Modern Physics – The Quantum Physics of Atoms, Solids and Nuclei (3rd edn)

1981 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-82
Author(s):  
C J Isham
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Modern Physics

The Changing Universe

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-71
Author(s):  
Demetris Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Final State ◽  
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Dimensional Space Time ◽  
Heisenberg Uncertainty ◽  
Eternal Law ◽  
Universal Law

Everything is constantly changing, and nothing is ever the same, Heraclitus proposed, and in accordance with Logos, the intelligible eternal law of nature. Thus, everything is in a state of becoming (in the process of forming into something) instead of being (reaching or already being in an established final state beyond which no more change will take place). This means that things, permanent things, no longer exist—for they contradict his theory of constant change—only events and processes exist. His doctrine has found strong confirmation in modern physics, for, according to it, absolute restfulness and inactivity are impossibilities. Points in Einstein’s four-dimensional space-time continuum are events, and so are the quarks and leptons—for, unlike in deterministic Newtonian physics, matter in probabilistic quantum physics lost its permanence and identity because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Moreover, all happenings, evidence suggests, are consistent with a single universal law.

Theorizing about Performance: Why Now?

1990 ◽  
Vol 6 (23) ◽  
pp. 231-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Crohn Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
British Journal ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Performance Theory ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Hierarchical Relations ◽  
Theatrical Performance ◽  
Northwestern University ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
The University

This article continues NTQ's recent exploration of the interaction between the study of theatrical performance and other disciplines – in this case, relating in particular to ‘Quantum Physics and the Language of Theatre’, published in NTQ 18 (1989). Schmitt argues that there is a correspondence between the contemporary interest in performance theory and the view of nature provided by modern physics. The analysis of nature in terms of events rather than objects, the perception of reality as a network of non-teleological, non-hierarchical relations, the interest in the interplay between nature and our perception of it: all correlate, she suggests, with an interest in theory of performance. Natalie Crohn Schmitt is Professor of Theater at the University of lllinois at Chicago. She published ‘Stanislavski, Creativity, and the Unconscious’ in NTQ 8 (1986), and has also published in Theatre Notebook, The British Journal of Aesthetics, Theatre Journal, Comparative Drama, Theatre Survey, and elsewhere. Her full-length study. Actors and Onlookers: Theater and Twentieth-Century Scientific Views of Nature has just appeared, from Northwestern University Press.

scholarly journals Consistent description of microscopic phenomena by macroscopic observers in quantum theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey Kryukov
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Newtonian Physics ◽  
Measurement Results ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Measured System ◽  
Physical Phenomena

Abstract Quantum mechanics is the foundation of modern physics that is thought to be applicable to all physical phenomena, at least in principle. However, when applied to macroscopic bodies, the theory seems to be inconsistent. Wigner's friend and related thought experiments demonstrate that accounts by different observers described by the rules of quantum mechanics may be contradictory. Although still highly debated, such experiments seem to demonstrate an incompatibility of quantum mechanics with the usual rules of logic. Alternatively, one of the hidden assumptions in the thought experiments must be wrong. For instance, the argument is invalidated if macroscopic observers cannot be considered as physical systems described by the rules of quantum theory. Here we prove that there is a way to apply the rules of quantum mechanics to macroscopic observers while avoiding contradictory accounts of measurement by the observers. The key to this is the random noise that is ever present in nature and that represents the uncontrollable part of interaction between measured system and the surroundings in classical and quantum physics. By exploring the effect of the noise on microscopic and macroscopic bodies, we demonstrate that accounts of Wigner, the friend and other agents all become consistent. Our result suggests that the existing attempts to modify the Schrodinger equation to account for measurement results may be misguided. More broadly, the proposed mechanism for modeling measurements underlies the phenomenon of decoherence and is shown to be sufficient to explain the transition to Newtonian physics in quantum theory.

scholarly journals Dirac Redux - Dirac’s Equation in Physical Spacetime without Internal Degrees of Freedom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sokol Andoni
Keyword(s):  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Spacetime Algebra ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Present Formalism ◽  
Covariant Equation ◽  
Physical Spacetime ◽  
Internal Degrees Of Freedom

Abstract The Dirac equation (DE) is one of the cornerstones of quantum physics. We prove in the present contribution that the notion of internal degrees of freedom of the electron represented by Dirac’s matrices is superfluous. One can write down a coordinate-free manifestly covariant equation by direct quantization of the energy-momentum 4-vector P with modulus m: P(psi) = m(psi) (no slash!), the spinor (psi) taking care of the different vector grades at the two sides of the equation. Electron spin and all the standard DE properties emerge from this equation. In coordinate representation, the four orthonormal time-space frame vectors x0, x1, x2, x3 formally substitute Dirac’s gamma-matrices, the two sets obeying to the same Clifford algebra. The present formalism expands Hestenes’ spacetime algebra (STA) by adding a reflector vector x5, which in 3D transforms a parity-odd vector x into a parity-even vector x5x and vice versa. STA augmented by the reflector will be referred to as STAR, which operates on a real vector space of same dimension as the equivalent real dimension of Dirac’s complex 4 x 4 matrices. There are no matrices in STAR and the complex character springs from the signature and dimension of spacetime-reflection. This appears most clearly by first showing that STAR comprises two isomorphic subspaces, one for the generators of polar vectors and boosts and the other for the generators of axial vectors and rotors, comprising Pauli spin vectors. These then help to discuss the symmetries, probability current, transformation properties and nonrelativistic approximation of STAR DE. By proving that Dirac’s matrices are redundant, because all the information from them is contained in spacetime-reflection, it becomes relevant to reexamine those areas of modern physics that take Dirac matrices and their generalizations as fundamental.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jed Z. Buchwald ◽  
Robert Fox
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Revolution ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Special Theory ◽  
Photoelectric Effect ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century

