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The Meaning of Quantum Theory

Jim Baggott

Published Apr 16, 1992• 110 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract In this book the author looks at the continuing debate about the meaning of quantum theory. The historical development of the theory is traced from the turn of the century through to the 1930’s, and the famous debate between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. The book examines in detail the arguments that quantum theory is incomplete, as made by Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen; the development of Bell's theorem; and crucial experimental tests performed in the early 1980’s. Alternative interpretations - pilot waves, quantum gravity, consciousness, many worlds, and God - are described in the closing chapter. This book is aimed at graduate and senior undergraduate students of physics and chemistry taking quantum chemistry or quantum theory courses, and other scientists interested in the subject.

DOI
10.1093/oso/9780198555766.001.0001

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Abstract In this book the author looks at the continuing debate about the meaning of quantum theory. The historical development of the theory is traced from the turn of the century through to the 1930’s, and the famous debate between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. The book examines in detail the arguments that quantum theory is incomplete, as made by Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen; the development of Bell's theorem; and crucial experimental tests performed in the early 1980’s. Alternative interpretations - pilot waves, quantum gravity, consciousness, many worlds, and God - are described in the closing chapter. This book is aimed at graduate and senior undergraduate students of physics and chemistry taking quantum chemistry or quantum theory courses, and other scientists interested in the subject.
Quantum theory, the most successful physical theory of all time, provoked intense debate between the twentieth century's two greatest physicists, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. Quantum information theory has emerged from intensive study of the structure and interpretation of quantum theory to become one of the fastest growing areas of twenty-first century science. This second edition has been extensively revised and updated to cover recent developments, including the findings of papers published since the well-received first edition. A substantial new chapter is devoted to the development and structure of quantum information theory. Developments in the experimental and theoretical study of Bell's Theorem are also covered in detail, and the accounts of ongoing work have been brought up to date. A fascinating account of the development of quantum theory, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the fundamental questions of physics, its philosophy and its history.
Preface to the 2nd edition. Preface. Acknowledgements. Reality in the quantum world: The quantum revolutions External reality The potential barrier and the breakdown of determinism The experimental challenge to reality Summary of chapter one. Quantum theory: The description of a particle in quantum theory The wavefunction The potential barrier according to quantum mechanics Interference Other applications of quantum theory Summary of chapter two. Quantum theory and external reality: Review of the problem The ensemble interpretation of quantum mechanics The wavefunction as a measure of our knowledge The wavefunction as part of external reality Measurement in quantum theory Interference and macroscopic objects Can quantum mechanics be changed so that it will reduce wavefunctions? Summary of chapter three. Consciousness: The relevance of conscious observers: What is a conscious observer? Does wavefunction reduction require conscious observers? God as the conscious observer The many-worlds interpretation Summary of chapter four. Hidden variables and non-locality: Review of hidden-variable theories The pilot wave The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment Bell's theorem Experimental verification of the non-local predictions of quantum theory Can signals travel faster than light Summary of chapter five. The mysteries of the quantum world: Where are we now? Quantum theory and relativity Where do we go next? Early history and the Copenhagen interpretation A bibliography and some recent opinions A final plea for reality A last look at the wavefunction Conclusions. Recent developments: Models with explicit collapse The Bohm model Many worlds Time and quantum theory A peculiarly quantum measurement Locality. Appendices. Index.
The foundations and meaning of quantum theory became a central issue to Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr since the onset of their impassioned debate in the 1920s, enriched by the contributions of many other distinguished scientists and philosophers.The questions are not settled down at all, despite the great achievements of the theory, its impressive accordance with experiment and predictive power.The fundamental and technological applications range from cosmology to biology, with the development of invaluable instruments and the design of new materials.Is quantum mechanics a complete or an incomplete theory?Is there an objective reality independent of the observer or is the reality created by the measurements?Are hidden-variable theories justifiable?Is there a quantum theory founded in a local-causal and non-linear approach that formally contains the orthodox linear theory as a special case?Can such a formulation unify classical and quantum physics?Are Heisenberg's uncertainty relations valid in all cases?Here, the subject is addressed as an adaptation of our contribution to the Colloquium "Quantal aspects in Chemistry and Physics.
The interplay between non-relativistic quantum theory and metaphysics has generated radically opposed interpretations for quantum theory: Niels Bohr's 'orthodox' interpretation, and Einstein's 'realist' one. Out of this debate emerged the classical first-generation paradoxes of quantum theory: Schrodinger's Cat and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradoxes. And more recently a range of new paradoxes has emerged from the work of J.S. Bell which questions the `local' nature of quantum theory, prefiguring a return either to an action-at-a-distance metaphysics or to a radically holistic conception of matter. This book outlines the contours of these debates, and presents an interpretation of quantum theory which, while metaphysically realist, resolves most of the paradoxes. This interpretation takes quantum systems to be fuzzy particles, piloted by fields of propensities which are represented by density operators on Hilbert space; and constitutes, in part, a return to an earlier view of quantum systems advanced by De Broglie, Schrodinger, Born, and Einstein. A book for philosophers and physicists who are interested in the philo sophy o f science.
This book gives a clear and comprehensive exposition of Niels Bohr's philosophy of physics. Bohr's ideas are of major importance, for they are the source of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics; yet they are obscure, and call for the sort of close analysis that this book provides. The book describes the historical background of the physics from which Bohr's ideas grew. The core of the book is a detailed analysis of Bohr's arguments for complementarity and of the interpretation which he put upon it. Special emphasis is placed throughout on the contrasting views of Einstein, and the great debate between Bohr and Einstein is thoroughly examined. The book traces the philosophical influences on Bohr, and unravels the realist and anti-realist strands in his thinking. Bohr's philosophy is critically assessed in the light of recent developments in the foundations of quantum physics (the work of Bell and others) and in philosophy (the realism-anti-realism debate) and it is revealed as being much more subtle and sophisticated than it is generally taken to be. While the book will be of interest to specialists, it is written in a style that will make it accessible to those who have no specialist knowledge of the relevant physics and philosophy.
This invaluable book takes the reader from Planck's discovery of the quantum in 1900 to the most recent interpretations and applications of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. The introduction of the quantum idea leads off the prehistory of quantum mechanics, featuring Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Compton, and de Broglie's immortal contributions. Their original discovery papers are featured with explanatory notes and developments in Part 1. The invention of matrix mechanics and quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Dirac, and Schrödinger is presented next, in Part 2. Following that, in Part 3, are the Einstein–Bohr debates on the interpretation of quantum mechanics culminating in Bell's inequality and Aspect's experiment demonstrating the actuality of the long range quantum correlations to which Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen took great exception. Resolutions of quantum paradoxes and the current state of such debates are summarized. Part 4 presents a selection of the most dramatic modern developments, both theoretical and experimental. These include Feynman path integrals, the modern interpretation based on decoherence, quantum optics experiments leading to teleportation, DeWitt's wave function of the universe, and a brief introduction to the end-of-the-millennium prospects of quantum computation. A concluding chapter presents the authors' conjectures for the next 100 years of the quantum. This book is ideally suited to anyone with a junior level background in modern physics and quantum mechanics, and a cultural interest in the original sources of the greatest ideas of the greatest founders of this subject as derived from their first discovery papers. These papers have led, in giant strides across the whole of the twentieth century, to the revolutionary experimental advances of the last decade. The book makes accessible - physically and intellectually - both the deepest roots and the highest branches of nonrelativistic quantum physics