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Routledge eBooks

Introduction

RW Boyer

Published Aug 18, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews classical physical and quantum theories for nonspecialists, building on the basics to introduce recent advances. A definition of physical is included for specialists also to consider. The book analyzes quantum theory interpretations, revealing a developmental progression from the standard, many-worlds, decoherence/consistent histories, quantum probability, quantum information field, and transactional interpretations to neorealism. It outlines a new holistic interpretation of quantum theory; of major significance is the subtle concept of levels of spacetime. The book considers loop quantum gravity, string, inflationary big bang, and unified field theories. The diverse interpretations are in large part due to focusing on the observed as the only reality: the process of observing and the observer were practically ignored.

DOI
10.4324/9780429321474-1

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This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews classical physical and quantum theories for nonspecialists, building on the basics to introduce recent advances. A definition of physical is included for specialists also to consider. The book analyzes quantum theory interpretations, revealing a developmental progression from the standard, many-worlds, decoherence/consistent histories, quantum probability, quantum information field, and transactional interpretations to neorealism. It outlines a new holistic interpretation of quantum theory; of major significance is the subtle concept of levels of spacetime. The book considers loop quantum gravity, string, inflationary big bang, and unified field theories. The diverse interpretations are in large part due to focusing on the observed as the only reality: the process of observing and the observer were practically ignored.
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.
This article surveys a selection of key conceptual and interpretational developments in quantum mechanics, tracing the theory from its foundational postulates to contemporary discussions of measurement, nonlocality, and the emergence of classicality. Beginning with the structure of Hilbert space and the postulates governing state evolution and measurement, the epistemic stance of the Copenhagen interpretation and its modern reformulations are examined. The Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen argument, Bell’s theorem, and Hardy’s paradox are then discussed as probes of locality and realism, alongside the deterministic but explicitly nonlocal de Broglie–Bohm theory. The measurement problem and the implications of contextuality are analyzed in relation to objective collapse models, which introduce new physical dynamics to account for definite outcomes. Finally, the role of decoherence in the suppression of interference and the emergence of classical behavior is explored, together with the interpretational frameworks of many-worlds and consistent histories. This material aims to provide a coherent introductory overview of how several of the most prominent interpretations address the central concern of what quantum mechanics tells us about the nature of physical reality.
This article surveys a selection of key conceptual and interpretational developments in quantum mechanics, tracing the theory from its foundational postulates to contemporary discussions of measurement, nonlocality, and the emergence of classicality. Beginning with the structure of Hilbert space and the postulates governing state evolution and measurement, the epistemic stance of the Copenhagen interpretation and its modern reformulations are examined. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen argument, Bell's theorem, and Hardy's paradox are then discussed as probes of locality and realism, alongside the deterministic but explicitly nonlocal de Broglie-Bohm theory. The measurement problem and the implications of contextuality are analyzed in relation to objective collapse models, which introduce new physical dynamics to account for definite outcomes. Finally, the role of decoherence in the suppression of interference and the emergence of classical behavior is explored, together with the interpretational frameworks of many-worlds and consistent histories. This material aims to provide a coherent introductory overview of how several of the most prominent interpretations address the central concern of what quantum mechanics tells us about the nature of physical reality.
By questioning the validity of some of our basic concepts, such as space, object, and causality, quantum physics contributes quite decisively to the dramatic changes now taking place in our world picture.This book is addressed not only to physicists at an early stage in their careers (the first or second year graduate student) but also to philosophers, as well as to all the senior physicists interested in the interpretation problem. Beginning with a chapter that could be described as ?philosophy for physicists,? it presents an in-depth analysis of present-day quantum mechanical concepts, an analysis of physicists and philosophers alike. Specifically, it first offers an extensive critical analysis of such topics as the Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen reality criterion, nonseparatability, the quantum measurement riddle, decoherence theory, consistent histories approaches and ontologically interpretable theories. All this then naturally leads to philosophical questions concerning, in particular, intersubjective agreement and the limit of realism. And a thorough examination of this whole material finally leads to the view that distinguishing between empirical reality and a veiled man-independent reality yields an acceptable answer to the perplexing question of how to interpret quantum physics. Veiled Reality offers nonspecialists, including students in physics, philosophy and the history of science, an accessible perspective on basic problems in the foundations of physics.
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the minimalist ontology of matter points and their dynamics in general philosophical as well as mathematical terms, independently of any particular physical theory. It shows how this ontology fits both classical mechanics of gravitation and quantum mechanics, as long as the latter includes a primitive ontology of matter distributed in ordinary space, as in Bohmian mechanics. The book points out the similarities between these two theories as well as their differences. It explains how in both cases one gets from an ontology and a dynamics defined for the universe as a whole to a description of subsystems of the universe and a dynamics for them. The book shows how an ontology of persisting particles that move according to a deterministic law can explain the characteristic phenomena of quantum field theory and ground its empirical predictions.