This Handbook looks at the history of physics since the seventeenth century. It is comprised of four sections, the first of which discusses the place of reason, mathematics, and experiment in the age of the scientific revolution. The first section also covers the contributions of Galileo, René Descartes, and Isaac Newton. The second section deals with the ‘long’ eighteenth century — a period that is often regarded as synonymous with the ‘age of Newton’. The third section encompasses the subcategories of heat, light, electricity, sound, and magnetism, while the fourth and final section takes us into the age of ‘modern physics’, highlighted by landmark achievements such as the discovery of the photoelectric effect in 1887, Max Planck’s work on the quanta of radiation, Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity of 1905, and the elaboration of the various aspects of what became known as quantum physics between 1900 and 1930.

Surrealism and Quantum Mechanics: Dispersal and Fragmentation in Art, Life, and Physics

2004 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
World War ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Abstract Language ◽  
Discursive Field

ArgumentBy the time the members of the Surrealist group had fled Paris and dispersed at the beginning of World War II, they had taken account of quantum mechanics and were seeking various ways of assimilating its findings into Surrealist theory. This can be detected in writings issuing from the Surrealist milieu as early as the late 1920s. However, while writers and thinkers outside the field of physics swiftly expressed their awareness of the epistemological crisis brought about by quantum mechanics, Surrealism's artists began to conscript the concepts and imagery of modern physics into their work only at the end of the 1930s. Focusing on two “second generation” Surrealist painters, the Chilean Roberto Matta and the Viennese Wolfgang Paalen, this article discusses the peculiar difficulties faced by artists in finding a language for the “new reality” revealed by the physicists, and argues that the relocation of Surrealism in a discursive field which includes quantum physics discloses the rationale behind its artists' shift to a semi-abstract language.

Fields and Particles: An Introduction to Electromagnetic Wave Phenomena and Quantum Physics and Physics Vol. 3: Modern Physics

Physics Today ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 50-51
Author(s):  
F. Bitter ◽  
H. A. Medicus ◽  
A. L. Reimann ◽  
Gino Segrè
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Wave ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Wave Phenomena

scholarly journals Ecology, physics, process philosophies, Buddhism, Daoism, and language: A case study of William Golding’s The Inheritors and Pincher Martin

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Goatly
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
David Bohm ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Grammatical Analysis ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Gaia Theory ◽  
Ecological Worldview

Abstract Much has been written about the ecological perspectives of Buddhism and Daoism, as examples of philosophies which emphasize process, impermanence, interconnectedness, and compassion for nature. And the interconnectedness of the various elements of the biosphere and the Earth’s crust is the basis of ecological Gaia theory. Some physicists and process philosophers have drawn attention to the inadequacies of European languages to represent the world of quantum reality, radical undifferentiated wholeness and interconnectedness, and the dynamism and uncontrollability of the material world. Notable among these were physicists David Bohm and David Peat, who looked to Blackfoot, an Algonquin language of North America, for a better representation of the natural world as interacting processes. This article explores some of the commonalities between Buddhism/Daoism, process philosophies, modern physics and ecological theory. It then addresses the question of the affordances different languages and grammars provide for a deep ecological representation in tune with quantum physics and Buddhism/Daoism. The climax of the article starts with the work of Michael Halliday on the local grammar of William Golding’s The Inheritors (Golding, William. 1961 [1955]. The Inheritors. London: Faber), and performs a similar grammatical analysis of two passages from Golding’s later work Pincher Martin (Golding, William. 1956. Pincher Martin. London: Faber). It concludes that the Neanderthal mind style and life style in The Inheritors and the world of the drowning Pincher Martin are represented in a grammatical style more appropriate for a Buddhist/Daoist/quantum physics/deep ecological worldview of human interaction with the natural world.

Distribution of Various Types of Educational Information in the School Physics Course

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
Robert Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Physics Teaching ◽  
Training Material ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Volume Unit ◽  
Physics Course ◽  
Information Amount ◽  
Integral Complexity ◽  
Educational Information

The modern physics course appeared as a result of a long-term evolution of the physics teaching methods. The model of the school course is textbooks; they reflect the fundamental laws of cognition of the surrounding world and methodological ideas, therefore the problem of studying the distribution of various types of training material in the physics course is relevant. The article uses previously obtained estimates of the differential complexity of various topics of the school physics course. This takes into account: 1) the differential complexity of the text, depending on the information amount in the volume unit, on which the difficulty of understanding it by the student depends; 2) the integral complexity (general informativeness), which characterizes the total amount of information in the text; the amount of time and effort required to study training material depends on it; 3) the share of educational information related to mechanics, molecular physics and thermodynamics, electrodynamics, optics and quantum physics. It also took into account the fact that physical and mathematical complexity are independent characteristics of the physics textbooks. The carried out content analysis of standard school textbooks made it possible to determine the integral complexity of each topic and build a graph with an accumulation that shows the dynamics of changes in the contribution of each physics section to the total information amount over time. In particular, it follows from the graph that: 1) the speed of transmission of educational information in the 10-11th grades is 5 times higher than in the 7-9th grades; 2) the amount of information on physics reported to a student by the end of the 11th grade is 4,4 times more than the amount of information reported in the 7th, 8th and 9th grades.

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