The Rosetta Stone and Quantum Waves

2019 ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Nicholas Mee
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Rosetta Stone ◽  
Quantum Waves

It was discovered in the early decades of the twentieth century that light and matter exhibit both wave-like and particle-like behaviour and this led to the development of quantum theory. Thomas Young demonstrated the wave-like behaviour of light 200 years ago. Thomas Young had wide-ranging interests and played an important role in deciphering hieroglyphic inscriptions. In 1905 Einstein showed that light also behaves like a stream of particles. Louis De Broglie suggested that particles such as electrons might also show wave-like behaviour and his prediction was soon verified in the laboratory. This led to the development of quantum mechanics, as well as important technological applications, such as the electron microscope.

Einstein Versus Bohr on Reality

2021 ◽  
pp. 161-177
Author(s):  
Steven L. Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Wave Equation ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Uncertainty Principle ◽  
Quantum Vacuum ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Matter Energy

Ontology is integral to the two most fundamental scientific theories of the twentieth century: quantum theory and the special and general theories of relativity. Issues that drove the development of quantum theory include the reality of quanta, the simultaneous wave- and particle-like nature of matter and energy, determinism, probability and randomness, Schrodinger’s wave equation, and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. So did the reality of the predictions about space, time, matter, energy, and the universe itself that were deduced from the special and general theories of relativity. Dirac’s prediction of antimatter based solely on the mathematics of his theory of the electron and Pauli’s prediction of the neutrino based on his belief in quantum mechanics are cases in point. Ontological interpretations of the uncertainty principle, of quantum vacuum energy fields, and of Schrodinger’s probability waves in the form of multiple universe theories further illustrate this point.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Quantum Revolution

By surveying aspects of the book, the Introduction invites readers to prepare their mental surfboards for surfing the challenging waves of the quantum world. Max Planck’s weird use of the quantum concept is identified as the origin of the quantum revolution of the first part of the twentieth century. It is pointed out that mental muscles will be stretched by a variety of mind-bending quantum concepts and phenomena, both microscopic and macroscopic. These include the analogy between the behavior of a particle in a so-called quantum box and the vibrations of a musical string, and the role of quantum mechanics in determining the maximum heights of mountains. It is noted that the fundamental principles of quantum theory are the underpinning for explaining the mystery with two-slit experiments, while the book’s final chapters explore two features that have been referred to in non-scientific contexts: entanglement and Schrödinger’s cat.

Coda: The Rosetta Stone

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Schotter
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Digital Code ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Rosetta Stone ◽  
The World ◽  
Western Imagination ◽  
Origin Point

Hieroglyphs have persisted for so long in the Western imagination because of the malleability of their metaphorical meanings. Emblems of readability and unreadability, universality and difference, writing and film, writing and digital media, hieroglyphs serve to encompass many of the central tensions in understandings of race, nation, language and media in the twentieth century. For Pound and Lindsay, they served as inspirations for a more direct and universal form of writing; for Woolf, as a way of treating the new medium of film and our perceptions of the world as a kind of language. For Conrad and Welles, they embodied the hybridity of writing or the images of film; for al-Hakim and Mahfouz, the persistence of links between ancient Pharaonic civilisation and a newly independent Egypt. For Joyce, hieroglyphs symbolised the origin point for the world’s cultures and nations; for Pynchon, the connection between digital code and the novel. In their modernist interpretations and applications, hieroglyphs bring together writing and new media technologies, language and the material world, and all the nations and languages of the globe....

Quantum Becoming?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Callender
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Quantum Time ◽  
Quantum Non Locality ◽  
Time Quantum ◽  
Temporal Becoming ◽  
Non Locality ◽  
Quantum Wavefunction

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.

Surfing the Quantum World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Quantum Spin ◽  
Exclusion Principle ◽  
Maximum Height ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

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.

Quantum Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Uncertainty Principle ◽  
Quantum Spin ◽  
Quantum States ◽  
Wave Functions ◽  
Symbolic Representations ◽  
Quantum Numbers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

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.

Constructing Quantum Mechanics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Duncan ◽  
Michel Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Stark Effect ◽  
Zeeman Effect ◽  
Black Body ◽  
Black Body Radiation ◽  
Wave Mechanics ◽  
Specific Heats ◽  
Old Quantum Theory ◽  
Upper Level

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.

scholarly journals Experimental test of the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger-type paradoxes in and beyond graph states

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng-Hao Liu ◽  
Jie Zhou ◽  
Hui-Xian Meng ◽  
Mu Yang ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Success Probability ◽  
Quantum Foundations ◽  
Mixed States ◽  
Graph States ◽  
Hardy Type ◽  
Realistic Description ◽  
Entanglement Detection ◽  
Quantum Paradoxes

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.

scholarly journals A relativistic basis of the quantum theory.—II

1934 ◽  
Vol 145 (855) ◽  
pp. 645-656 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Wave Equation ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
General Expression ◽  
Matrix Equation ◽  
Covariant Derivative ◽  
Riemannian Geometry ◽  
Order Equation ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Space Curvature

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.

Transmitting Knowledge across Divides

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Jordi Taltavull
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Resonance Model ◽  
Optical Dispersion ◽  
History Of

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.

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