Toward a Principle of Significance

Ross Barrett, Pier Paolo Delsanto, Angelo Tartaglia

Giridhari Lal Pandit

My main aim here is to present a general methodological principle, which I propose to designate as Heisenberg-Einstein context principle, as it emerges from their dialogue on physical theory, becoming their most important meeting point in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. I regard as context-principles those which can serve as guiding principles in theory-finding and theory-testing within physics. I think that they must be judged by their impact in making physics open-ended. As regards Heisenberg-Einstein dialogue, three important questions can be raised. The first question is which particular aspect of physical theory were they both concerned with. The second question is whether there emerged from their dialogue some general principle, as a guiding principle of sufficient methodological interest, on which they both showed significant agreement, resolving some of their methodological differences by removing some of their shared philosophical misunderstandings concerning physical theory. This gives rise to the third question whether their dialogue resulted in a significant impact on their respective positions on the interpretation, or foundations, of quantum mechanics. While answering the last two questions in the affirmative, I shall argue for the thesis that in their dialogue they shared a rather deep concern with the fundamental aspects of physical theory — with its mathematical formalism. Taken in this aspect, a physical theory, as and when it becomes mature after it has passed tests, contributes to context-building in theory-finding and theory-testing, generating new frontiers of discovery in physics and astronomy. In a nutshell, I am here concerned with the problem of reconnecting observation with theory, and discovery, or rather frontier of discovery, in physics with the core-context of discovery, trying to bring out the significance of the Heisenberg-Einstein context principle.

J. E. Allen

Guannan Zhou

The principle of uncertainty is one of the essential principles of quantum mechanics as it outlines that there is a reflective limit to the measurement of microscopic particle motion. However it is impossible to measure at once and accurately both the position and momentum data of any microscopic particle no matter what means are used to do so. This paper starts by discussing the notion and mathematical derivation of the uncertainty principle as put forth by Heisenberg explaining the physical relevance of the principle. It introduces the natural uncertainty the principle introduces to the dynamics of particles in the microscopic world, and the significant part it plays in the theory of quantum mechanics. The article overviews the explanations of the principle on phenomena including atomic stability and scanning tunneling microscopes, and the interference of measurement actions on the states of particles and the shortcomings of measurement precision. According to the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics, this article gives a required theoretical basis of microscopic phenomena. Likewise, the use of the research theory on the uncertainty principle by distinguished scholars in the physics fraternity helps the readers in achieving the knowledge in related subjects more easily.

A. G. Buckley, Christopher White, Martin J. White

Yinuo Shao

As a matter of fact, the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle has important significance and extensive application in microcosmic particle science, is one of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics, proposed by Heisenberg in 1927. The uncertainty principle means that it is impossible to measure a particle’s speed and position at the same time. The uncertainty of particle, i.e., the product of uncertainty of position (∆Q) and uncertainty of momentum (∆P), is inevitable greater than or equal to Plank’s constant, it expresses the inconsistency between particle behavior in microcosm and macroscopic substance. This study is going to set forth the uncertainty meaning, the research progress of uncertainty principle from the angle of physics, and further exploring the physical significance of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. According to the analysis, the state-of-art applications will be demonstrated as well as the current limitations and prospects will be discussed. Overall, these results pave a novel path for further investigation in regarding to Heisenberg’s uncertainty.