Borromean Link in Quantum Theory Loops, Projective Invariants and the Realization of the Borromean Topological Link in Quantum Mechanics

Author(s):  
Albrecht von Müller ◽  
Elias Zafiris
Author(s):  
Craig Callender

Two of quantum mechanics’ more famed and spooky features have been invoked in defending the idea that quantum time is congenial to manifest time. Quantum non-locality is said by some to make a preferred foliation of spacetime necessary, and the collapse of the quantum wavefunction is held to vindicate temporal becoming. Although many philosophers and physicists seek relief from relativity’s assault on time in quantum theory, assistance is not so easily found.


Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin

Surfing the Quantum World bridges the gap between in-depth textbooks and typical popular science books on quantum ideas and phenomena. Among its significant features is the description of a host of mind-bending phenomena, such as a quantum object being in two places at once or a certain minus sign being the most consequential in the universe. Much of its first part is historical, starting with the ancient Greeks and their concepts of light, and ending with the creation of quantum mechanics. The second part begins by applying quantum mechanics and its probability nature to a pedagogical system, the one-dimensional box, an analog of which is a musical-instrument string. This is followed by a gentle introduction to the fundamental principles of quantum theory, whose core concepts and symbolic representations are the foundation for most of the subsequent chapters. For instance, it is shown how quantum theory explains the properties of the hydrogen atom and, via quantum spin and Pauli’s Exclusion Principle, how it accounts for the structure of the periodic table. White dwarf and neutron stars are seen to be gigantic quantum objects, while the maximum height of mountains is shown to have a quantum basis. Among the many other topics considered are a variety of interference phenomena, those that display the wave properties of particles like electrons and photons, and even of large molecules. The book concludes with a wide-ranging discussion of interpretational and philosophic issues, introduced in Chapters 14 by entanglement and 15 by Schrödinger’s cat.


Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin

The subject of Chapter 8 is the fundamental principles of quantum theory, the abstract extension of quantum mechanics. Two of the entities explored are kets and operators, with kets being representations of quantum states as well as a source of wave functions. The quantum box and quantum spin kets are specified, as are the quantum numbers that identify them. Operators are introduced and defined in part as the symbolic representations of observable quantities such as position, momentum and quantum spin. Eigenvalues and eigenkets are defined and discussed, with the former identified as the possible outcomes of a measurement. Bras, the counterpart to kets, are introduced as the means of forming probability amplitudes from kets. Products of operators are examined, as is their role underpinning Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. A variety of symbol manipulations are presented. How measurements are believed to collapse linear superpositions to one term of the sum is explored.


Author(s):  
Anthony Duncan ◽  
Michel Janssen

This is the first of two volumes on the genesis of quantum mechanics. It covers the key developments in the period 1900–1923 that provided the scaffold on which the arch of modern quantum mechanics was built in the period 1923–1927 (covered in the second volume). After tracing the early contributions by Planck, Einstein, and Bohr to the theories of black‐body radiation, specific heats, and spectroscopy, all showing the need for drastic changes to the physics of their day, the book tackles the efforts by Sommerfeld and others to provide a new theory, now known as the old quantum theory. After some striking initial successes (explaining the fine structure of hydrogen, X‐ray spectra, and the Stark effect), the old quantum theory ran into serious difficulties (failing to provide consistent models for helium and the Zeeman effect) and eventually gave way to matrix and wave mechanics. Constructing Quantum Mechanics is based on the best and latest scholarship in the field, to which the authors have made significant contributions themselves. It breaks new ground, especially in its treatment of the work of Sommerfeld and his associates, but also offers new perspectives on classic papers by Planck, Einstein, and Bohr. Throughout the book, the authors provide detailed reconstructions (at the level of an upper‐level undergraduate physics course) of the cental arguments and derivations of the physicists involved. All in all, Constructing Quantum Mechanics promises to take the place of older books as the standard source on the genesis of quantum mechanics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng-Hao Liu ◽  
Jie Zhou ◽  
Hui-Xian Meng ◽  
Mu Yang ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) paradox is an exquisite no-go theorem that shows the sharp contradiction between classical theory and quantum mechanics by ruling out any local realistic description of quantum theory. The investigation of GHZ-type paradoxes has been carried out in a variety of systems and led to fruitful discoveries. However, its range of applicability still remains unknown and a unified construction is yet to be discovered. In this work, we present a unified construction of GHZ-type paradoxes for graph states, and show that the existence of GHZ-type paradox is not limited to graph states. The results have important applications in quantum state verification for graph states, entanglement detection, and construction of GHZ-type steering paradox for mixed states. We perform a photonic experiment to test the GHZ-type paradoxes via measuring the success probability of their corresponding perfect Hardy-type paradoxes, and demonstrate the proposed applications. Our work deepens the comprehension of quantum paradoxes in quantum foundations, and may have applications in a broad spectrum of quantum information tasks.


The paper is a continuation of the last paper communicated to these 'Proceedings.' In that paper, which we shall refer to as the first paper, a more general expression for space curvature was obtained than that which occurs in Riemannian geometry, by a modification of the Riemannian covariant derivative and by the use of a fifth co-ordinate. By means of a particular substitution (∆ μσ σ = 1/ψ ∂ψ/∂x μ ) it was shown that this curvature takes the form of the second order equation of quantum mechanics. It is not a matrix equation, however but one which has the character of the wave equation as it occurred in the earlier form of the quantum theory. But it contains additional terms, all of which can be readily accounted for in physics, expect on which suggested an identification with energy of the spin.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Jordi Taltavull

One model, the resonance model, shaped scientific understanding of optical dispersion from the early 1870s to the 1920s, persisting across dramatic changes in physical conceptions of light and matter. I explore the ways in which the model was transmitted across these conceptual divides by analyzing the use of the model both in the development of theories of optical dispersion and in the interpretation of experimental data. Crucial to this analysis is the integration of the model into quantum theory because of the conceptual incompatibility between the model and quantum theory. What is more, a quantum understanding of optical dispersion set the grounds for the emergence of the first theories of quantum mechanics in 1925. A long-term history of the model’s transmission from the 1870s to the 1920s illuminates the ways in which the continuity of knowledge is possible across these discontinuities.


Author(s):  
Jean Vignon Hounguevou ◽  
Daniel Sabi Takou ◽  
Gabriel Y. H. Avossevou

In this paper, we study coherent states for a quantum Pauli model through supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSYQM) method. From the point of view of canonical quantization, the construction of these coherent states is based on the very important differential operators in SUSYQM call factorization operators. The connection between classical and quantum theory is given by using the geometric properties of these states.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 641-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremiah James ◽  
Christian Joas

As part of an attempt to establish a new understanding of the earliest applications of quantum mechanics and their importance to the overall development of quantum theory, this paper reexamines the role of research on molecular structure in the transition from the so-called old quantum theory to quantum mechanics and in the two years immediately following this shift (1926–1928). We argue on two bases against the common tendency to marginalize the contribution of these researches. First, because these applications addressed issues of longstanding interest to physicists, which they hoped, if not expected, a complete quantum theory to address, and for which they had already developed methods under the old quantum theory that would remain valid under the new mechanics. Second, because generating these applications was one of, if not the, principal means by which physicists clarified the unity, generality, and physical meaning of quantum mechanics, thereby reworking the theory into its now commonly recognized form, as well as developing an understanding of the kinds of predictions it generated and the ways in which these differed from those of the earlier classical mechanics. More broadly, we hope with this article to provide a new viewpoint on the importance of problem solving to scientific research and theory construction, one that might complement recent work on its role in science pedagogy.


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