Quantum superposition. Counterintuitive consequences of coherence, entanglement, and interference (Q838435)

According to the famous `Feynmanisms', there really is ``more than one mystery'' in quantum mechanics and that is why ``nobody understands'' it -- for more weirdness of the quantum mechanics' wonderland see, e.g., my review of the book by \textit{Y. Aharonov} and \textit{D. Rohrlich} [Quantum Paradoxes. Quantum Theory for the Perplexed. Physics Textbook. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH (2005; Zbl 1081.81001)]. It seems that there is definitely no other way to accept quantum mechanics with its bizarre weirdness that, for instance, allows the famous and poor Schrödinger's cat to be ``alive'' and ``dead'' at the same time! That ``alive-dead'' bizarre uncertainty happens thanks to the superposition principle that quantum mechanics postulates and that constitutes the ``heart of the matter'', quoting another Feynmanism. A rather broad range of topics in quantum mechanics is unified around this principle; these topics are covered, at a sufficiently deep level of fundamentality, in the book under review. His book consists of eight chapters or essays: all of them discuss the quantum principle of superposition in its manifold variations. Chapter 1 -- ``The Enigma of Quantum Interference'' -- is devoted to the most beautiful quantum phenomenon of two-slit electron interference that is actually ``the only mystery'' of quantum mechanics -- to quote another Feynmanism -- revealing the wave-like behavior of quantum particles and framing the concept of the wave-particle duality which was proposed by Louis de Broglie more than eighty years ago. In this chapter, the author also discusses the interplay of confined fields and electron interference that particularly gave rise to the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the so called ``no-slit'' interference of single photons, and finally, whether large macroscale objects, i.e., those which ordinarily obey Newton's laws of motion, like for example a Volkswagen Beetle, may manifest quantum interference of macroscopically distinguishable quantum states or, in their words, whether they can be put in some coherent linear quantum superposition? Chapters 2 and 3 are both about quantum correlations and entanglement, namely, fluctuations of light and particles, and interferometry of correlated particles. Chapter 2 embarks classically -- from the EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) paradox of nonlocality in quantum mechanics. ``In its barest essentials'', the EPR paradox concerns the existence of correlations of coordinates and momenta of two particles. It is also considered in Chapter 2 another type of multiparticle correlations which are of the spin nature. The rest of this chapter discusses such issues as measurable distinctions between quantum ensembles, the correlated emission from coherently excited atoms, coherence of thermal electrons and their comparison with thermal radiation. Chapter 3 deals with the examples of the interferometry of correlated charged particles which ``combine various features of the basic Young's two-slit experiment'', the Aharonov-Bohm effect with entangled electrons, the EPR paradox and the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss experiments. Chapter 4, ``Quantum Boosts and Quantum Beats'', continues with the superposition principle, though from somewhat different angle. The remarkableness of the difference that does definitely exist between quantum objects, such as atoms, molecules, and other bound-state quantum systems, on the one hand, and macroscopic classical objects, on the other, and that manifests in many ways is that the former ones feature quantization of energy. Or, in other words, the discreteness of their bound-state eigenenergies. Such a feature is enormously explored in quantum mechanics -- a trivial example is a laser excitation of two- and three-level atoms into a linear superposition of their discrete states -- and in this chapter particularly via discussing laser-generated quantum beats, nonlinear effects in a three-level atom, quantum beats in external fields, correlated beats from entangled states. The next chapter, entitled ``Sympathetic Vibrations: The Atom in Resonant Fields'' takes approximately the same theme: the atom with its many discrete eigenstates, but the atom that is embedded into resonant fields. This theme goes back to the mid-1930s, to the magnetic resonance experiments of Rabi that led him in deriving the fundamental Rabiâ's ``flopping formula'', to the concept of two-level atom, the concept which value would be too hard to overestimate, to the subsequent development of the atomic beam electric resonance Lamb-Retherford experiment, quantum interference in separated oscillating fields, etc. Chapter 6, ``Symmetries and Insights: The Circulating Electron in Electromagnetic Fields'', studies the quantum behavior of a two-dimensional rotator in the presence of electric and magnetic fields and its interaction with a vector potential. The next chapter develops the concept of the chirality (originated from the Greek word meaning ``hand''), chiral asymmetry, and discusses the quantum origin of handedness, quantum interference and parity conservation, optical activity of rotating matter, and finally, a so called ``electron activity'' in chiral media. The last chapter ``Condensates in the Cosmos: Quantum Stabilization of Degenerate Stars'' addresses the following problems: the collapse of a sufficiently massive relativistic degenerate star to a black hole, quantum properties of a self-gravitating condensate, fermion condensation in a degenerate star, and the quantum superposition principle that operates in systems of extreme densities and pressures. To conclude, the book ``Quantum Superposition. Counterintuitive Consequences of Coherence, Entanglement, and Interference'' is a thorough, consistent and well-written book on quantum mechanics that I also consider as the remarkable attempt of the author to put the fundamentally deep order onto the quantum mechanics' wonderland around the phenomena of quantum interference that are originated from the quantum principle of superposition in its different facets. Undoubtedly and definitely, this book must be recommended for the general audience of readers who are interested in the fundamental grounds of quantum mechanics.