Visualizability and Intelligibility

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk W. de Regt
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Niels Bohr ◽  
Wave Mechanics ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Matrix Mechanics ◽  
Contextual Theory ◽  
Erwin Schrödinger ◽  
Gradual Loss ◽  
Depth Study

This chapter investigates the relation between visualizability and intelligibility, by means of an in-depth study of the transition from classical physics to quantum physics in the first decades of the twentieth century. In this development, the issue of visualizability played a central role. After a brief discussion of the visualizability of classical physics, it examines the gradual loss of visualizability in quantum theory, focusing on the work of quantum physicists Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger. The chapter presents a detailed analysis of the role of visualizability (Anschaulichkeit) in the competition between Schrödinger’s wave mechanics and Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics, and in the discovery of electron spin. The contextual theory of understanding asserts that visualizability is one out of many possible tools for understanding, albeit one that has proved to be very effective in science. This conclusion is supported by an analysis of the role of visualization in postwar quantum physics, especially via Feynman diagrams.

On the Quantum Footpath

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Nolte
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Electrodynamics ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Niels Bohr ◽  
Quantum Trajectories ◽  
Wave Mechanics ◽  
Least Action ◽  
Matrix Mechanics ◽  
Principle Of Least Action ◽  
Wave Particle Duality ◽  
Richard Feynman

This chapter shows how the concept of the trajectory of a quantum particle almost vanished in the battle between Werner Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics and Erwin Schrödinger’s wave mechanics. It took Niels Bohr and his complementarity principle of wave-particle duality to cede back some reality to quantum trajectories. However, Schrödinger and Einstein were not convinced and conceived of quantum entanglement to refute the growing acceptance of the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics. Schrödinger’s cat was meant to be an absurdity, but ironically it has become a central paradigm of practical quantum computers. Quantum trajectories took on new meaning when Richard Feynman constructed quantum theory based on the principle of least action, inventing his famous Feynman Diagrams to help explain quantum electrodynamics.

Quantum Physics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suman Seth
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Atomic Spectroscopy ◽  
Irreversible Processes ◽  
Wave Mechanics ◽  
Matrix Mechanics ◽  
Max Born ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
History Of Quantum Physics

This article discusses the history of quantum physics, beginning with an analysis of the process through which a community of quantum theorists and experimentalists came into being. In particular, it traces the roots and fruits of Max Planck’s papers in irreversible processes in nature. It proceeds by exploring the origin and subsequent development of Niels Bohr’s so-called ‘planetary model’ of the atom, focusing on the extension of the model by Arnold Sommerfeld and members of his school as well to Bohr’s use of his principles of correspondence and adiabatic invariance. It also considers the post-war years, as the problems of atomic spectroscopy sparked the development of new methodological approaches to quantum theory. Finally, it offers a history of the two distinct new forms of quantum mechanics put forward in the mid-1920s: Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan’s matrix mechanics, and Erwin Schrödinger’s wave mechanics.

scholarly journals God, Mind, Evolution, and Quantum Reality Based on Process Metaphysics

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-71
Author(s):  
Mark Germine
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Unsolved Problem ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Process Metaphysics ◽  
Quantum Reality ◽  
External Relations ◽  
Non Locality

The genesis of actuality from potentiality, with the apparent role of the observer, is an important and unsolved problem which essentially defines science‟s view of reality in a variety of contexts. Observation then becomes lawful and not emergent. Panentheism is needed to provide a mechanism for order outside of blind efficient causality, in a Universal final causality. Classical physics is over a hundred years out of date, yet scientific models remain mechanistic and deterministic. Deism, a remnant of classical cosmology, is examined and rejected by scientists and philosophers, and certain pre-scientific notions of religion are scorned, putting the matter to rest. Quantum physics, in its basic form, is necessary if there is to be any philosophical or scientific notion of free will and self-determination, as potentiality. Quantum metaphysics is also needed because classical physics is fundamentally limited to localized external relations, lacking the internality and non-locality of relatedness. God, or the equivalent, is necessary to complete the equation. Physicists now tell us that reality is fundamentally mental and is created by observation. Observation is here taken to mean experience, with experience going all the way down to the lowest order of a Universal mentality.

