Back in 1964, Richard Feynman famously stated that "Nobody understands quantum mechanics."Indeed, despite its impressive empirical success, quantum mechanics (QM) remains the most perplexing and mind-boggling theory ever produced by humans.In his clear and thought-provoking book, Jean Bricmont advocates the merits of "the de Broglie-Bohm theory" and forcefully argues that it provides an intelligible picture of the quantum world out there.Being aware, however, that the de Broglie-Bohm theory is not immune from difficulties, the author acknowledges that understanding QM is an "unfinished story" (292). AQ1After a short introductory chapter, Bricmont discusses in Chapter 2 what he calls the "first mystery" of quantum mechanics, namely "interference and superpositions."Spin measurements with Mach -Zehnder interferometers ( § 2.2) show that the quantum state is a superposition of two incompatible states (spin up and spin down).When a measurement is takenperformed, the quantum state instantly collapses into one of the two states.Schrödinger's celebrated cat thought experiment was meant to show that believing in the existence of a superposition of states "cat alive" and "cat dead" before opening the box, simply is absurd (38).According to standard QM the evolution of 1✉ 1 Page 1 sur 5 e.
Back in 1964, Richard Feynman famously stated that "Nobody understands quantum mechanics."Indeed, despite its impressive empirical success, quantum mechanics (QM) remains the most perplexing and mind-boggling theory ever produced by humans.In his clear and thought-provoking book, Jean Bricmont advocates the merits of "the de Broglie-Bohm theory" and forcefully argues that it provides an intelligible picture of the quantum world out there.Being aware, however, that the de Broglie-Bohm theory is not immune from difficulties, the author acknowledges that understanding QM is an "unfinished story" (292). AQ1After a short introductory chapter, Bricmont discusses in Chapter 2 what he calls the "first mystery" of quantum mechanics, namely "interference and superpositions."Spin measurements with Mach -Zehnder interferometers ( § 2.2) show that the quantum state is a superposition of two incompatible states (spin up and spin down).When a measurement is takenperformed, the quantum state instantly collapses into one of the two states.Schrödinger's celebrated cat thought experiment was meant to show that believing in the existence of a superposition of states "cat alive" and "cat dead" before opening the box, simply is absurd (38).According to standard QM the evolution of 1✉ 1 Page 1 sur 5 e.
Abstract The most successful theory in all of science--and the basis of one third of our economy--says the strangest things about the world and about us. Can you believe that physical reality is created by our observation of it? Physicists were forced to this conclusion, the quantum enigma, by what they observed in their laboratories. Trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics and found, to their embarrassment, that their theory intimately connects consciousness with the physical world. Quantum Enigma explores what that implies and why some founders of the theory became the foremost objectors to it. Schrödinger showed that it "absurdly" allowed a cat to be in a "superposition" simultaneously dead and alive. Einstein derided the theory's "spooky interactions." With Bell's Theorem, we now know Schrödinger's superpositions and Einstein's spooky interactions indeed exist. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all of this in non-technical terms with help from some fanciful stories and bits about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, with an emphasis on what is and what is not speculation. Physics' encounter with consciousness is its skeleton in the closet. Because the authors open the closet and examine the skeleton, theirs is a controversial book. Quantum Enigma's description of the experimental quantum facts, and the quantum theory explaining them, is undisputed. Interpreting what it all means, however, is controversial. Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. Readers are brought to a boundary where the particular expertise of physicists is no longer a sure guide. They will find, instead, the facts and hints provided by quantum mechanics and the ability to speculate for themselves.
