Quantum mechanics at the crossroads. New perspectives from history, philosophy and physics. (Q859730): Difference between revisions

This is a very interesting collection of 12 essays written by competent physicists, philosophers and historians. The introduction, ``Contexts and Challenges for Quantum Mechanics'' (pp. 1--20), is written by James Evans. He divides the development of quantum mechanics into four periods: researching (1900--1922), breakthrough (1923--1928), accomodation (1929--1963), new baroque (1964 up to now). He explains main points contrasting the classical physics as they have been discovered and refers to essays in this collection where the topics are contemplated in greater detail. J. L. Heilbron, ``Max Planck's compromises on the way to and from the Absolute'' (pp. 21--37) is not merely a description of the development and scientific career of Max Planck but considers impressively his personal background on the way from \textit{Kaiserreich} through \textit{Weimarer Republik}, \textit{Nazi-Deutschland} to \textit{Nachkriegsdeutschland}. The essay by Bruce A. Wheaton is entitled `Atomic Waves in Private Praxis'' (pp. 39--71) and devoted to the work of Louis de Broglie. The aristocratic family and the relation to his 17 years elder brother Maurice de Brroglie, who was experimental physicist working out technologies in his private laboratory, as well as his career are broadly described. The author concludes: ``Like viewing a binary star, popular history has illuminated one brother and eclipsed the other in his retrospective view.'' The support from his elder Brother is also mentioned in the contribution by Georges Lochak entitled ``A Complementary Opposition: Louis de Broglie and Werner Heisenberh'' (pp. 72--80). Here the complementary philosophical positions of Heisenberg, based on statistics and uncertainty leading him to the idea of matrix mechanics, and of de Broglie, based on causality and continuous development leading him to the idea of wave mechanics, are contrasted. The discussion of the opposite opinions at the Solvay congress from 1927 and the fact, that de Broglie gave up the pilot wave interpretation, later on continued by David Bohm, are mentioned. The completion of L. de Broglie's idea by E. Schrödinger is the subject of the essay thereafter. -- An essay about M. Born and P. Jordan and the completion of matrix mechanics is lacking. -- ``Schrödinger Against Particles and Quantum Jumps'' (pp. 81--106) by Michel Pitbol is an outstanding epistemological analysis of Schrödinger's point of view. In the first section the roots of Schrödinger's thinking are traced back to I. Kant and his view is confronted with the views of W. Heisenberg, H. Margenau, C. G. Darwin. N. F. Mott and others. This analysis is continued in the second part which also contains the controversy in between Schrödinger at one side and N. Bohr, W. Heisenberg at the other. This essay is a source of arguments useful to discern between classical from quantum concepts of a particle. In his essay, ``Aspects of Nonlocality in Quantum Mechanics'' (pp. 107--123), Abner Shimony gives a very clear and straight analysis of the superposition principle and Schrödinger's concept of entanglement, maximal entanglement and the EPR argument against the completeness of quantum theory being based on locality, Bell's theorem, the experimental tests and the consequence of non-locality the nature of which he explains explicitly. He asks for a deeper physics which may probably be based on A. Connes non-ccommutative geometry. ``Decoherence and the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics'' (pp. 125--148) is written by Maximilian Schlosshauer and Arthur Fine. After explaining the meaning of decoherence in case of bipartite systems and its fundamental importance for quantum measurements, the authors consider the problem that in case of maximal entanglement there is no preferred basis by which the decoherence can be determined and bow this preference corresponds with equilibrium states of a macroscopic measuring device. Here the closed universe objection, the universe as a whole is a closed system hence free from decoherence and the partition into subsystems is artificial, is mentioned. The authors give an overview on the current different interpretations from Everett-Wheeler througt Bohmian mechanics as attempts to solve this problem and conclude the chapter by an outlook. The next essay, ``What are Consistent Histories'' (pp. 149--157), by Alan Thonsdike, explains the basic idea and illustrates how consistent histories work by simple examples. ``Bose-Einstein Condensation: Identity Crisis for Indistinguishable Particles'' (pp. 159--182) is the title of the essay by Wolfgang Ketterle. He describes in a very animation manner the physics, history and experimental procedures for preparing and observing Bose-Einstein condensation. He points out the differences between the classical Maxwell-Boltzmann and the quantal Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions as well as the special case of Planck's photon distribution. The explanations are well supported by many instructive figures. The essay by Howard Carmichael, ``Quantum Fluctuations of Light: A Modern Perspective of Wave Particle Dualism'' (pp. 183--212), is concerned with modern views and experimental results in cavity quantum electrodynamics and quantum optics of the title problem. A very clear and instructive article is ``Quantum Entanglement as a Recurce for communication'' (pp. 213--230) by William K.Wootters. After introducing and contemplating entanglement od bipartite spin systems be describes dense coding and teleportation A further application in a quantum game, called `pooling data', which uses the tripartite GHZ state and a comparison of the three schemes is given. Quantum optical schemes for experimental realizations conclusde the article. The contribution of Roland Omnès, ``The Three Cases of Doctor von Neumann'' (pp. 231--241) involves some critics on Johann v. Neumann concerning the problem whether of two valued observables can be considered to represent predicates of a quantum system and, tightly connected, the problem of quantum measurements. Clearly. these problems are well known and broadly discussed in the physical and philosophical literature. Are `consistent histories' the ultimate solution?