Quantum Interpretations and World War Two an Analysis of the Interpretive Debate from the Twenties to the Sixties in Historical Context
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Lecture 32 Relevant Sections in Text: §3.7, 3.9 Total Angular Momentum
Physics 6210/Spring 2008/Lecture 32 Lecture 32 Relevant sections in text: x3.7, 3.9 Total Angular Momentum Eigenvectors How are the total angular momentum eigenvectors related to the original product eigenvectors (eigenvectors of Lz and Sz)? We will sketch the construction and give the results. Keep in mind that the general theory of angular momentum tells us that, for a 1 given l, there are only two values for j, namely, j = l ± 2. Begin with the eigenvectors of total angular momentum with the maximum value of angular momentum: 1 1 1 jj = l; j = ; j = l + ; m = l + i: 1 2 2 2 j 2 Given j1 and j2, there is only one linearly independent eigenvector which has the appro- priate eigenvalue for Jz, namely 1 1 jj = l; j = ; m = l; m = i; 1 2 2 1 2 2 so we have 1 1 1 1 1 jj = l; j = ; j = l + ; m = l + i = jj = l; j = ; m = l; m = i: 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 To get the eigenvectors with lower eigenvalues of Jz we can apply the ladder operator J− = L− + S− to this ket and normalize it. In this way we get expressions for all the kets 1 1 1 1 1 jj = l; j = 1=2; j = l + ; m i; m = −l − ; −l + ; : : : ; l − ; l + : 1 2 2 j j 2 2 2 2 The details can be found in the text. 1 1 Next, we consider j = l − 2 for which the maximum mj value is mj = l − 2. -
Yes, More Decoherence: a Reply to Critics
Yes, More Decoherence: A Reply to Critics Elise M. Crull∗ Submitted 11 July 2017; revised 24 August 2017 1 Introduction A few years ago I published an article in this journal titled \Less interpretation and more decoherence in quantum gravity and inflationary cosmology" (Crull, 2015) that generated replies from three pairs of authors: Vassallo and Esfeld (2015), Okon and Sudarsky (2016) and Fortin and Lombardi (2017). As a philosopher of physics it is my chief aim to engage physicists and philosophers alike in deeper conversation regarding scientific theories and their implications. In as much as my earlier paper provoked a suite of responses and thereby brought into sharper relief numerous misconceptions regarding decoherence, I welcome the occasion provided by the editors of this journal to continue the discussion. In what follows, I respond to my critics in some detail (wherein the devil is often found). I must be clear at the outset, however, that due to the nature of these criticisms, much of what I say below can be categorized as one or both of the following: (a) a repetition of points made in the original paper, and (b) a reiteration of formal and dynamical aspects of quantum decoherence considered uncontroversial by experts working on theoretical and experimental applications of this process.1 I begin with a few paragraphs describing what my 2015 paper both was, and was not, about. I then briefly address Vassallo's and Esfeld's (hereafter VE) relatively short response to me, dedicating the bulk of my reply to the lengthy critique of Okon and Sudarsky (hereafter OS). -
Unit 1 Old Quantum Theory
UNIT 1 OLD QUANTUM THEORY Structure Introduction Objectives li;,:overy of Sub-atomic Particles Earlier Atom Models Light as clectromagnetic Wave Failures of Classical Physics Black Body Radiation '1 Heat Capacity Variation Photoelectric Effect Atomic Spectra Planck's Quantum Theory, Black Body ~diation. and Heat Capacity Variation Einstein's Theory of Photoelectric Effect Bohr Atom Model Calculation of Radius of Orbits Energy of an Electron in an Orbit Atomic Spectra and Bohr's Theory Critical Analysis of Bohr's Theory Refinements in the Atomic Spectra The61-y Summary Terminal Questions Answers 1.1 INTRODUCTION The ideas of classical mechanics developed by Galileo, Kepler and Newton, when applied to atomic and molecular systems were found to be inadequate. Need was felt for a theory to describe, correlate and predict the behaviour of the sub-atomic particles. The quantum theory, proposed by Max Planck and applied by Einstein and Bohr to explain different aspects of behaviour of matter, is an important milestone in the formulation of the modern concept of atom. In this unit, we will study how black body radiation, heat capacity variation, photoelectric effect and atomic spectra of hydrogen can be explained on the basis of theories proposed by Max Planck, Einstein and Bohr. They based their theories on the postulate that all interactions between matter and radiation occur in terms of definite packets of energy, known as quanta. Their ideas, when extended further, led to the evolution of wave mechanics, which shows the dual nature of matter -