"Apart from providing a lucid introduction to the mathematical formalism and conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics, we explain why the laws of physics have the form that they do. In addition, we present a new and unique look at the quantum world, steering clear of two common errors: the error of the ψ-ontologists, who reify a calculational tool; and the error of the anti-realists, for whom physical theories are simply devices for expressing regularities among observations. The new edition of this acclaimed text adds around 200 pages on a variety of topics, such as how the founders sought to make sense of quantum mechanics, Kant's theory of science, QBism, Everettian quantum mechanics, de Broglie-Bohm theory, environmental decoherence, contextuality, nonlocality, and the paradox of subjectivity - the curious fact that the world seems to exist twice, once for us, in our minds, and once by itself, independently of us."--
There are several important philosophical problems to which quantum mechanics is often said to have made significant contributions: Determinism: quantum theory has been taken to refute determinism;Free Will: in turn, this is thought to open the door to free will;The mind-body problem: relatedly, it is sometimes said to shed light on consciousness;Idealism: more radically, quantum theory is assumed to have refuted realism and to have placed the observer at the centre of the world;Reductionism: even granting realism, it has been claimed that quantum theory undermines reductionism.Our main thesis in this paper is that none of this is either necessary or desirable. By adopting the de Broglie–Bohm theory (or Bohmian mechanics), one can straightforwardly account for quantum phenomena without endorsing any of these claims.
Here Roland Omnès offers a clear, up-to-date guide to the conceptual framework of quantum mechanics. In an area that has provoked much philosophical debate, Omnès has achieved high recognition for his Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton 1994), a book for specialists. Now the author has transformed his own theory into a short and readable text that enables beginning students and experienced physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers to form a comprehensive picture of the field while learning about the most recent advances. This new book presents a more streamlined version of the Copenhagen interpretation, showing its logical consistency and completeness. The problem of measurement is a major area of inquiry, with the author surveying its history from Planck to Heisenberg before describing the consistent-histories interpretation. He draws upon the most recent research on the decoherence effect (related to the modern resolution of the famous Schrödinger’s cat problem) and an exact formulation of the correspondence between quantum and particle physics (implying a derivation of classical determinism from quantum probabilism). Interpretation is organized with the help of a universal and sound language using so-called consistent histories. As a language and a method, it can now be shown to be free of ambiguity and it makes interpretation much clearer and closer to common sense.
Abstract The pilot-wave theory of de Broglie and Bohm has a special place in the history of contemporary physics, being it the very first alternative formulation of quantum mechanics. As is well-known, such a framework established itself as a leading interpretation of the quantum formalism in virtue of the solutions provided to the major technical and conceptual challenges affecting the orthodox view. The de Broglie-Bohm theory in fact not only solves the famous measurement problem, one of the most cogent issues faced by standard quantum mechanics, but also it clarifies the formal structure of the latter theory as a consequence of a consistent set of principles and an precise, unambiguous ontology. This volume aims to provide the reader with a discussion of the pilot-wave perspective which is as informative, comprehensive and accessible as possible, while at the same time clarifying confusions and misunderstandings that are unfortunately still common in literature despite the long history of this theoretical framework. The book features chapters about the various perspectives on the pilot-wave theory, its extensions to relativity and quantum field theory, and its experimental applications to various branches of physics, as for instance quantum electrodynamics, quantum chemistry, and quantum engineering. Moreover, the volume includes essays on the history and philosophy of de Broglie-Bohm theory in order to delineate its developments and the vicissitudes of its pioneers, as well as to understand the scientific image of the universe it provides.
Quantum mechanics occupies a unique position in the history of science. It has survived all experimental tests to date, culminating with the most precise comparison of any measurement to any theory – a 1987 measurement of the electron's magnetic moment, or gyromagnetic ratio g e = 2.002 319 304 39 (Van Dyck et al. 1987), agreeing with QED theory to 12 digits. Despite this and other dramatic successes of quantum mechanics, its foundations are often questioned, owing to the glaring difficulties in reconciling quantum physics with the classical laws of physics that govern macroscopic bodies. If quantum mechanics is indeed a complete theory of nature, why does it not apply to everyday life? Even Richard Feynman (1982), a fierce defender of quantum mechanics, memorably stated that: We have always had a great deal of difficulty in understanding the world view that quantum mechanics represents … Okay, I still get nervous with it … It has not yet become obvious to me that there is no real problem. I cannot define the real problem, therefore I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem. In the dawn of the twenty-first century, John A. Wheeler's big question “Why the quantum?” has returned to the forefront of physics with full steam. Advances in experimental physics are beginning to realize the same thought-experiments that proved helpful to Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and the other founders of quantum mechanics.