The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics PDF Download

Author: Daniel F. Styer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316101878
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This is an exceptionally accessible, accurate, and non-technical introduction to quantum mechanics. After briefly summarizing the differences between classical and quantum behaviour, this engaging account considers the Stern-Gerlach experiment and its implications, treats the concepts of probability, and then discusses the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox and Bell's theorem. Quantal interference and the concept of amplitudes are introduced and the link revealed between probabilities and the interference of amplitudes. Quantal amplitude is employed to describe interference effects. Final chapters explore exciting new developments in quantum computation and cryptography, discover the unexpected behaviour of a quantal bouncing-ball, and tackle the challenge of describing a particle with no position. Thought-provoking problems and suggestions for further reading are included. Suitable for use as a course text, The Strange World of Quantum Mechanics enables students to develop a genuine understanding of the domain of the very small. It will also appeal to general readers seeking intellectual adventure.

Author: Jagdish Mehra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387951744
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Quantum Theory, together with the principles of special and general relativity, constitute a scientific revolution that has profoundly influenced the way in which we think about the universe and the fundamental forces that govern it. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is a definitive historical study of that scientific work and the human struggles that accompanied it from the beginning. Drawing upon such materials as the resources of the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics, the Niels Bohr Archives, and the archives and scientific correspondence of the principal quantum physicists, as well as Jagdish Mehra's personal discussions over many years with most of the architects of quantum theory, the authors have written a rigorous scientific history of quantum theory in a deeply human context. This multivolume work presents a rich account of an intellectual triumph: a unique analysis of the creative scientific process. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory is science, history, and biography, all wrapped in the story of a great human enterprise. Its lessons will be an aid to those working in the sciences and humanities alike.

Author: Max Planck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Quantum theory
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description

Author: Jim Baggott
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191604291
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
The twentieth century was defined by physics. From the minds of the world's leading physicists there flowed a river of ideas that would transport mankind to the pinnacle of wonderment and to the very depths of human despair. This was a century that began with the certainties of absolute knowledge and ended with the knowledge of absolute uncertainty. It was a century in which physicists developed weapons with the capacity to destroy our reality, whilst at the same time denying us the possibility that we can ever properly comprehend it. Almost everything we think we know about the nature of our world comes from one theory of physics. This theory was discovered and refined in the first thirty years of the twentieth century and went on to become quite simply the most successful theory of physics ever devised. Its concepts underpin much of the twenty-first century technology that we have learned to take for granted. But its success has come at a price, for it has at the same time completely undermined our ability to make sense of the world at the level of its most fundamental constituents. Rejecting the fundamental elements of uncertainty and chance implied by quantum theory, Albert Einstein once famously declared that 'God does not play dice'. Niels Bohr claimed that anybody who is not shocked by the theory has not understood it. The charismatic American physicist Richard Feynman went further: he claimed that nobody understands it. This is quantum theory, and this book tells its story. Jim Baggott presents a celebration of this wonderful yet wholly disconcerting theory, with a history told in forty episodes — significant moments of truth or turning points in the theory's development. From its birth in the porcelain furnaces used to study black body radiation in 1900, to the promise of stimulating new quantum phenomena to be revealed by CERN's Large Hadron Collider over a hundred years later, this is the extraordinary story of the quantum world. Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think.

Author: Herbert Capellmann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319618849
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
This book traces the evolution of the ideas that eventually resulted in the elementary quantum theory in 1925/26. Further, it discusses the essential differences between the fundamental equations of Quantum Theory derived by Born and Jordan, logically comprising Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Optics, and the traditional view of the development of Quantum Mechanics. Drawing on original publications and letters written by the main protagonists of that time, it shows that Einstein’s contributions from 1905 to 1924 laid the essential foundations for the development of Quantum Theory. Einstein introduced quantization of the radiation field; Born added quantized mechanical behavior. In addition, Born recognized that Quantum Mechanics necessarily required Quantum Optics; his radical concept of truly discontinuous and statistical quantum transitions (“quantum leaps”) was directly based on Einstein’s physical concepts.

Author: Jagdish Mehra
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783540962847
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description

Author: Robert D. Purrington
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190655178
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Presents a detailed look at the period between 1925 and leading up to WWII, in which quantum theory was created and then quickly applied to nuclear, atomic, molecular, and solid state physics. The book includes a heavy emphasis on the scientific literature rather than a breezy overview of this period focusing on personalities or personal stories of the scientists involved.

Author: Loring W. Tu
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319550845
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
This text presents a graduate-level introduction to differential geometry for mathematics and physics students. The exposition follows the historical development of the concepts of connection and curvature with the goal of explaining the Chern–Weil theory of characteristic classes on a principal bundle. Along the way we encounter some of the high points in the history of differential geometry, for example, Gauss' Theorema Egregium and the Gauss–Bonnet theorem. Exercises throughout the book test the reader’s understanding of the material and sometimes illustrate extensions of the theory. Initially, the prerequisites for the reader include a passing familiarity with manifolds. After the first chapter, it becomes necessary to understand and manipulate differential forms. A knowledge of de Rham cohomology is required for the last third of the text. Prerequisite material is contained in author's text An Introduction to Manifolds, and can be learned in one semester. For the benefit of the reader and to establish common notations, Appendix A recalls the basics of manifold theory. Additionally, in an attempt to make the exposition more self-contained, sections on algebraic constructions such as the tensor product and the exterior power are included. Differential geometry, as its name implies, is the study of geometry using differential calculus. It dates back to Newton and Leibniz in the seventeenth century, but it was not until the nineteenth century, with the work of Gauss on surfaces and Riemann on the curvature tensor, that differential geometry flourished and its modern foundation was laid. Over the past one hundred years, differential geometry has proven indispensable to an understanding of the physical world, in Einstein's general theory of relativity, in the theory of gravitation, in gauge theory, and now in string theory. Differential geometry is also useful in topology, several complex variables, algebraic geometry, complex manifolds, and dynamical systems, among other fields. The field has even found applications to group theory as in Gromov's work and to probability theory as in Diaconis's work. It is not too far-fetched to argue that differential geometry should be in every mathematician's arsenal.

Author: Carl S. Helrich
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030792684
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
This book offers a fresh perspective on some of the central experimental and theoretical works that laid the foundations for today's quantum mechanics: It traces the theoretical and mathematical development of the hypotheses that put forward to explain puzzling experimental results; it also examines their interconnections and how they together evolved into modern quantum theory. Particular attention is paid to J.J. Thomson's atomic modeling and experiments at the Cavendish Laboratory, Max Planck's struggle to explain the experimental results of Heinrich Rubens and Ferdinand Kurlbaum, as well as the path leading from Louis de Broglie’s ideas to the wave theory of Erwin Schrödinger. Combining his experience in teaching quantum mechanics with his interest in the historical roots of the subject, the author has created a valuable resource for understanding quantum physics through its history, and a book that is appreciated both by working physicists and historians.

Author: James Evans
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540326650
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
This volume brings together leading quantum physicists to expound on the meaning and future directions of quantum mechanics. It offers new insights from different vantage points to tackle essential questions in quantum mechanics and its interpretation. All the authors have written for a broad readership, and the resulting volume will appeal to everyone wishing to keep abreast of new developments in quantum mechanics, as well as its history and philosophy.