Arxiv:1206.1084V3 [Quant-Ph] 3 May 2019
Overview of Bohmian Mechanics Xavier Oriolsa and Jordi Mompartb∗ aDepartament d'Enginyeria Electr`onica, Universitat Aut`onomade Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, SPAIN bDepartament de F´ısica, Universitat Aut`onomade Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, SPAIN This chapter provides a fully comprehensive overview of the Bohmian formulation of quantum phenomena. It starts with a historical review of the difficulties found by Louis de Broglie, David Bohm and John Bell to convince the scientific community about the validity and utility of Bohmian mechanics. Then, a formal explanation of Bohmian mechanics for non-relativistic single-particle quantum systems is presented. The generalization to many-particle systems, where correlations play an important role, is also explained. After that, the measurement process in Bohmian mechanics is discussed. It is emphasized that Bohmian mechanics exactly reproduces the mean value and temporal and spatial correlations obtained from the standard, i.e., `orthodox', formulation. The ontological characteristics of the Bohmian theory provide a description of measurements in a natural way, without the need of introducing stochastic operators for the wavefunction collapse. Several solved problems are presented at the end of the chapter giving additional mathematical support to some particular issues. A detailed description of computational algorithms to obtain Bohmian trajectories from the numerical solution of the Schr¨odingeror the Hamilton{Jacobi equations are presented in an appendix. The motivation of this chapter is twofold. -
Philosophical Rhetoric in Early Quantum Mechanics, 1925-1927
b1043_Chapter-2.4.qxd 1/27/2011 7:30 PM Page 319 b1043 Quantum Mechanics and Weimar Culture FA 319 Philosophical Rhetoric in Early Quantum Mechanics 1925–27: High Principles, Cultural Values and Professional Anxieties Alexei Kojevnikov* ‘I look on most general reasoning in science as [an] opportunistic (success- or unsuccessful) relationship between conceptions more or less defined by other conception[s] and helping us to overlook [danicism for “survey”] things.’ Niels Bohr (1919)1 This paper considers the role played by philosophical conceptions in the process of the development of quantum mechanics, 1925–1927, and analyses stances taken by key participants on four main issues of the controversy (Anschaulichkeit, quantum discontinuity, the wave-particle dilemma and causality). Social and cultural values and anxieties at the time of general crisis, as identified by Paul Forman, strongly affected the language of the debate. At the same time, individual philosophical positions presented as strongly-held principles were in fact flexible and sometimes reversible to almost their opposites. One can understand the dynamics of rhetorical shifts and changing strategies, if one considers interpretational debates as a way * Department of History, University of British Columbia, 1873 East Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1; [email protected]. The following abbreviations are used: AHQP, Archive for History of Quantum Physics, NBA, Copenhagen; AP, Annalen der Physik; HSPS, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences; NBA, Niels Bohr Archive, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen; NW, Die Naturwissenschaften; PWB, Wolfgang Pauli, Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg a.o., Band I: 1919–1929, ed. A. Hermann, K.V. -
Arxiv:1911.07386V2 [Quant-Ph] 25 Nov 2019
Ideas Abandoned en Route to QBism Blake C. Stacey1 1Physics Department, University of Massachusetts Boston (Dated: November 26, 2019) The interpretation of quantum mechanics known as QBism developed out of efforts to understand the probabilities arising in quantum physics as Bayesian in character. But this development was neither easy nor without casualties. Many ideas voiced, and even committed to print, during earlier stages of Quantum Bayesianism turn out to be quite fallacious when seen from the vantage point of QBism. If the profession of science history needed a motto, a good candidate would be, “I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that.” This essay explores a particular application of that catechism, in