)
Another reviewer criticized this book as 'wordy' -- I call those clear and complete explanations. The open layout, short paragraphs and sections, as well as the explanations for most every step of the math make this book easy to pick up and read.
If you want 'terse' then buy something else, or just skip the explainations whenever you don't need them.
Morrison even includes much of the background math and physics instead of just assuming that you know this from previous classes or studies. Practically every chapter offers suggestions for deeper or alternative understanding of the topics covered. These are thoughtul reviews and descriptions, not mere bibliographical afterthoughts.
This is a fantastic book for self-study (or to accompany a confusing class or text). If you can make it through the first few chapters (perhaps chapters 2-4), even with difficulty, then the book will become VERY READABLE.
If you have an under-developed background in math, then expect to work hard in the beginning, but do expect that this book can be understood by anyone with a serious interest in learning quantum mechanics.
Quantum boy.......2004-11-08
I think this book is one of the best introductions to Quantum Physics. Although it is a bit wordy, it is evident that the author has a great passion for the subject and does a great job of explaining all the basic terminology, concepts and mathematics behind this great theory of modern physics. The book also takes a more applied approach to the subject and enables the beginning student to much more easily see the connection between the mathematics of QM and experiment. Highly recommended as either an undergraduate textbook or as a supplement to other "standard" textbooks such as Liboff or Griffiths.
A Wonderful Approach to QM.......2000-08-24
Thank you Dr. Morrison for a wonderful text on Quantum Mechanics.
This text covers everything relevant to Quantum Mechanics. It addresses the ambiguity of many concepts. He takes a single term or concept, writes it once, and then rewrites it using several different approaches. He leaves nothing to guess.
He tells you when you have just encountered an important milestone in your reading then warns you, before going on, to reread the previous section or chapter.
He poses questions in the text that you yourself are thinking. He then clarifies those questions. He does not assume you were ever taught or fully understood such things as the "Postulate of Quantum Dynamics", or whether "Stationary states really exist."
Dr. Morrison's approach, to the sometimes complicated concepts of QM, is a work of art. He could teach this stuff to elementary school children. I anxiously await the full exploits of Vol.II and the development of the Hydrogen atom.
Please hurry Dr. Morrison!
An Outstanding Text in Quantum Physics.......2000-05-18
Review of Morrison's Understanding Quantum Physics, A User's Manual
As a physics teacher and a student of Quantum Mechanics for many years, I have been particularly disappointed with the dirth of good texts for beginning students. There are worthwhile texts for those who understand the basics sufficiently, but Quantum Mechanics presents special difficulties to the neophyte: duality, probablility, transforms, correspondence, wave mechanics, matrix mechanics, Fourier analysis, continua and discrete spectra, commutation, operators, observables, measurement, and much more.
Morrison covers these topics clearly and in great detail, aimed squarely at the beginner. I am always fond of teachers who follow themes, reintroducing concepts over and over to show how they support new ideas. These are teachers who use nuance that you do not notice until you read the tale a second and third time. Morrison does that. An author with complete control over the subject matter, he proposes to create for the reader a powerful, understandable tool for examining the micro world, and he succeeds admirably.
Many texts have disappointed me because I find inconsistencies, unclear definitions, examples with so little discussion supporting them that they are impossible to understand. Not so with Morrison. I have read and studied this entire book at least three times over the past 1 1/2 years. I have found no inconsistencies in the math, nothing that wasn't clear within a couple of readings. Indeed each reading brought greater clarity, since each time I understood more of the coming tale than I did when I first read it. QM requires study and insight, a pondering of the issues. Morrison offers a clear, methodical approach, rather than difficult, inconsistent prose and math. Each time I read it, I see Morrison's craft as an author and a teacher.
Examples densely populate the text, a good number of which I have seen nowhere else. Every topic benefits from them and from dozens of problems which build upon each other. If I had difficulty with a problem, I tried earlier ones, moving back through the chapters until I discovered where my understanding went faulty.
