The Quantum Mechanics Conundrum

This comprehensive volume gives a balanced and systematic treatment of both the interpretation and the mathematical-conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics. It is written in a pedagogical style and addresses many thorny problems of fundamental physics. The first aspect concerns Interpretation. The author raises the central problems: formalism, measurement, non-locality, and causality. The main positions on these subjects are presented and critically analysed. The aim is to show that the main schools can converge on a core interpretation. The second aspect concerns Foundations. Here it is shown that the whole theory can be grounded on information theory. The distinction between information and signal leads us to integrating quantum mechanics and relativity. Category theory is presented and its significance for quantum information shown; the logic and epistemological bases of the theory are assessed. Of relevance to all physicists and philosophers with an interest in quantum theory and its foundations, this book is destined to become a classic work.

An exceptionally accessible, accurate and non-technical introduction to the core concepts of quantum mechanics.

Like rocket science or brain surgery, quantum mechanics is pigeonholed as a daunting and inaccessible topic, which is best left to an elite or peculiar few. This classification was not earned without some degree of merit. Depending on perspective; quantum mechanics is a discipline or philosophy, a convention or conundrum, an answer or question. Authors have run the gamut from hand waving to heavy handed in the hope to dispel the common beliefs about quantum mechanics, but perhaps they continue to promulgate the stigma. The focus of this particular effort is to give the reader an introduction, if not at least an appreciation, of the role that linear algebra techniques play in the practical application of quantum mechanical methods. It interlaces aspects of the classical and quantum picture, including a number of both worked and parallel applications. Students with no prior experience in quantum mechanics, motivated graduate students, or researchers in other areas attempting to gain some introduction to quantum theory will find particular interest in this book.

This book condenses some of the critical features of the discussion about the interpretative problems of quantum mechanics, pointing out some possible ways out of the conundrum. In order to set the road for these matters, chapter one introduces a conceptual history of the theory and its alternative interpretations. Chapter two profiles a taxonomy of the interpretative problems and some possible solutions, focused in the so-called measurement problem. Chapter three questions the thesis of quantum mechanics becoming what it is due to historical contingency. Finally, in chapter four, an argument is advanced to consider one particular interpretation –the causal account- as an alternative view that may help with the solution of the interpretative knot.

Although the debate about the true nature of the quantum behavior of atomic systems has never ceased, there are two periods during which it has been particularly intense: the years that saw the founding of quantum mechanics and, increasingly, these modern times. In 1954 Max Born, on accepting the Nobel Prize for his 'fundamental researches in quantum mechanics', recalled the depth of the disagreements that divided celebrated quantum theorists of those days into two camps: . . . when I say that physicists had accepted the way of thinking developed by us at that time, r am not quite correct: there are a few most noteworthy exceptions - namely, among those very workers who have contributed most to the building up of quantum theory. Planck himself belonged to the sceptics until his death. Einstein, de Broglie, and Schriidinger have not ceased to emphasize the unsatisfactory features of quantum mechanics . . . . This dramatic disagreement centered around some of the most funda mental questions in all of science: Do atomic objects exist il1dependently of human observations and, if so, is it possible for man to understand correctly their behavior? By and large, it can be said that the Copenhagen and Gottingen schools - led by Bohr, Heisenberg, and Born, in particula- gave more or less openly pessimistic answers to these questions.

Forget everything you thought you knew about reality. The world is a seriously bizarre place. Things can exist in two places at once and travel backwards and forwards in time. Waves and particles are one and the same, and objects change their behaviour according to whether they are being watched. This is not some alternative universe but the realm of the very small, where quantum mechanics rules. In this weird world of atoms and their constituents, our common sense understanding of reality breaks down - yet quantum mechanics has never failed an experimental test. What does it all mean? For all its weirdness, quantum mechanics has given us many practical technologies including lasers and the transistors that underlie computers and all digital technology. In the future, it promises computers more powerful than any built before, the ability to communicate with absolute privacy, and even quantum teleportation. The Quantum World explores the past, present and future of quantum science, its applications and mind-bending implications. Discover how ideas from quantum mechanics are percolating out into the vast scale of the cosmos - perhaps, in the future, to reveal a new understanding of the big bang and the nature of space and time. ABOUT THE SERIES New Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science; subjects that challenge, attract debate, invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds. Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work and why, the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals, society, and the planet, translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone, and putting new ideas and discoveries into perspective and context.

Excision of errors and confusion about quantum mechanics -- and stimulation of thoughtful and adventurous readers are pre-eminent rationales of this entire work; these requiring definitions and analysis of underlying concepts of quantum mechanics, of quantum field theory -- why probability is given by the absolute square, what wavefunctions are and are not and why, and many others -- and also examination of some from the philosophy of science. People's beliefs about quantum mechanics are often just the reverse of what fundamental principles give, seen most spectacularly with the EPR 'paradox'. The puzzles, the mystical, the bizarre, come merely from negligence, from blunders, including the outlandish belief that the universe must be explained using classical physics. Careless, unthinking physicists, and gullible journalists who naively accept their confusion as statements about nature, cause so much misunderstanding and nonsense about physics. Among the many examples considered are the non-existence in quantum mechanics of waves and particles, so of wave-particle duality; the reason that general relativity must be the quantum theory of gravity; the mystery of the cosmological constant: why people believe in it though it would be obvious to a high school student that there cannot be any, it must be zero; the absurdity (and wild incorrectness) of much of the discussion about the vacuum; the required locality of quantum mechanics and the impossibility of action-at-a-distance; and many others. Many blunders, not only about physics, come from abuse of language, the use of words, phrases, sentences without content, with con- notation but no denotation, of names --- quantum mechanics, particles, waves, and so on -- that deceive and misrepresent, of questions that ask nothing. It is not only in physics that answers to questions without meaning smother and hide.

Like rocket science or brain surgery, quantum mechanics is pigeonholed as a daunting and inaccessible topic, which is best left to an elite or peculiar few. This classification was not earned without some degree of merit. Depending on perspective; quantum mechanics is a discipline or philosophy, a convention or conundrum, an answer or question. Authors have run the gamut from hand waving to heavy handed in hopes to dispel the common beliefs about quantum mechanics, but perhaps they continue to promulgate the stigma. The focus of this particular effort is to give the reader an introduction, if not at least an appreciation, of the role that linear algebra techniques play in the practical application of quantum mechanical methods. It interlaces aspects of the classical and quantum picture, including a number of both worked and parallel applications. Students with no prior experience in quantum mechanics, motivated graduate students, or researchers in other areas attempting to gain some introduction to quantum theory will find particular interest in this book.