the generally inconclusive and dubiously reputable area known as quantum foundations. QBism is a research program that can briefly be defined as an interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the ideas of agent and ex- perience are fundamental. A “quantum measurement” is an act that an agent performs on the external world. A “quantum state” is an agent’s encoding of her own personal expectations for what she might experience as a consequence of her actions. Moreover, each measurement outcome is a personal event, an expe- rience specific to the agent who incites it. Subjective judgments thus comprise much of the quantum machinery, but the formalism of the theory establishes the standard to which agents should strive to hold their expectations, and that standard for the relations among beliefs is as objective as any other physical theory [1]. The first use of the term QBism itself in the literature was by Fuchs and Schack in June 2009 [2]. -
Arxiv:1511.01069V1 [Quant-Ph]
To appear in Contemporary Physics Copenhagen Quantum Mechanics Timothy J. Hollowood Department of Physics, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, U.K. (September 2015) In our quantum mechanics courses, measurement is usually taught in passing, as an ad-hoc procedure involving the ugly collapse of the wave function. No wonder we search for more satisfying alternatives to the Copenhagen interpretation. But this overlooks the fact that the approach fits very well with modern measurement theory with its notions of the conditioned state and quantum trajectory. In addition, what we know of as the Copenhagen interpretation is a later 1950’s development and some of the earlier pioneers like Bohr did not talk of wave function collapse. In fact, if one takes these earlier ideas and mixes them with later insights of decoherence, a much more satisfying version of Copenhagen quantum mechanics emerges, one for which the collapse of the wave function is seen to be a harmless book keeping device. Along the way, we explain why chaotic systems lead to wave functions that spread out quickly on macroscopic scales implying that Schr¨odinger cat states are the norm rather than curiosities generated in physicists’ laboratories. We then describe how the conditioned state of a quantum system depends crucially on how the system is monitored illustrating this with the example of a decaying atom monitored with a time of arrival photon detector, leading to Bohr’s quantum jumps. On the other hand, other kinds of detection lead to much smoother behaviour, providing yet another example of complementarity. Finally we explain how classical behaviour emerges, including classical mechanics but also thermodynamics. -
Singlet NMR Methodology in Two-Spin-1/2 Systems
Singlet NMR Methodology in Two-Spin-1/2 Systems Giuseppe Pileio School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK The author dedicates this work to Prof. Malcolm H. Levitt on the occasion of his 60th birthaday Abstract This paper discusses methodology developed over the past 12 years in order to access and manipulate singlet order in systems comprising two coupled spin- 1/2 nuclei in liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance. Pulse sequences that are valid for different regimes are discussed, and fully analytical proofs are given using different spin dynamics techniques that include product operator methods, the single transition operator formalism, and average Hamiltonian theory. Methods used to filter singlet order from byproducts of pulse sequences are also listed and discussed analytically. The theoretical maximum amplitudes of the transformations achieved by these techniques are reported, together with the results of numerical simulations performed using custom-built simulation code. Keywords: Singlet States, Singlet Order, Field-Cycling, Singlet-Locking, M2S, SLIC, Singlet Order filtration Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Nuclear Singlet States and Singlet Order 4 2.1 The spin Hamiltonian and its eigenstates . 4 2.2 Population operators and spin order . 6 2.3 Maximum transformation amplitude . 7 2.4 Spin Hamiltonian in single transition operator formalism . 8 2.5 Relaxation properties of singlet order . 9 2.5.1 Coherent dynamics . 9 2.5.2 Incoherent dynamics . 9 2.5.3 Central relaxation property of singlet order . 10 2.6 Singlet order and magnetic equivalence . 11 3 Methods for manipulating singlet order in spin-1/2 pairs 13 3.1 Field Cycling . -
Demnächst Auch in Ihrem Laptop?
