Download or read book Sixty Two Years of Uncertainty written by Arthur I. Miller and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains proceedings from the International School of History of Science, Sixty-Two Years of Uncertainty: Historical Philosophical and Physical Inquiries into the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, convened at the Ettore Maj orana Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice, Sicily, 5-15 August 1989. In response to the high state of enth,usiasm from the sixty-one participants there were six to eight lectures each day, beginning at 9:00 AM and often ending at 7:00 PM. Vigorous discussions took place at every opportunity, even including the delightful excursions. The papers presented here are by the twelve invited lecturers (in some cases with coauthors) with a contribution from Philip Pearle. AU of us attending the conference express our appreciation to the exemplary staff of the Ettore Majorana Centre, and particularly to the Centre's Director, Professor Antonino Zichichi. for superb hospitality which made this conference a memorable intellectual and cultural experience. It is a pleasure to acknowledge financial support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Scientific Affairs Division.
Download or read book Quantum Reality Relativistic Causality and Closing the Epistemic Circle written by Wayne C. Myrvold and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-01-29 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 2006, a major international conference was held at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada, to celebrate the career and work of a remarkable man of letters. Abner Shimony, who is well known for his pioneering contributions to foundations of quantum mechanics, is a physicist as well as a philosopher, and is highly respected among the intellectuals of both communities. In line with Shimony’s conviction that philosophical investigation is not to be divorced from theoretical and empirical work in the sciences, the conference brought together leading theoretical physicists, experimentalists, as well as philosophers. This book collects twenty-three original essays stemming from the conference, on topics including history and methodology of science, Bell's theorem, probability theory, the uncertainty principle, stochastic modifications of quantum mechanics, and relativity theory. It ends with a transcript of a fascinating discussion between Lee Smolin and Shimony, ranging over the entire spectrum of Shimony's wide-ranging contributions to philosophy, science, and philosophy of science.
Download or read book Identity in Physics written by Steven French and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-06-22 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can quantum particles be regarded as individuals, just like books, tables and people? According to the 'received' view - articulated by several physicists in the immediate aftermath of the quantum revolution - quantum physics itself tells us they cannot: quantum particles, unlike their classical counterparts, must be regarded as 'non-individuals' in some sense. However, recent work has indicated that this is not the whole story and that the theory is also consistent with theposition that such particles can be taken to be individuals, albeit at a metaphysical price.Drawing on philosophical accounts of identity and individuality, as well as the histories of both classical and quantum physics, the authors explore these two alternative metaphysical packages. In particular, they argue that if quantum particles are regarded as individuals, then Leibniz's famous Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles is in fact violated. Recent discussions of this conclusion are analysed in detail and, again, the costs involved in saving the Principle are carefullyconsidered.Taking the alternative package, the authors deploy recent work in non-standard logic and set theory to indicate how we can make sense of the idea that objects can be non-individuals. The concluding chapter suggests how these results might then be extended to quantum field theory.Identity in Physics brings together a range of work in this area and further develops the authors' own contributions to the debate. Uniquely, as the title indicates, it situates this work in the appropriate formal, historical, and philosophical contexts.
Download or read book The Transition to Chaos written by Linda Reichl and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: resonances. Nonlinear resonances cause divergences in conventional perturbation expansions. This occurs because nonlinear resonances cause a topological change locally in the structure of the phase space and simple perturbation theory is not adequate to deal with such topological changes. In Sect. (2.3), we introduce the concept of integrability. A sys tem is integrable if it has as many global constants of the motion as degrees of freedom. The connection between global symmetries and global constants of motion was first proven for dynamical systems by Noether [Noether 1918]. We will give a simple derivation of Noether's theorem in Sect. (2.3). As we shall see in more detail in Chapter 5, are whole classes of systems which are now known to be inte there grable due to methods developed for soliton physics. In Sect. (2.3), we illustrate these methods for the simple three-body Toda lattice. It is usually impossible to tell if a system is integrable or not just by looking at the equations of motion. The Poincare surface of section provides a very useful numerical tool for testing for integrability and will be used throughout the remainder of this book. We will illustrate the use of the Poincare surface of section for classic model of Henon and Heiles [Henon and Heiles 1964].
Download or read book What is Quantum Information written by Olimpia Lombardi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining physics and philosophy, this is a uniquely interdisciplinary examination of quantum information science. Suitable as both a discussion of the conceptual and philosophical problems of this field and a comprehensive stand-alone introduction, this book will benefit both experienced and new researchers in quantum information and the philosophy of physics.
