Chapman & Hall/CRC eBooks

The Empirical Basis of Quantum Mechanics

Tilak Sinha

Published Jun 18, 2021• 0 citations

Abstract

From this chapter we start our exposition of quantum mechanics. First, we lay down the typical setting of a quantum mechanical problem. The fundamental feature of quantum indeterminism and the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is emphasized. We proceed by constructing, from the single notion of measurement, all the essential conceptual ingredients of quantum mechanics (i.e., the concepts of observable, state and system). Then we formulate the target questions that quantum mechanics aims to solve. Next, we proceed to state the specific laws that constitute the logical premise of the subject. Finally, we demonstrate how the laws, most dominantly, the superposition principle (the fact that quantum probabilities interfere) provides an improved recipe for obtaining the answers to the target questions of quantum mechanics. This also leads to a more refined definition of the quantum state. In order to be able to quickly introduce the basic framework of quantum mechanics, we restrict the discussion to a simple scenario of “instantaneously subsequent measurements” (where there is no time evolution), and where states can be prepared by a single measurement (in the standard jargon, this would be called, “quantum mechanics without degeneracy”; these are descriptions involving CSCOs comprising just one observable).

DOI: 10.1201/9781003090335-2

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