Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:02, 10 April 2020

Revision as of 18:09, 10 April 2020

Line 6:

:The purpose of this book is to clarify the ''conceptual meaning'' of quantum theory, and to explain some of the mathematical methods that it utilizes. This text is not concerned with specialized topics such as atomic structure, or strong or weak interactions, but with the very foundations of the theory. This is not, however, a book on the [[philosophy of science]]. The approach is pragmatic and strictly instrumentalist. This attitude will undoubtedly antagonize some readers, but it has its own logic: quantum phenomena do not occur in a [[Hilbert space]], they occur in a laboratory.

The book is divided into three parts. The first, "Gathering the Tools", introduces quantum mechanics as a theory of "preparations" and "tests", and it develops the mathematical formalism of [[Hilbert space]]sspaces, concluding with the [[spectral theory]] used to understand the quantum mechanics of continuous-valued observables. Part II, "Cryptodeterminism and Quantum Inseparability", focuses on [[Bell's theorem]] and other demonstrations that quantum mechanics is incompatible with [[local hidden-variable theory|local hidden-variable theories]]. (Among its substantial discussion of the failure of [[Hidden variable theory|hidden variable theories]], the book includes a [[FORTRAN]] program for testing whether a list of [[Euclidean vector|vector]]s forms a [[Kochen–Specker theorem|Kochen–Specker configuration]].) Part III, "Quantum Dynamics and Information", covers the role of [[spacetime]] symmetry in quantum physics, the relation of [[quantum information]] to [[thermodynamics]], [[semiclassical approximation]] methods, [[quantum chaos]], and the treatment of [[measurement in quantum mechanics]].

Peres downplayed the importance of the [[uncertainty principle]], giving it only a single mention in his index, which points to that same page of the index.<ref name="PhysToday">{{cite journal|last1=Terzian |first1=Joseph E.|last2=Bennett |first2=Charles H.|author2-link=Charles H. Bennett (computer scientist)|last3=Mann |first3=Ady|last4=Wootters |first4=William K.|author4-link=William Wootters|title=Obituary: Asher Peres|journal=[[Physics Today]]|date=August 2005|volume=58|issue=8|pages=65–66|doi=10.1063/1.2062925|bibcode = 2005PhT....58h..65A }}</ref>