I must admit a certain admiration for Morrison's ability to create a text for beginners that can generate understanding and clarity during graduate studies. I also admire the detail with which the publisher presented the mathematical formulae: attention to super- and sub- scripts, to summation indices, to counters. I found no mistakes in the math.
Not all topics are covered. Missing are discussions on relativistic QM; 3 dim aspects (he focuses on 1-dim distributions and indicates how to move to 3D); Dirac notation (mentioned modestly); spin and angular momentum; the Hydrogen atom orbitals. I agree with him, arguably, that these can be relegated to "advanced topics". What he does cover (see list above) is done superbly well. His next book will no doubt cover these topics as thoroughly and rigorously.
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Cybernetical Physics: From Control of Chaos to Quantum Control (Understanding Complex Systems)
Alexander L. Fradkov
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Book Description
The control of complex systems is one of the most important aspects in dealing with systems exhibiting nonlinear behaviour or similar features that defy traditional control techniques. This specific subject is gradually becoming known as cybernetical physics, borrowing methods from both theoretical physics and control engineering. Emphasis of the book is on the examination of fundamental limits on energy transformation by means of control procedures in both conservative and dissipative systems. A survey of application in physics includes the control of synchronisation of coupled oscillators, pendulum chains, reactions in physical chemistry and of quantum systems such as the dissociation of diatomic molecules.
This book has been written having research from various backgrounds in physics, mathematics and engineering in mind and is thus also suitable as introduction to graduate students working on the understanding of a broad range of complex systems in the natural sciences.
Book Description
Here Roland Omnès offers a clear, up-to-date guide to the conceptual framework of quantum mechanics. In an area that has provoked much philosophical debate, Omnès has achieved high recognition for his Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton 1994), a book for specialists. Now the author has transformed his own theory into a short and readable text that enables beginning students and experienced physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers to form a comprehensive picture of the field while learning about the most recent advances.
This new book presents a more streamlined version of the Copenhagen interpretation, showing its logical consistency and completeness. The problem of measurement is a major area of inquiry, with the author surveying its history from Planck to Heisenberg before describing the consistent-histories interpretation. He draws upon the most recent research on the decoherence effect (related to the modern resolution of the famous Schrödinger's cat problem) and an exact formulation of the correspondence between quantum and particle physics (implying a derivation of classical determinism from quantum probabilism).
Interpretation is organized with the help of a universal and sound language using so-called consistent histories. As a language and a method, it can now be shown to be free of ambiguity and it makes interpretation much clearer and closer to common sense.
Customer Reviews:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2004-08-25
This book is sooooo good!!! If your mind is stuck in a classic point of view, this book will help you develop a more quantic perspective, with very few equations!
quantum confusion?.......2001-01-05
This book is the first book you should read if you haven't had much exposure to quantum theory. This is a must have for any person interested in physics, Hell get this book just to read to the kids or Grampa when he gets confused about 1/2 spin particles. you won't be crunching unified fieled theory equations, but your brain will be not dumb no more.
Book Description
In this magisterial work, Roland Omnès takes us from the academies of ancient Greece to the laboratories of modern science as he seeks to do no less than rebuild the foundations of the philosophy of knowledge. One of the world's leading quantum physicists, Omnès reviews the history and recent development of mathematics, logic, and the physical sciences to show that current work in quantum theory offers new answers to questions that have puzzled philosophers for centuries: Is the world ultimately intelligible? Are all events caused? Do objects have definitive locations? Omnès addresses these profound questions with vigorous arguments and clear, colorful writing, aiming not just to advance scholarship but to enlighten readers with no background in science or philosophy.
