Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal

Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal PDF Author: J.T. Cushing
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401587159
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
We are often told that quantum phenomena demand radical revisions of our scientific world view and that no physical theory describing well defined objects, such as particles described by their positions, evolving in a well defined way, let alone deterministically, can account for such phenomena. The great majority of physicists continue to subscribe to this view, despite the fact that just such a deterministic theory, accounting for all of the phe nomena of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, was proposed by David Bohm more than four decades ago and has arguably been around almost since the inception of quantum mechanics itself. Our purpose in asking colleagues to write the essays for this volume has not been to produce a Festschrift in honor of David Bohm (worthy an undertaking as that would have been) or to gather together a collection of papers simply stating uncritically Bohm's views on quantum mechanics. The central theme around which the essays in this volume are arranged is David Bohm's version of quantum mechanics. It has by now become fairly standard practice to refer to his theory as Bohmian mechanics and to the larger conceptual framework within which this is located as the causal quantum theory program. While it is true that one can have reservations about the appropriateness of these specific labels, both do elicit distinc tive images characteristic of the key concepts of these approaches and such terminology does serve effectively to contrast this class of theories with more standard formulations of quantum theory.

Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal

Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal PDF Author: J.T. Cushing
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401587159
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

Get Book Here

Book Description
We are often told that quantum phenomena demand radical revisions of our scientific world view and that no physical theory describing well defined objects, such as particles described by their positions, evolving in a well defined way, let alone deterministically, can account for such phenomena. The great majority of physicists continue to subscribe to this view, despite the fact that just such a deterministic theory, accounting for all of the phe nomena of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, was proposed by David Bohm more than four decades ago and has arguably been around almost since the inception of quantum mechanics itself. Our purpose in asking colleagues to write the essays for this volume has not been to produce a Festschrift in honor of David Bohm (worthy an undertaking as that would have been) or to gather together a collection of papers simply stating uncritically Bohm's views on quantum mechanics. The central theme around which the essays in this volume are arranged is David Bohm's version of quantum mechanics. It has by now become fairly standard practice to refer to his theory as Bohmian mechanics and to the larger conceptual framework within which this is located as the causal quantum theory program. While it is true that one can have reservations about the appropriateness of these specific labels, both do elicit distinc tive images characteristic of the key concepts of these approaches and such terminology does serve effectively to contrast this class of theories with more standard formulations of quantum theory.

The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics

The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics PDF Author: Richard Healey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521408745
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
One of the most important books on quantum mechanics to appear in recent years offers a dramatically new interpretation to resolve puzzles and paradoxes associated with the measurement problem and the behavior of coupled systems.

Quantum Implications

Quantum Implications PDF Author: Basil Hiley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134914172
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
David Bohm is one of the foremost scientific thinkers of today and one of the most distinguished scientists of his generation. His challenge to the conventional understanding of quantum theory has led scientists to reexamine what it is they are going and his ideas have been an inspiration across a wide range of disciplines. Quantum Implications is a collection of original contributions by many of the world' s leading scholars and is dedicated to David Bohm, his work and the issues raised by his ideas. The contributors range across physics, philosophy, biology, art, psychology, and include some of the most distinguished scientists of the day. There is an excellent introduction by the editors, putting Bohm's work in context and setting right some of the misconceptions that have persisted about the work of David Bohm

Applied Bohmian Mechanics

Applied Bohmian Mechanics PDF Author: Xavier Oriols Pladevall
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000650561
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
Most textbooks explain quantum mechanics as a story where each step follows naturally from the one preceding it. However, the development of quantum mechanics was exactly the opposite. It was a zigzag route, full of personal disputes where scientists were forced to abandon well-established classical concepts and to explore new and imaginative pathways. Some of the explored routes were successful in providing new mathematical formalisms capable of predicting experiments at the atomic scale. However, even such successful routes were painful enough, so that relevant scientists like Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger decided not to support them. In this book, the authors demonstrate the huge practical utility of another of these routes in explaining quantum phenomena in many different research fields. Bohmian mechanics, the formulation of the quantum theory pioneered by Louis de Broglie and David Bohm, offers an alternative mathematical formulation of quantum phenomena in terms of quantum trajectories. Novel computational tools to explore physical scenarios that are currently computationally inaccessible, such as many-particle solutions of the Schrödinger equation, can be developed from it.

Do Wave Functions Jump?

Do Wave Functions Jump? PDF Author: Valia Allori
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030467775
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
This book is a tribute to the scientific legacy of GianCarlo Ghirardi, who was one of the most influential scientists in the field of modern foundations of quantum theory. In this appraisal, contributions from friends, collaborators and colleagues reflect the influence of his world of thoughts on theory, experiments and philosophy, while also offering prospects for future research in the foundations of quantum physics. The themes of the contributions revolve around the physical reality of the wave function and its notorious collapse, randomness, relativity and experiments.

Bohmian Mechanics

Bohmian Mechanics PDF Author: Detlef Dürr
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 354089344X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
Bohmian Mechanics was formulated in 1952 by David Bohm as a complete theory of quantum phenomena based on a particle picture. It was promoted some decades later by John S. Bell, who, intrigued by the manifestly nonlocal structure of the theory, was led to his famous Bell's inequalities. Experimental tests of the inequalities verified that nature is indeed nonlocal. Bohmian mechanics has since then prospered as the straightforward completion of quantum mechanics. This book provides a systematic introduction to Bohmian mechanics and to the mathematical abstractions of quantum mechanics, which range from the self-adjointness of the Schrödinger operator to scattering theory. It explains how the quantum formalism emerges when Boltzmann's ideas about statistical mechanics are applied to Bohmian mechanics. The book is self-contained, mathematically rigorous and an ideal starting point for a fundamental approach to quantum mechanics. It will appeal to students and newcomers to the field, as well as to established scientists seeking a clear exposition of the theory.

The Quantum Theory of Motion

The Quantum Theory of Motion PDF Author: Peter R. Holland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521485432
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
An explanation of how quantum processes may be visualised without ambiguity, in terms of a simple physical model.

Theory Construction and Selection in Modern Physics

Theory Construction and Selection in Modern Physics PDF Author: James T. Cushing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521381819
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Analyses what criteria should determine how scientific theories are selected and justified.

The Metaphysics of Quantum Theory

The Metaphysics of Quantum Theory PDF Author: Henry Krips
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780198242802
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The interplay between non-relativistic quantum theory and metaphysics has generated radically opposed interpretations for quantum theory: Niels Bohr's "orthodox" interpretation, and Einstein's "realist" approach. This debate in turn fostered the classical first-generation paradoxes of quantum theory: Schr�dinger's Cat and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradoxes. More recently, a range of new paradoxes has emerged from the work of J.S. Bell. This book outlines the contours of these debates and presents an interpretation of quantum theory which, while metaphysically realist, resolves most of the paradoxes.

The Wave Function

The Wave Function PDF Author: Alyssa Ney
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190240725
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This is a new volume of original essays on the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. The essays address questions such as: What fundamental metaphysics is best motivated by quantum mechanics? What is the ontological status of the wave function? Does quantum mechanics support the existence of any other fundamental entities, e.g. particles? What is the nature of the fundamental space (or space-time manifold) of quantum mechanics? What is the relationship between the fundamental ontology of quantum mechanics and ordinary, macroscopic objects like tables, chairs, and persons? This collection includes a comprehensive introduction with a history of quantum mechanics and the debate over its metaphysical interpretation focusing especially on the main realist alternatives.