Irving Langmuir, 1881-1957

1958 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 167-184 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Alpha Particle ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
American Association ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Single Event ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Physico Chemical ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Further Development

In the winter of 1942, as retiring President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Irving Langmuir addressed the membership on the topic ‘Science, commonsense and decency’. He was concerned with the interaction of scientific progress and human endeavour and took the opportunity to reveal his own ideas concerning problems of human behaviour and morality. He recognized two categories of phenomena in modern physics which he termed convergent and divergent phenomena. He included among the convergent phenomena all those fluctuating details of individual atoms and molecules which average out giving a result that converges to a definite state. Many of the phenomena of classical physics belong in the convergent category. To a second class he assigned the divergent phenomena where, from a small beginning, increasingly large effects are produced. Quantum physics includes many such phenomena. Langmuir chose as an illustrative example the Wilson cloud-chamber experiment. Here, a single swift particle, say an alpha particle, whose release from its parent is unpredictable as to time and direction, subject only to the laws of chance, in its passage through the chamber leaves a trail of ions. If the chamber atmosphere be super-saturated, droplets are formed; illumination renders these visible and photography can record the multiple divergent consequences from a single event, the release of the swift particle. In further development of this theme of divergence Langmuir went on to state that ‘when we consider the nature of human affairs it is to me obvious that divergent phenomena frequently play a role of vital importance’. Langmuir’s birth on 31 January 1881 comes within the category of his divergent phenomena, from which beginning profound effects on the development of physico-chemical science finally resulted.

scholarly journals La estética cuántica:Juan Larrea, Niels Bohr y el tercero incluido

Çédille ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 203-233
Author(s):  
Candelas Gala ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Niels Bohr ◽  
French Language ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Principle Of Complementarity

This essay explores notable coincidences in Juan Larrea’s poetics with some cen-tral points in quantum physics, such as, the correlation between the search in his inner self and the investigations on the atom taking place during the first decades of the twentieth-century, between leaving aside the monolithic subjectivity in favor of a universal and collective Spirit and the «entangled» observer in the cosmic web, object of his/her obser-vation, in modern physics, and, particularly, the role of the French language in dealing with the conflict with Western dualisms and their possible resolution in Bohr’s principle of complementarity, a parallel of Basarab Nicolescu’s theory of the hidden third.

Creating Quantum Mechanics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Wave Equation ◽  
Wave Functions ◽  
Werner Heisenberg ◽  
Wolfgang Pauli ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Matrix Mechanics ◽  
Erwin Schrödinger ◽  
Specific Formula ◽  
The Creation

In addition to recounting some contemporary scientific history, Chapter 6 describes the hypothesis that matter, like light, can display wavelike properties, and the creation of the various formulations of quantum mechanics. That matter could have a wavelength was proposed in 1924 by Louis de Broglie, who presented a specific formula for calculating it, one that was verified experimentally in 1927. However, de Broglie’s hypothesis was overshadowed by the creation of three versions of quantum mechanics in 1925/26. The first, denoted matrix mechanics, was proposed by Werner Heisenberg. It was quickly and successfully applied by Wolfgang Pauli to the hydrogen atom. Paul Dirac introduced the next version, which was followed by that of Erwin Schrödinger via a wave equation whose solutions, denoted wave functions, were soon interpreted byMax Born to be related to the probability that certain outcomes or events will occur: classical-physics determinism was thereby removed from quantum mechanics.

The Essence of Quantum Computing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajendra K. Bera
Keyword(s):  
Hilbert Space ◽  
Quantum Computing ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Quantum Algorithms ◽  
Quantum Computers ◽  
Turing Machines ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Core Set ◽  
The World ◽  
Subordinate Role

It now appears that quantum computers are poised to enter the world of computing and establish its dominance, especially, in the cloud. Turing machines (classical computers) tied to the laws of classical physics will not vanish from our lives but begin to play a subordinate role to quantum computers tied to the enigmatic laws of quantum physics that deal with such non-intuitive phenomena as superposition, entanglement, collapse of the wave function, and teleportation, all occurring in Hilbert space. The aim of this 3-part paper is to introduce the readers to a core set of quantum algorithms based on the postulates of quantum mechanics, and reveal the amazing power of quantum computing.

It Keeps Me Seeking

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Briggs ◽  
Hans Halvorson ◽  
Andrew Steane
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Good Argument ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Relationship Of

Two scientists and a philosopher aim to show how science both enriches and is enriched by Christian faith. The text is written around four themes: 1. God is a being to be known, not a hypothesis to be tested; 2. We set a high bar on what constitutes good argument; 3. Uncertainty is OK; 4. We are allowed to open up the window that the natural world offers us. This is not a work of apologetics. Rather, the text takes an overview of various themes and gives reactions and responses, intended to place science correctly as a valued component of the life of faith. The difference between philosophical analysis and theological reflection is expounded. Questions of human identity are addressed from philosophy, computer science, quantum physics, evolutionary biology and theological reflection. Contemporary physics reveals the subtle and open nature of physical existence, and offers lessons in how to learn and how to live with incomplete knowledge. The nature and role of miracles is considered. The ‘argument from design’ is critiqued, especially arguments from fine-tuning. Logical derivation from impersonal facts is not an appropriate route to a relationship of mutual trust. Mainstream evolutionary biology is assessed to be a valuable component of our understanding, but no exploratory process can itself fully account for the nature of what is discovered. To engage deeply in science is to seek truth and to seek a better future; it is also an activity of appreciation, as one may appreciate a work of art.

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