The book opens with an insightful and sweeping account of the main developments in science and the philosophy of knowledge from the pre-Socratic era to the nineteenth century. Omnès then traces the emergence in modern thought of a fracture between our intuitive, commonsense views of the world and the abstract and--for most people--incomprehensible world portrayed by advanced physics, math, and logic. He argues that the fracture appeared because the insights of Einstein and Bohr, the logical advances of Frege, Russell, and Gödel, and the necessary mathematics of infinity of Cantor and Hilbert cannot be fully expressed by words or images only. Quantum mechanics played an important role in this development, as it seemed to undermine intuitive notions of intelligibility, locality, and causality. However, Omnès argues that common sense and quantum mechanics are not as incompatible as many have thought. In fact, he makes the provocative argument that the "consistent-histories" approach to quantum mechanics, developed over the past fifteen years, places common sense (slightly reappraised and circumscribed) on a firm scientific and philosophical footing for the first time. In doing so, it provides what philosophers have sought through the ages: a sure foundation for human knowledge.
Quantum Philosophy is a profound work of contemporary science and philosophy and an eloquent history of the long struggle to understand the nature of the world and of knowledge itself.
Download Description
In this magisterial work, Roland Omnès takes us from the academies of ancient Greece to the laboratories of modern science as he seeks to do no less than rebuild the foundations of the philosophy of knowledge. One of the world's leading quantum physicists, Omnès reviews the history and recent development of mathematics, logic, and the physical sciences to show that current work in quantum theory offers new answers to questions that have puzzled philosophers for centuries: Is the world ultimately intelligible? Are all events caused? Do objects have definitive locations? Omnès addresses these profound questions with vigorous arguments and clear, colorful writing, aiming not just to advance scholarship but to enlighten readers with no background in science or philosophy. The book opens with an insightful and sweeping account of the main developments in science and the philosophy of knowledge from the pre-Socratic era to the nineteenth century. Omnès then traces the emergence in modern thought of a fracture between our intuitive, commonsense views of the world and the abstract and--for most people--incomprehensible world portrayed by advanced physics, math, and logic. He argues that the fracture appeared because the insights of Einstein and Bohr, the logical advances of Frege, Russell, and Gödel, and the necessary mathematics of infinity of Cantor and Hilbert cannot be fully expressed by words or images only. Quantum mechanics played an important role in this development, as it seemed to undermine intuitive notions of intelligibility, locality, and causality. However, Omnès argues that common sense and quantum mechanics are not as incompatible as many have thought. In fact, he makes the provocative argument that the "consistent-histories" approach to quantum mechanics, developed over the past fifteen years, places common sense (slightly reappraised and circumscribed) on a firm scientific and philosophical footing for the first time.
Customer Reviews:
Destined to be a classic.......2006-11-03
Quite simply, this may be one of the best books in recent history,
on quantum theory and its role in the philosophy of science. The
author, admirably, does not insult his reader by leaving out the
important mathematics needed to make quantum theory comprehensible.
Neither are mathematical models left to speak for themselves; rather,
the meaning of the theory is carefully and skillfully guided through
the abstract symbols.
Honors should also go to translator. One never feels that this easy
to read book was ever written in any language but English.
Healing the Fractures.......2005-12-27
Professor Omnes (University of Paris XI) is one of France's noted experimental physicists today. "Quantum Philosophy" is a poetic narrative of science from Ancient Greece to contemporary Quantum Mechanics is written with literary elegance which Arturo Sangalli's translation has preserved.
Although there are no equations, this book is not for the beginner. Omnes alludes to people, theories, events and ideas, which if not already known would remain quite mysterious. For the informed philosopher of science it is an insightful account of the main developments leading up to 20th Century formalism and the triumph of mathematics which was necessary to heal the fracture brought about by the post-intuitive sciences of Einstein, Bohr, Godel, Cantor and Hilbert.
Probable futures..........2004-06-23
Roland Omnes is a professor of physics at the University of Paris. Like many physicists and astronomers of our time, he is concerned about the interpretations of science among the general public, particularly as science becomes increasingly specialized and difficult for non-mathematically and non-scientifically trained persons to understand. There are many areas of misunderstanding in the general conception of physics, with the cutting-edge theories developing out of the strands of relativity and quantum physics that even physicists themselves have trouble understanding and explaining.