The Measurement Problem Johannes Kofler Quantum Foundations Seminar Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics Munich, December 12th 2011 The measurement problem Different aspects: • How does the wavefunction collapse occur? Does it even occur at all? • How does one know whether something is a system or a measurement apparatus? When does one apply the Schrödinger equation (continuous and deterministic evolution) and when the projection postulate (discontinuous and probabilistic)? • How real is the wavefunction? Does the measurement only reveal pre-existing properties or “create reality”? Is quantum randomness reducible or irreducible? • Are there macroscopic superposition states (Schrödinger cats)? Where is the border between quantum mechanics and classical physics? The Kopenhagen interpretation • Wavefunction: mathematical tool, “catalogue of knowledge” (Schrödinger) not a description of objective reality • Measurement: leads to collapse of the wavefunction (Born rule) • Properties: wavefunction: non-realistic randomness: irreducible • “Heisenberg cut” between system and apparatus: “[T]here arises the necessity to draw a clear dividing line in the description of atomic processes, between the measuring apparatus of the observer which is described in classical concepts, and the object under observation, whose behavior is represented by a wave function.” (Heisenberg) • Classical physics as limiting case and as requirement: “It is decisive to recognize that, however far the phenomena transcend the scope of classical physical explanation, the -
Einstein and Physics Hundred Years Ago∗
Vol. 37 (2006) ACTA PHYSICA POLONICA B No 1 EINSTEIN AND PHYSICS HUNDRED YEARS AGO∗ Andrzej K. Wróblewski Physics Department, Warsaw University Hoża 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Poland [email protected] (Received November 15, 2005) In 1905 Albert Einstein published four papers which revolutionized physics. Einstein’s ideas concerning energy quanta and electrodynamics of moving bodies were received with scepticism which only very slowly went away in spite of their solid experimental confirmation. PACS numbers: 01.65.+g 1. Physics around 1900 At the turn of the XX century most scientists regarded physics as an almost completed science which was able to explain all known physical phe- nomena. It appeared to be a magnificent structure supported by the three mighty pillars: Newton’s mechanics, Maxwell’s electrodynamics, and ther- modynamics. For the celebrated French chemist Marcellin Berthelot there were no major unsolved problems left in science and the world was without mystery. Le monde est aujourd’hui sans mystère— he confidently wrote in 1885 [1]. Albert A. Michelson was of the opinion that “The more important fundamen- tal laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote . Our future dis- coveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals” [2]. Physics was not only effective but also perfect and beautiful. Henri Poincaré maintained that “The theory of light based on the works of Fresnel and his successors is the most perfect of all the theories of physics” [3]. -
EINSTEIN and NAZI PHYSICS When Science Meets Ideology and Prejudice
MONOGRAPH Mètode Science Studies Journal, 10 (2020): 147-155. University of Valencia. DOI: 10.7203/metode.10.13472 ISSN: 2174-3487. eISSN: 2174-9221. Submitted: 29/11/2018. Approved: 23/05/2019. EINSTEIN AND NAZI PHYSICS When science meets ideology and prejudice PHILIP BALL In the 1920s and 30s, in a Germany with widespread and growing anti-Semitism, and later with the rise of Nazism, Albert Einstein’s physics faced hostility and was attacked on racial grounds. That assault was orchestrated by two Nobel laureates in physics, who asserted that stereotypical racial features are exhibited in scientific thinking. Their actions show how ideology can infect and inflect science. Reviewing this episode in the current context remains an instructive and cautionary tale. Keywords: Albert Einstein, Nazism, anti-Semitism, science and ideology. It was German society, Einstein said, that revealed from epidemiology and research into disease (the to him his Jewishness. «This discovery was brought connection of smoking to cancer, and of HIV to home to me by non-Jews rather than Jews», he wrote AIDS) to climate change, this idea perhaps should in 1929 (cited in Folsing, 1998, p. 488). come as no surprise. But it is for that very reason that Shortly after the boycott of Jewish businesses at the the hostility Einstein’s physics sometimes encountered start of April 1933, the German Students Association, in Germany in the 1920s and 30s remains an emboldened by Hitler’s rise to total power, declared instructive and cautionary tale. that literature should be cleansed of the «un-German spirit». The result, on 10 May, was a ritualistic ■ AGAINST RELATIVITY burning of tens of thousands of books «marred» by Jewish intellectualism. -
Workshop 1 Meaningful Interpretation
Workshop 1 Meaningful Interpretation “Invoking the interpretive mode is one of the most creative ways to make a text personal to all kinds of learners. Every student in a classroom can come to appreciate a text on his or her own level.”—Virginia Scott, Chair of French and Italian, Vanderbilt University Learning Goals How can you build your students’ interpretive skills? In this session, you’ll review relevant research, observe video discussions and classroom examples, and do a culminating activity on the interpretive mode of communication. At the end of this session, you will better understand how to: · lead students from comprehension to deeper interpretation of authentic texts; · prepare effective interpretive tasks for students; · integrate interpretive communication tasks into a unit of study; and · select from a range of authentic texts—such as art, film, folktales, advertisements, and books—based on their cultural and interdisciplinary content. Key Terms · authentic text · co-construction of meaning · communicative modes · four-skills approach · Schema theory · top-down reading process Definitions for these terms can be found in the Glossary located in the Appendix. Materials Needed An authentic text that you would like to use in an upcoming lesson with your students. For example, you could select a Web site, literary text, audio recording, film, or visual (such as a painting) that relates to the theme of the lesson or addresses cultural issues. Teaching Foreign Languages K–12 Workshop - 17 - Workshop 1 Before You Watch To prepare for this workshop session, you will tap your prior knowledge and experience and then read current research on interpretive communication.