: they vary in time. They result from two or more charges moving around and creating some joint or superposed field. Hence, a particle breaking through a ‘potential wall’ or coming out of a potential ‘well’ probably just uses an opening which corresponds to a classical trajectory. This should offer a new perspective on the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics, one of the most successful theories in the history of science, was created to account for physical systems not describable by classical physics. Though it is consistent with all experiments conducted thus far, many of its core concepts (amplitudes, global phases, etc.) can not be directly accessed and its interpretation is still the subject of intense debate, more than 100 years since it was introduced. So, a fundamental question is why this particular mathematical model is the one that nature chooses, if indeed it is the correct model. In the past two decades there has been a renewed effort to determine what physical or informational principles define quantum mechanics. In this paper, recent attempts at establishing reasonable physical principles are reviewed and their degree of success is tabulated. An alternative approach using joint quasi-probability distributions is shown to provide a common basis of representing most of the proposed principles. It is argued that having a common representation of the principles can provide intuition and guidance to relate current principles or advance new principles. The current state of affairs, along with some alternative views are discussed.
This paper summarizes our papers over the past years which – taken together – effectively amount to a classical interpretation of QED. Our very first paper started exploring a basic intuition: if QED is the theory of electrons and photons, and their interactions, then why is there no good model of what electrons and photons actually are? We have tried to address this perceived gap in the theory – further building on the Zitterbewegung model of an electron – ever since. We thought we should write one final paper to provide some history – acknowledgements, basically – and summarize the key principles of the interpretation.
Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, describes and criticises a range of suggestions that have been made with the aim of resolving these problems; these include the traditional, or 'Copenhagen' interpretation, the possible role of the conscious mind in measurement and the postulate of parallel universes. This new edition has been revised throughout to take into account developments in this field over the past fifteen years, including the idea of 'consistent histories' to which a completely new chapter is devoted.
Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, describes and criticises a range of suggestions that have been made with the aim of resolving these problems; these include the traditional, or 'Copenhagen' interpretation, the possible role of the conscious mind in measurement, and the postulate of parallel universes. This new edition has been revised throughout to take into account developments in this field over the past fifteen years, including the idea of 'consistent histories' to which a completely new chapter is devoted.
T OPOLOGICAL MATTER IS FUNDAMENTALLY QUANTUM mechanical, with no correspondent in the classical world. Therefore, it would be quite natural to begin our journey with a review of topics that are particularly relevant to understanding the nature of topological quantum states, such as Berry phases and anyon physics. Yet, even before discussing those topics, pausing to think about some fundamental aspects of quantum theory would be extremely worthwhile. For several decades after the triumph of quantum mechanics in the 1920s and early 1930s, thinking about the foundations of the theory and challenging its standard interpretation were viewed by a majority of physicists as a waste of time, if not plain heresy. The judgment of the physics community on the value of such an endeavor has drastically changed after the groundbreaking work of John Bell and the subsequent experimental tests during the 1970s and 1980s. Today, studying the foundations of quantum mechanics has turned into a flourishing field intimately linked with the explosive rise of quantum information theory. Yet, the subject still has a rather marginal place in standard quantum mechanics textbooks, which focus on the formalism and on the recipes necessary for doing calculations. This chapter is intended for the reader who is less familiar with the problems brought to the fore by quantum information theory and the work on the foundations of quantum mechanics as a brief introduction to these fields and a summary of the basic terminology. But why should one bother about such things when discussing the physics of topological quantum matter? Basically, because the two areas are intimately connected: on the one hand, quantum computation is a prominent item on the list of possible applications for topological quantum states, on the other hand, key concepts in quantum theory, such as quantum entanglement, play a central role in understanding topological matter. Hence, starting the journey with a thought about the foundations of quantum mechanics should enable us to grasp the delicate root that makes the quantum world utterly strange and beautiful, then follow it as it grows out of the sphere of few particle physics into the realm of many-body systems. 1.1 THE QUANTUM MEASUREMENT PROBLEM There is a certain uneasiness about quantum mechanics that every student of this field has probably experienced in some measure. And it is not just the insecurity that results from losing the firm ground of classical intuition; special relativity also deals with this type of problem and does not generate similar feelings. Nor is it at the center of any controversy similar in scale and depth with, for example, the debate [455] between Einstein and Bohr on the foundations of quantum theory. To better understand the source of the problem, let us recall the “standard” way of presenting quantum theory, i.e., starting from certain principles or postulates [126, 440] — a typical approach that can be found in most of the commonly used textbooks. More specifically, let us focus on the key postulates that define the state vectors and their evolution, as well as the observables and the measurements.
The main objective of this paper is to introduce a new quantum mechanism of condensates and superconductivity based on a new interpretation of quantum mechanical wavefunctions, and on recent developments in quantum physics and statistical physics. First, we postulate that the wavefunction [Formula: see text]e[Formula: see text] is the common wavefunction for all particles in the same class determined by the external potential V(x), [Formula: see text](x)[Formula: see text] represents the distribution density of the particles, and [Formula: see text] is the velocity field of the particles. Although the new interpretation does not alter the basic theories of quantum mechanics, it is an entirely different interpretation from the classical Bohr interpretation, removes all absurdities and offers new insights for quantum physics and for condensed matter physics. Second, we show that the key for condensation of bosonic particles is that their interaction is sufficiently weak to ensure that a large collection of boson particles are in a state governed by the same condensation wavefunction field [Formula: see text] under the same bounding potential V. For superconductivity, the formation of superconductivity comes down to conditions for the formation of electron pairs, and for the electron pairs to share a common wavefunction. Thanks to the recently developed principle of interaction dynamics (PID) interaction potential of electrons and the average-energy level formula of temperature, these conditions for superconductivity are explicitly derived. Furthermore, we obtain both microscopic and macroscopic formulas for the critical temperature. The field and topological phase transition equations for condensates are also derived.