Conceptual Foundations Of Quantum Mechanics PDF Download

Author: Bernard D'espagnat
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0429969996
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics provides a detailed view of the conceptual foundations and problems of quantum physics, and a clear and comprehensive account of the fundamental physical implications of the quantum formalism. This book deals with nonseparability, hidden variable theories, measurement theories and several related problems. Mathematical arguments are presented with an emphasis on simple but adequately representative cases. The conclusion incorporates a description of a set of relationships and concepts that could compose a legitimate view of the world.

Author: Bernardo Adeva Andany
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
This is a textbook that provides a conceptual introduction to Quantum Mechanics, following a teaching approach quite different from the usual. Far from using excessively dense formalism, as is so often the case, the main ideas are still treated with mathematical precision, relying on a basic knowledge of Newton's laws, wave motion, and Calculus. It is addressed to all interested readers, or teachers, particularly including undergraduate students of any branch of science or engineering. Quantum Mechanics is an utterly important discipline, increasingly integrated in our knowledge society, spanning all fields of technology. In this book Feynman's formulation is used to bridge the gap between mathematical precision and the use of intuitive classical reference points that every student has learned. The implication of time in the precise definition of quantum fluctuations and of the Planck constant is analised first, portraying the main role these play in Nature, for both the motion of bodies of given mass m, and waves. Duality does not mean identifying particles with waves, but rather revealing what they have in common, namely the random character of their motion, and the non deterministic nature of measurements. The Planck constant brings about the finite sizes of atoms and atomic nuclei, thus allowing for the storage of energy in the Universe. The properties of quanta (photons, phonons, gluons), are not just accidental, but constitute the basic root of Mechanics, to which they give name. Schrödinger's equation is deduced, not postulated, as in most existing textbooks. The necessity of using complex numbers for the description of motion is also conceptually derived, as opposed to their non appearance in classical mechanics. The simplest and most suitable formalism turns out to be Feynman's, for it allows giving full meaning to the wave function, which is key for accurate understanding of angular momentum, spin, chemical bonds, magnetism, quantum tunneling, or entropy. Being perhaps the most subtle concept of Quantum Mechanics, a specific discussion is made of the stationary states, which impregnate the different versions of the quantum formalism, starting out from their classical counterpart of periodic motion, both chaotic and non chaotic. The fundamental role of the quantum vacuum is also emphasized, which causes the immersion of Quantum Mechanics into the more perfect theory of quantum fields. The origin of the Pauli exclusion principle is established, as intimately connected with the electron spin, further illustrated with the most suggestive cases of bosonic and fermionic systems. The book offers, in a brief and succint way (less than 190 pages, with 39 mathematical figures), the main ideas and key tools that will enable the student assessing and solving an infinite number of problems, covering quite different fields.

Author: Leonard Eisenbud
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821841793
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
This book provides a clear and logical path to understanding what quantum mechanics is about. It will be accessible to undergraduates with minimal mathematical preparation: all that is required is an open mind, a little algebra, and a first course in undergraduate physics. Quantum mechanics is arguably the most successful physical theory. It makes predictions of incredible accuracy. It provides the structure underlying all of our electronic technology, and much of our mastery over materials. But compared with Newtonian mechanics, or even relativity, its teachings seem obscure--they have no counterpart in everyday experience, and they sometimes contradict our simplest notions of how the world works. A full understanding of the theory requires prior mastery of very advanced mathematics. This book aims at a different goal: to teach the reader, step by step, how the theory came to be and what, fundamentally, it is about. Most students learn physics by learning techniques and formulas. This is especially true in a field like quantum mechanics, whose content often contradicts our common sense, and where it's tempting to retreat into mathematical formalism. This book goes behind the formalism to explain in direct language the conceptual content and foundations of quantum mechanics: the experiments that forced physicists to construct such a strange theory, and the essential elements of its strangeness.

Author: Jan-Markus Schwindt
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319245260
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
The book covers the content of a typical higher undergraduate course of the theory of Quantum Mechanics. The focus is on the general principles of quantum mechanics and the clarification of its terminology: What exactly is a Hilbert space? What is a hermitean operator? A tensor product? An entangled state? In what sense does a wave function constitute a vector? A separate chapter discusses the many open questions regarding the interpretation of the postulates.

