AuthorPost, Evert Jan. author
TitleQuantum Reprogramming [electronic resource] : Ensembles and Single Systems: A Two-Tier Approach to Quantum Mechanics / by Evert Jan Post
ImprintDordrecht : Springer Netherlands : Imprint: Springer, 1995
Connect tohttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8410-4
Descript XIV, 322 p. online resource

SUMMARY

Many, perhaps most textbooks of quantum mechanics present a Copenhagen, single system angle; fewer present the subject matter as an instrument for treating ensembles, but the two methods have been silently coexisting since the mid-Thirties. This lingering dichotomy of purpose for a major physical discipline has much shrouded further insights into the foundations of quantum theory. Quantum Reprogramming resolves this long-standing dichotomy by examining the mutual relation between single systems and ensembles, assigning each its own tools for treating the subject at hand: i.e., Schrรถdinger-Dirac methods for ensembles versus period integrals for single systems. A unified treatment of integer and fractional quantum Hall effects and a finite description of the electron's anomalies are mentioned as measures of justification for the chosen procedure of resolving an old-time dichotomy. The methods of presentation are, in part, elementary, with repetitive references needed to delineate differences with respect to standard methods. The parts on period integrals are developed with a perspective on elementary methods in physics, thus leading up to some standard results of de Rham theory and algebraic topology. Audience: Students of physics, mathematics, philosophers as well as outsiders with a general interest in the conceptual development of physics will find useful reading in these pages, which will stimulate further inquiry and study


CONTENT

Introductory Remarks -- Introductory Remarks -- The Copenhagen Era -- The Psychology of the 1925 Revolution -- Reassessing Copenhagen -- Copenhagen Versus Copenhagen -- Von Neumann, Popper-EPR, Bohm, Bell, Aspect -- A Sommerfeld-De Rham View of Single Systems -- Period Integrals: A Universal Tool of Physics -- Larmor and Cyclotron Aspects of Flux Quanta -- Fitting Period Integrals to Physics -- Implications of Cooperative Behavior -- A Tale of Fine Structure Coincidences -- Classical Nonclassical Asymptotics -- An Attempt at Cohomological Synthesis -- Arrowed Time and Cyclic Time -- Quantum Cohomology -- Optimizing Reduction to Familiar Concepts -- Ramifications of the Two-Tier View of Q.M. -- Compatibility of Quantum Mechanics and Relativity -- Quantum Understanding in Global Perspective -- Absolute Versus Relative Indeterminism -- The Diffeo-4 Mandate of Michelson-Sagnac -- Epilogue for Extrapolating a Favor of Fortune -- Epilogue for Extrapolating a Favor of Fortune


SUBJECT

  1. Philosophy
  2. History
  3. Metaphysics
  4. Algebraic topology
  5. Quantum physics
  6. Philosophy
  7. Metaphysics
  8. History
  9. general
  10. Quantum Physics
  11. Algebraic Topology