Omnes does a good job in the first half of the text tracing an historical development of physics from the earliest, pre-Socratic times in ancient Greece, a time when philosophy and science were not readily separable (a time that is re-emerging in many ways) through to the triumph of science, with physics in the forefront, as a worldview acceptable to Enlightenment thinkers, general academia, and the public at large. The first several chapters each take a turn at this broad topic - a chapter on classical logic comes first, looking in much the way a geometrist might the underlying postulate and axioms of later thought. Omnes then discusses classical physics and astronomy , leading up from the Greeks to Kepler, Newton, and finally Maxwell and his electro-magnetism theories.
The third chapter looks at the historical development of classical mathematics, and the fourth at the philosophy of knowledge, not exclusively but primarily in epistemological terms. Figures such as Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant are discussed here. The history of mathematics and epistemology has a profound if understated effect on later scientific development.
The second primary section deals with what Omnes terms `the fracture'. In discussing the processes of formal mathematics, logic, and physics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he brings up the trouble-spots - Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, varying philosophies in mathematics, relativistic challenges to classical physics models, and the increasing problem of epistemology in the processes of mathematics and science. To what extent are concerns about interpretation valid? Omnes discusses the importance of interpretation as justified for three reasons - that quantum mechanics `could not be more obscure' (and thus in need of interpretative illumination); the idea of who (or what) the observer is, is no longer clear in modern thinking; and, the issues of probability must be reconciled to the reality of existence.
The third primary section is the heart of Omnes' argument. Going beyond the `traditional' quantum theory, he introduces the idea of consistent histories. Omnes argues strongly for a common sense approach (citing John Bell, among others); physics is about physicality, and reality is that which emerges from the structure of the laws of physics and mathematics, a construct Omnes opts to call in a term laced with theological overtones, the Logos. However, this logical construct, deriving from the general laws of nature, cannot be free from the influence of probability.
The final section of the book looks at key questions and topics - how can we define science? What is the proper methodology for science, mathematics and the theory of knowledge in terms how we can know things in a probability-laced, quantum age? How does common sense play a factor in the way things progress from here?
Omnes puts the current state as being able to summarized in three points: logic is part of the world of matter, not a subject merely of our consciousness; that we have enough knowledge now to understand the laws of reality in a common sense manner; and finally, that we can acknowledge the ultimate separation of theory from reality. Beginning in this way, Omnes presents a tentative theory of knowledge destined to influence scientists and philosophers in the future.
Omnes presents his discussion with a minimum of mathematical equations, preferring once again to incorporate his common sense approach even to his own writing. Those who are knowledgeable in the hard sciences and mathematics will find this book intriguing; those without such a background will still find this a useful and sometimes inspiring text.
Christian physics..........2003-09-02
From page 241 of the hardcover edition--
"On tackling this kind of subject, even briefly, one must clearly show his true colors. Thus, I, the author, call myself a Christian, though my preferences in matters of belief are closer to Nicholas de Cues' [sic--Cusa?]"Docta Ignorantia" than to Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" or Karl Barth's "Dogmatik". By this personal note I wished to assure my Christian friends that the targets of my criticism are only certain thoughtless proselytes."
Speaking of "thoughtless proselytes," how about moving that confession up to the Preface so the reader will know the entire volume is biased?
Quantum Philosophy.......2003-07-08
There are many books that aim to explain quantum mechanics to the general public, but Omnes takes a different tack. His goal is nothing less than to provide a scientific foundation for a new philosophy of knowledge (epistemology). This is a big job, and Omnes, a French physicist who has contributed to the theory of quantum decoherence, deserves a gentleman's "C" for making the attempt. Potential readers must be warned, however, that Omnes - quite astonishingly as a physicist writing for a (presumably) non-technical audience - does not take time to explain the concepts of quantum mechanics (wave function, superposition, decoherence, etc.) which are essential to understanding his discussion. Because of this, it is highly recommended that before tackling Omnes, readers should at least have read a serious popular treatment such as Gribbin or Nick Herbert (to name only two of many).