Download or read book The Age of Entanglement written by Louisa Gilder and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-11-10 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Age of Entanglement, Louisa Gilder brings to life one of the pivotal debates in twentieth century physics. In 1935, Albert Einstein famously showed that, according to the quantum theory, separated particles could act as if intimately connected–a phenomenon which he derisively described as “spooky action at a distance.” In that same year, Erwin Schrödinger christened this correlation “entanglement.” Yet its existence was mostly ignored until 1964, when the Irish physicist John Bell demonstrated just how strange this entanglement really was. Drawing on the papers, letters, and memoirs of the twentieth century’s greatest physicists, Gilder both humanizes and dramatizes the story by employing the scientists’ own words in imagined face-to-face dialogues. The result is a richly illuminating exploration of one of the most exciting concepts of quantum physics.
Download or read book Coherence and Quantum Optics VIII written by N.P. Bigelow and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 699 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Eighth Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics was held on the campus of the University of Rochester during the period June 13-16,2001. This volume contains the proceedings of the meeting. The meeting was preceded by an affiliated conference, the International Conference on Quantum Information, with some overlapping sessions on June 13. The proceedings of the affiliated conference will be published separately by the Optical Society of America. A few papers that were presented in common plenary sessions of the two conferences will be published in both proceedings volumes. More than 268 scientists from 28 countries participated in the week long discussions and presentations. This Conference differed from the previous seven in the CQO series in several ways, the most important of which was the absence of Leonard Mandel. Professor Mandel died a few months before the conference. A special memorial symposium in his honor was held at the end of the conference. The presentations from that symposium are included in this proceedings volume. An innovation, that we believe made an important contribution to the conference, was the inclusion of a series of invited lectures chaired by CQO founder Emil Wolf, reviewing the history of the fields of coherence and quantum optics before about 1970. These were given by three prominent participants in the development of the field, C. Cohen-Tannoudji, 1. F. Clauser, and R. I. Glauber.
Download or read book Ernest Nagel Philosophy of Science and the Fight for Clarity written by Matthias Neuber and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is dedicated to the life and work of Ernest Nagel (1901-1985) counted among the influential twentieth-century philosophers of science. Forgotten by the history of philosophy of science community in recent years, this volume introduces Nagel’s philosophy to a new generation of readers and highlights the merits and originality of his works. Best known in the history of philosophy as a major American representative of logical empiricism with some pragmatist and naturalist leanings, Nagel’s interests and activities went beyond these limits. His career was marked with a strong and determined intention of harmonizing the European scientific worldview of logical empiricism and American naturalism/pragmatism. His most famous and systematic treatise on, The Structure of Science, appeared just one year before Thomas Kuhn’s even more renowned, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. As a reflection of Nagel’s interdisciplinary work, the contributing authors’ articles are connected both historically and systematically. The volume will appeal to students mainly at the graduate level and academic scholars. Since the volume treats historical, philosophical, physical, social and general scientific questions, it will be of interest to historians and philosophers of science, epistemologists, social scientists, and anyone interested in the history of analytic philosophy and twentieth-century intellectual history.
Download or read book Early Quantum Electrodynamics written by Arthur I. Miller and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-10-12 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A panoramic view during 1927-1938 of the development of quantum electrodynamics.
Download or read book Language Quantum Music written by Maria Luisa Dalla Chiara and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid and comprehensive picture of the current state of research in all directions of logic and philosophy of science. The book presents a wide combination of papers containing relevant technical results in the foundations of science and papers devoted to conceptual analyses, deeply rooted in advanced present-day research. Audience: The volume is attractive both for specialists in foundational questions and scholars interested in general epistemology.
Download or read book Classical And Quantum Systems Foundations And Symmetries Proceedings Of The 2nd International Wigner Symposium written by Heinz-dietrich Doebner and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 1993-01-19 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wigner Symposium series is focussed on fundamental problems and new developments in physics and their experimental, theoretical and mathematical aspects. Particular emphasis is given to those topics which have developed from the work of Eugene P Wigner. The 2nd Wigner symposium is centered around notions of symmetry and geometry, the foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum optics and particle physics. Other fields like dynamical systems, neural networks and physics of information are also represented.This volume brings together 19 plenary lectures which survey latest developments and more than 130 contributed research reports.
Download or read book What Is Real written by Adam Becker and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science." --New York Times Book Review An Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review Longlisted for PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Longlisted for Goodreads Choice Award Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's solipsistic and poorly reasoned Copenhagen interpretation. Indeed, questioning it has long meant professional ruin, yet some daring physicists, such as John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett, persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. What Is Real? is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth. "An excellent, accessible account." --Wall Street Journal "Splendid. . . . Deeply detailed research, accompanied by charming anecdotes about the scientists." --Washington Post
Download or read book Discrete or Continuous written by Amit Hagar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of infinity plays a crucial role in our understanding of the universe, with the infinite spacetime continuum perhaps the best-known example - but is spacetime really continuous? Throughout the history of science, many have felt that the continuum model is an unphysical idealization, and that spacetime should be thought of as 'quantized' at the smallest of scales. Combining novel conceptual analysis, a fresh historical perspective, and concrete physical examples, this unique book tells the story of the search for the fundamental unit of length in modern physics, from early classical electrodynamics to current approaches to quantum gravity. Novel philosophical theses, with direct implications for theoretical physics research, are presented and defended in an accessible format that avoids complex mathematics. Blending history, philosophy, and theoretical physics, this refreshing outlook on the nature of spacetime sheds light on one of the most thought-provoking topics in modern physics.