Author: Dipankar Home
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475798083
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
It may tum out that, like certain other phenomena studied by sociologists, bouts of interest in the foundations of quantum mechanics tend to come in 60-year cycles. It is hardly surprising that in the first decade or so of the subject the conceptual puzzles generated by this strange new way of looking at the world should have generated profound interest, not just among professional physicists themselves but also among philosophers and informed laymen; but this intense interest was followed by a fallow period in the forties and fifties when the physics establishment by and large took the view that the only puzzles left were the product either of incompetent application of the formalism or of bad philosophy, and only a few brave individualists like the late David Bohm dared to suggest that maybe there really was something there after all to worry about. As Bell and Nauenberg, surveying the scene in 1966, put it: "The typical physicist feels that [these questions 1 have long ago been answered, and that he will fully understand how if ever he can spare twenty minutes to think about it. " But gradually, through the sixties and seventies, curiosity did revive, and the last ten years or so have seen a level of interest in foundational questions, and an involvement in them by some of the leading figures of contemporary physics, which is probably unparalleled since the earliest days.

Author: Jeffrey A. Barrett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198844689
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
"The book starts with a description of classical mechanics then discusses the quantum phenomena that require us to give up our commonsense classical intuitions. We consider the physical and conceptual arguments that led to the standard von Neumann-Dirac formulation of quantum mechanics and how the standard theory explains quantum phenomena. This includes a discussion of how the theory's two dynamical laws work with the standard interpretation of states to explain determinate measurement records, quantum statistics, interference effects, entanglement, decoherence, and quantum nonlocality. A careful understanding of how the standard theory works ultimately leads to the quantum measurement problem. We consider how the measurement problem threatens the logical consistency of the standard theory then turn to a discussion of the main proposals for resolving it. This includes collapse formulations of quantum mechanics like Wigner's extension of the standard theory and the GRW approach and no-collapse formulations like pure wave mechanics, the various many-worlds theories, and Bohmian mechanics. In discussing alternative formulations of quantum mechanics we pay particular attention to the explanatory role played by each theory's empirical ontology and associated metaphysical commitments and the conceptual trade-offs between theoretical options"--

Author: Gerald E Marsh
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811248249
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 131

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Book Description
Problems with the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics date back to attempts by Max Born, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, as well as many others in the 1920s to continue to employ the classical concept of a particle in the context of the quantum world. The experimental observations at the time and the assumption that the classical concept of a particle was to be preserved have led to an enormous literature on the foundations of quantum mechanics and a great deal of confusion then and now among non-physicists and students in any field that involves quantum theory. It is the historical approach to the teaching of quantum mechanics that is at the root of the problem.Spacetime is the arena within which quantum mechanical phenomena take place. For this reason, several Appendices are devoted to the nature of spacetime as well as to topics that can help us understand it such as vacuum fluctuations, the Unruh effect and Hawking radiation.Because of the success of quantum mechanical calculations, those who wish to understand the foundations of the theory are often given the apocryphal advice, 'just ignore the issue and calculate'. It is hoped that this book will help dispel some of the dismay, frustration, and confusion among those who refuse to take to heart this admonition.

Author: Tian Yu Cao
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521602723
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Multi-author volume on the history and philosophy of physics.

Author: Max Jammer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Quantum theory
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
"... no comprehensive scholarly study of the conceptual development of quantum mechanics has heretofore appeared. The popular or semiscientific publications available hardly skim the surface of the subject ... The publication ... seems therefore to fill an important lacuna in the literature on the history and philosophy of physics." -- Pref.

Author: Hendrik F. Hameka
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0471654795
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
A unique introductory text on quantum mechanics, from basic principles to historical perspective. * Includes description of the historical developments that led to the discovery of QM, often left out of other textbooks. * Emphasizes basic concepts that were essential in this discovery, placing them in context and making them more understandable to students. * Written in an easy-to-understand style and assuming no prior knowledge of the topic, this book provides a solid foundation for future study of quantum chemistry. * Includes problem sets for student use.