The book under review is the 1999 hardcover translation of Roland Omnes' "Philosophie de la science contemporaine" ("Philosophy of Contemporary Science"), which was written in 1994. A 2002 paperback edition is also available. The book is about 290 pages long. It contains a glossary and index, but does not contain footnotes or a bibliography.
The first half of the book tells a well-known story of the rise of empirical physics and mathematics (other sciences are not considered) from the Pre-Socratics through the 18th century in Europe, followed by the triumph of formalism in the 19th century and the first startling developments in 20th century physics. While perceptively and gracefully told, such a rapid review of the history of science has to suffer by the speed with which the author covers 2,000 years of scientific developments.
The second half of the book moves to the present in discussing the implications of quantum mechanics towards the foundations of a new theory of knowledge. These chapters read like a series of interconnected essays, which circle around some rather big ideas: (1) it is possible to recover common-sense knowledge about ordinary objects from the formalism of quantum mechanics, (2) the theory of quantum decoherence is sufficient to dispose of certain well-known problems, such as Schroedinger's Cat, that result from naively applying quantum superposition to classical objects, and (3) there are two kinds of metaphysical entity: a Logos, as represented by mathematics and logic, and a Reality, as represented by physics.
Omnes' key point in all of this, is that the future theory of knowledge will be solidly grounded on a firm scientific basis; but he himself admits that the presentation in this book is only the start of a sketch of such a grand plan.
In summary, while I found some things of interest in the book, and appreciated its graceful and literate writing style, I was put off by a general superficiality and incompleteness of treatment, an inadequate explanation of concepts, and especially by the author's unfortunate and all too frequent resort to bald "proof by assertion" instead of the discussion, give-and-take, and scholarly references which are expected even in a popular or semi-popular work.
Customer Reviews:
Pretty Good.......2005-08-25
I bought this book to supplement my QM grad course. It did a so-so job. The best chapter is where he introduces the 3-D picture. He introduces angular momentum very well. In fact his presentation is the most clear I've seen. Only have reading Morrison did the 3-D shro. equ. and how the ang. mom. operator comes into the picture click. Morrison does a good job with teaching the reader to deal in terms of eigenvalue equations (a thing he harped on a lot in his first book).
There are downsides though. The biggest is that he does not cover WKB approximation. And his dealing with Perturbation Theory in general is not that good and the notation not helpful.
Overall, it might be nice to buy if you need some help in QM 2. Another advantage is that it's not too expensive.
Book Description
Designed as a learning tool for those with limited background in quantum mechanics, this book provides comprehensive coverage of angular momentum in quantum mechanics and its applications to chemistry and physics. Based on class-tested material, this presentation offers clear explanations of theory while giving equal attention to solving real problems. Theoretical considerations are made concrete and accessible through extensive examples and applications at the end of each chapter. Problem sets, designed as both individual and group exercises, are treated as an integral part of the text in order to stimulate student interest and clarify the abstract principles discussed. Examples are drawn primarily from atomic and molecular phenomena, and include many intermediate steps (often left out of other texts) to ensure complete mastery of the material, and to lay the groundwork for understanding photon and particle collision phenomena, and more advanced studies.
Customer Reviews:
This is a must-have for p-chem. graduate students !.......2002-01-08
I have read this book with a great joy. The author of this book is a leading authority in the field of reaction dynamics, and has played a key role in applyingp the vector correlation in physical chemistry problems. The best part of this book probably is the example/problem set part where the reader is asked to use the knowledge obtained from the chapter to solve the "real" problem (mostly on spectroscopy and the gas phase reaction dynamics). I highly recommend this book.