Download or read book Experts in Uncertainty written by Roger M. Cooke and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1991-10-24 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an extensive survey and critical examination of the literature on the use of expert opinion in scientific inquiry and policy making. The elicitation, representation, and use of expert opinion is increasingly important for two reasons: advancing technology leads to more and more complex decision problems, and technologists are turning in greater numbers to "expert systems" and other similar artifacts of artificial intelligence. Cooke here considers how expert opinion is being used today, how an expert's uncertainty is or should be represented, how people do or should reason with uncertainty, how the quality and usefulness of expert opinion can be assessed, and how the views of several experts might be combined. He argues for the importance of developing practical models with a transparent mathematic foundation for the use of expert opinion in science, and presents three tested models, termed "classical," "Bayesian," and "psychological scaling." Detailed case studies illustrate how they can be applied to a diversity of real problems in engineering and planning.
Download or read book Encyclopaedia of Mathematics written by Michiel Hazewinkel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1993-01-31 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF MATHEMATICS aims to be a reference work for all parts of mathe matics. It is a translation with updates and editorial comments of the Soviet Mathematical Encyclopaedia published by 'Soviet Encyclopaedia Publishing House' in five volumes in 1977-1985. The annotated translation consists of ten volumes including a special index volume. There are three kinds of articles in this ENCYCLOPAEDIA. First of all there are survey-type articles dealing with the various main directions in mathematics (where a rather fme subdivi sion has been used). The main requirement for these articles has been that they should give a reasonably complete up-to-date account of the current state of affairs in these areas and that they should be maximally accessible. On the whole, these articles should be understandable to mathematics students in their first specialization years, to graduates from other mathematical areas and, depending on the specific subject, to specialists in other domains of science, en gineers and teachers of mathematics. These articles treat their material at a fairly general level and aim to give an idea of the kind of problems, techniques and concepts involved in the area in question. They also contain background and motivation rather than precise statements of precise theorems with detailed definitions and technical details on how to carry out proofs and constructions. The second kind of article, of medium length, contains more detailed concrete problems, results and techniques.
Download or read book Making Sense of Quantum Mechanics written by Jean Bricmont and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains, in simple terms, with a minimum of mathematics, why things can appear to be in two places at the same time, why correlations between simultaneous events occurring far apart cannot be explained by local mechanisms, and why, nevertheless, the quantum theory can be understood in terms of matter in motion. No need to worry, as some people do, whether a cat can be both dead and alive, whether the moon is there when nobody looks at it, or whether quantum systems need an observer to acquire definite properties. The author’s inimitable and even humorous style makes the book a pleasure to read while bringing a new clarity to many of the longstanding puzzles of quantum physics.
Download or read book Quantum Information Theory and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics written by Christopher G. Timpson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quantum Information Theory and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics is a conceptual analysis of one the most prominent and exciting new areas of physics, providing the first full-length philosophical treatment of quantum information theory and the questions it raises for our understanding of the quantum world. Beginning from a careful, revisionary, analysis of the concepts of information in the everyday and classical information-theory settings, Christopher G. Timpson argues for an ontologically deflationary account of the nature of quantum information. Against what many have supposed, quantum information can be clearly defined (it is not a primitive or vague notion) but it is not part of the material contents of the world. Timpson's account sheds light on the nature of nonlocality and information flow in the presence of entanglement and, in particular, dissolves puzzles surrounding the remarkable process of quantum teleportation. In addition it permits a clear view of what the ontological and methodological lessons provided by quantum information theory are; lessons which bear on the gripping question of what role a concept like information has to play in fundamental physics. Topics discussed include the slogan 'Information is Physical', the prospects for an informational immaterialism (the view that information rather than matter might fundamentally constitute the world), and the status of the Church-Turing hypothesis in light of quantum computation. With a clear grasp of the concept of information in hand, Timpson turns his attention to the pressing question of whether advances in quantum information theory pave the way for the resolution of the traditional conceptual problems of quantum mechanics: the deep problems which loom over measurement, nonlocality and the general nature of quantum ontology. He marks out a number of common pitfalls to be avoided before analysing in detail some concrete proposals, including the radical quantum Bayesian programme of Caves, Fuchs, and Schack. One central moral which is drawn is that, for all the interest that the quantum information-inspired approaches hold, no cheap resolutions to the traditional problems of quantum mechanics are to be had.
