The Present Status Of The Quantum Theory Of Light

THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE QUANTUM THEORY OF LIGHT In August of 1995, a group of over 70 physicists met at York University for a three-day symposium in honour of Professor Jean-Pierre Vigier. The attendance included theoretical and experimental physicists, mathematicians, astronomers and colleagues concerned with issues in the philosophy of science. The symposium was entitled "The Present Status of the Quantum Theory of Light" in accordance with Professor Vigier's wishes but in fact encompassed many of the areas to which Professor Vigier has contributed over his long and distinguished career. These include stochastic interpretations of quantum mechanics, particle physics, and electromagnetic theory. The papers presented at the symposium have been arranged in this proceedings in the following approximate order: ideas about the nature of light and photons, electrodynamiCS, the formulation and interpretation of quantum mechanics, and aspects of relativity theory. Some of the papers presented deal with alternate interpretations of quantum phenomena in the tradition of Vigier, Bohm et al. These interpretations reject the account given in purely probabilistic terms and which deems individual quantum events to be acausal and not amenable to any analysis in space-time terms. As is well known, Einstein and others also rejected the purely statistical account of quantum mechanics. As stressed by Professor Vigier at the symposium, the current experimental situation now allows for the first time for individual quantum events to be studied, e. g.

This third edition, like its two predecessors, provides a detailed account of the basic theory needed to understand the properties of light and its interactions with atoms, in particular the many nonclassical effects that have now been observed in quantum-optical experiments. The earlier chapters describe the quantum mechanics of various optical processes, leading from the classical representation of the electromagnetic field to the quantum theory of light. The later chapters develop the theoretical descriptions of some of the key experiments in quantum optics. Over half of the material in this third edition is new. It includes topics that have come into prominence over the last two decades, such as the beamsplitter theory, squeezed light, two-photon interference, balanced homodyne detection, travelling-wave attenuation and amplification, quantum jumps, and the ranges of nonliner optical processes important in the generation of nonclassical light. The book is written as a textbook, with the treatment as a whole appropriate for graduate or postgraduate students, while earlier chapters are also suitable for final- year undergraduates. Over 100 problems help to intensify the understanding of the material presented.

Presents a collection of essays that examine contemporary research in quantum physics, including a discussion of its origins, principles, and evolving theories.

Particle Physics and High Energy Physics have stagnated since the early 1970s. Now, the underlying principle of reductionism ? so sacred to twentieth-century physics ? is itself being questioned. This book examines these tumultuous developments that are leading to a paradigm shift and a new horizon for Physics.Presenting the new paradigm in fuzzy spacetime, this book is based on some 100 papers published in peer-reviewed journals including Foundations of Physics, Nuovo Cimento and The International Journal of Modern Physics (A&E), as well as two recently published books, The Chaotic Universe (Nova Science, New York) and The Universe of Fluctuations (Springer). The work had predicted correctly in advance epoch-turning observations, for example, that the Universe is accelerating with a small cosmological constant driven by dark energy when the prevalent line of thinking was the exact opposite. Similarly, the prediction of a minimum thermodynamic residual energy in the Universe has also been realized more recently. Further to a unified description of gravitation and electromagnetism via fluctuations, several other features are presented in complete agreement with experiments, in sharp contrast to the present ideas which are neither verifiable nor disprovable.

The present volume has its origins in a pair of informal workshops held at the Free University of Brussels, in June of 1998 and May of 1999, named "Current Research 1 in Operational Quantum Logic". These brought together mathematicians and physicists working in operational quantum logic and related areas, as well as a number of interested philosophers of science, for a rare opportunity to discuss recent developments in this field. After some discussion, it was decided that, rather than producing a volume of conference proceedings, we would try to organize the conferees to produce a set of comprehensive survey papers, which would not only report on recent developments in quantum logic, but also provide a tutorial overview of the subject suitable for an interested non-specialist audience. The resulting volume provides an overview of the concepts and methods used in current research in quantum logic, viewed both as a branch of mathemati cal physics and as an area of pure mathematics. The first half of the book is concerned with the algebraic side of the subject, and in particular the theory of orthomodular lattices and posets, effect algebras, etc. In the second half of the book, special attention is given to categorical methods and to connections with theoretical computer science. At the 1999 workshop, we were fortunate to hear three excellent lectures by David J. Foulis, represented here by two contributions. Dave's work, spanning 40 years, has helped to define, and continues to reshape, the field of quantum logic.

Written primarily for advanced undergraduate and Master's level students in physics, this text includes a broad range of topics in applied quantum optics such as laser cooling, Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum information processing.

The Eighth Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics was held on the campus of the University of Rochester during the period June 13-16,2001. This volume contains the proceedings of the meeting. The meeting was preceded by an affiliated conference, the International Conference on Quantum Information, with some overlapping sessions on June 13. The proceedings of the affiliated conference will be published separately by the Optical Society of America. A few papers that were presented in common plenary sessions of the two conferences will be published in both proceedings volumes. More than 268 scientists from 28 countries participated in the week long discussions and presentations. This Conference differed from the previous seven in the CQO series in several ways, the most important of which was the absence of Leonard Mandel. Professor Mandel died a few months before the conference. A special memorial symposium in his honor was held at the end of the conference. The presentations from that symposium are included in this proceedings volume. An innovation, that we believe made an important contribution to the conference, was the inclusion of a series of invited lectures chaired by CQO founder Emil Wolf, reviewing the history of the fields of coherence and quantum optics before about 1970. These were given by three prominent participants in the development of the field, C. Cohen-Tannoudji, 1. F. Clauser, and R. I. Glauber.

This monograph presents the latest findings from a long-term research project intended to identify the physics behind Quantum Mechanics. A fundamental theory for quantum mechanics is constructed from first physical principles, revealing quantization as an emergent phenomenon arising from a deeper stochastic process. As such, it offers the vibrant community working on the foundations of quantum mechanics an alternative contribution open to discussion. The book starts with a critical summary of the main conceptual problems that still beset quantum mechanics. The basic consideration is then introduced that any material system is an open system in permanent contact with the random zero-point radiation field, with which it may reach a state of equilibrium. Working from this basis, a comprehensive and self-consistent theoretical framework is then developed. The pillars of the quantum-mechanical formalism are derived, as well as the radiative corrections of nonrelativistic QED, while revealing the underlying physical mechanisms. The genesis of some of the central features of quantum theory is elucidated, such as atomic stability, the spin of the electron, quantum fluctuations, quantum nonlocality and entanglement. The theory developed here reaffirms fundamental scientific principles such as realism, causality, locality and objectivity.