Angular momentum for dummies..........2001-05-30
There are, of course, several other books that derive and explain the details and myriad equations involved in our understanding of angular momentum (e.g. Edmonds, Judd). However, none of them explain the mathematics and physical results in "simple English" as well as Zare's. The problem sets and applications are particularly helpful and relevant to a wide variety of common experimental techniques and data analyses. I also strongly recommend purchasing the companion solutions manual. The only derogatory comment that I can make is that there are much better programs available for calculating the 3, 6, and 9J symbols than those found in the appendix. I doubt this comes as a surprise to anyone.
A well-written book focussed on experimental applications.......1999-02-28
This is a well-written and very interesting book with (perhaps) an unfortunate title. My first reaction was "A book devoted to angular momentum? Who would read such a thing?"
Ignore the title and look at the sub-title: "Understanding Spatial Aspects in Chemistry and Physics." This book covers everything from polarized fluorescence spectroscopy to molecular beam scattering to molecular reorientation in liquids. All of these topics have one thing in common -- they are spatially anisotropic, and Zare leads the reader through a tutorial on their analysis.
There are other books on this topic. (The monographs by Rose and by Brink and Satchler come to mind.) To my taste, they are dry and boring.
Zare's book is different. Although he presents the material with the same rigor, he also includes 16 "applications" (i.e. problem sets) that showcase some of the most elegant physical chemistry/chemical physics problems of the century. For example, their are applications dealing with scattering, polarized fluorescence, Zeeman quantum beats, correlation functions in spectroscopy, and the spectroscopy of diatomic molecules. These applications usually cover real molecular problems -- not watered down analogues. Zare's discussion of spherical tensor operators deserves special note for its clarity.
This book should be approachable to anyone with at least one semester of graduate quantum chemistry or physics under their belt.
A masterful account on the theory of angular momentum........1996-10-22
The theory of angular momentum is important in many fields
of chemistry and physics.This book is a magnificently
sadistic way to waste time and go crazy. I recommended to
every introspective scientist that has no personal life and
enjoys wasting time with the arcane.
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Information Theory and Quantum Physics: Physical Foundations for Understanding the Conscious Process (Texts and Monographs in Physics)
Herbert S. Green
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 354066517X |
Book Description
In this book, H. S. Green, a former student of Max Born and well known as an author in physics and in philosophy of science, presents an individual and modern approach to theoretical physics and related fundamental problems. Starting from first principles, the links between physics and information science are unveiled step by step: modern information theory and the classical theory of the Turing machine are combined to create a new interpretation of quantum computability, which is then applied to field theory, gravitation and submicroscopic measurement theory and culminates in a detailed examination of the role of the conscious observer in physical measurements. The result is a highly readable book that unifies a wide range of scientific knowledge and is essential reading for all scientists and philosophers of science interested in the interpretation and the implications of the interaction between information science and basic physical theories.
Customer Reviews:
A deeper understanding!.......2003-08-12
It started with Alan Turing and John von Neumann: Classical computation follows the model of A. Turing,-- strings of bits, i.e., 0s and 1s; a mathematical model, now called the Turing mashine. Why not two-level quantum systems? The thought was long in coming: From Bohr and Heisenberg to Feynman! The bright idea finally arrived, and with vengeance. An model for computation based on two-level quantum systems was suggested in the 1980ties by R.P. Feynman and D. Deutsch. Then another wait: It wasn't until Peter Shor's qubit-factoring algorithm in the mid 1990ties that the subject really took off, and really caught the attention of the math community. The 'unbreakable' codes might be breakable afterall! The fact that Shor found
a polynomial factoring algorithm naturally shook up the encryption community as well; and for obvious reasons. New elements of thinking in the quantum realm, and not part
of the classical frame of mind, include the basics of quantum theory: superposition of (quantum) states, uncertainty, and
(quantum) coherence. Although these concepts are at the foundation of quantum theory, they make a drastic change in the whole theoretical framework for computation: Now when one passes from the classical notion of bit-registers to
that of qubit-registers, the laws of quantum mechanics take over; and exclude the traditional cloning principle of error correction. Something different must take its place: A new theory! Mathematical physicist and computer scientists must revisit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, Pauli, and Dirac. In passing from logic gates to quantum gates(unitary matrices), the
concept of switching-networks from computer science changes drastically. It introduces new challenges, and new truely exciting opportunities. It is not easy for authors who break with tradition to make everyone happy;-- this is especially so in a new field,--one which has grabbed headlines, and one which
is at the same time interdisiplinary. -- This intriguing book covers several of the appropriate areas of physics (quantum theory, (some) experiment...), of artificial intelligence, of philosophy, of computer science (the mathematical physics side of the subject), and of math (operators in Hilbert space, and the theory of algorithms). In my opinion, the author did a great job. The level of the book is suitable for grad students in math, in CS, and in physics: It could perhaps have used some more worked examples and exercises. (Fortunately they can be found in other books on quantum computation, such as the Nielsen-Chuang book.) This book is timeless,-- and I expect it will also be popular ten years from now.
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- How to make sense of the world
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A Philosopher's Understanding of Quantum Mechanics: Possibilities and Impossibilities of a Modal Interpretation
Pieter E. Vermaas
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ASIN: 0521651085 |
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Modal interpretations provide a general framework within which quantum mechanics can be considered as a theory that describes reality in terms of physical systems possessing definite properties. Modal interpretations are relatively new attempts to present quantum mechanics as a theory which, like other physical theories, describes an observer-independent reality. In this book, Pieter Vermaas details the results of this work. He provides both an accessible survey and a systematic reference work about how to understand quantum mechanics using a modal interpretation. The book will be of great value to undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in philosophy of science and physics departments with an interest in learning about modal interpretations of quantum mechanics.
Customer Reviews:
How to make sense of the world.......2001-01-06
Quantum mechanics defies the imagination, we all know that. During the 1990ies a new and elegant interpretation was born (the `modal interpretation'). Philosopher-physicist P.E. Vermaas has helped to build it. In this book he investigates this interpretation very thoroughly --- the book presupposes knowledge of quantum mechanics, its relevant mathematics and a profound love for sub- and superscripts. The conclusions are however not optimistic. If some version of the modal interpretation is going to make sense of the quantum world we seem to inhabit, then it is going to be a quite complicated version.
The basic idea is to investigate under what conditions one can ascribe properties to physical systems, ie mass to an electron, position to a proton, energy to a Helium molecule, without running into contradictions with quantum mechanics itself. The good news is that this turns out to be possible to a larger extent than has generally been accepted. But as said above, the bad news is that it is going to be complicated.
Perhaps one would have expected from one of the builders of the modal interpretation a passionate defense of it --- who else is going to defend it? On the other hand, the honesty to tell bad news concerning what is partly your own intellectual offspring is laudable. Much labour has been spent in this high-level accomplishment, but little passion.
No seriously interested party can afford to ignore this book.
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Understanding Deconfinement in Qcd
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
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- Where Did I Come From?
- Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change
- Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind The Ufo Phenomenon
- An Introduction to the World's Oceans 8/e with bind in OLC card
- Applied Optimization with MATLAB Programming
- Applied Partial Differential Equations, Fourth Edition
- Barbaro: The Horse Who Captured America's Heart
- Basic Business Statistics: Concepts and Applications and CD package (10th Edition)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Thomas Francis Meagher And the Irish Brigade in the Civil War
- The Practice of Spiritual Direction
- The Guns of August
- Secrets of Disney's Glorious Gardens
- Soldier's Heart : Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in th
- Schaum's Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables
- The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science
- Fortunes of Mitchell Kennerley, Bookman
- Spag : An American Business Legend
- Constructing Cromwell: Ceremony, Portrait and Print, 1645-1661.
Understanding More Quantum Physics: Quantum States of Atoms
Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems
Introduction to Electrodynamics (3rd Edition)
Optical Properties of Solids (Oxford Master Series in Condensed Matter Physics)
Linear Algebra Demystified
