Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:10, 16 April 2020

Revision as of 15:29, 16 April 2020

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To generate the figures in his chapter on quantum chaos, including plots in [[phase space]] of chaotic motion, Peres wrote [[PostScript]] code that executed simulations in the printer itself.{{efn|Section 11-7, "Appendix: PostScript code for a map", p. 370}}

The book develops the methodology of mathematically representing quantum measurements by [[POVM|POVMs]],<ref name="Mermin" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Flammia|first=Steven T.|last2=Silberfarb|first2=Andrew|last3=Caves|first3=Carlton M.|author-link3=Carlton M. Caves|date=2005-12-01|title=Minimal Informationally Complete Measurements for Pure States|journal=[[Foundations of Physics]]|language=en|volume=35|issue=12|pages=1985–2006|arxiv=quant-ph/0404137|bibcode=2005FoPh...35.1985F|doi=10.1007/s10701-005-8658-z|issn=1572-9516|via=}}</ref> and it provided the first pedagogical treatment of how to use a POVM for [[quantum key distribution]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brandt|first=Howard E.|author-link=Howard Brandt|date=May 1999|title=Positive operator valued measure in quantum information processing|journal=[[American Journal of Physics]]|language=en|volume=67|issue=5|pages=434–439|doi=10.1119/1.19280|issn=0002-9505|via=}}</ref> Peres downplayed the importance of the [[uncertainty principle]]; that specific term only appears once in his index, and its entry points to that same page in 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>

==Reception==

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:Such pricing practices are not justified when one considers that many publishers provide very little copyediting or typesetting any more, as is obvious from the "[[TeX]]"-ish look of most books published recently, this one included.<ref name="Mayer">{{Cite journal|last=Mayer|first=Meinhard E.|author-link=Meinhard E. Mayer|date=2008-01-11|title=none |journal=[[Physics Today]]|language=en|volume=47|issue=12|pages=65|doi=10.1063/1.2808757|issn=0031-9228}}</ref>

Mermin, Mayer and Baez noted that Peres briefly dismissed the [[many-worlds interpretation]] of quantum mechanics.<ref name="BaezMermin" /><ref name="MerminBaez"/><ref name="Mayer"/> Peres argued that all varieties of many-worlds interpretations merely shifted the arbitrariness or vagueness of the [[wavefunction collapse]] idea to the question of when "worlds" can be regarded as separate, and that no objective criterion for that separation can actually be formulated.{{efn|Section 12-1, "The ambivalent observer", p. 374}} Moreover, Peres dismissed "spontaneous collapse" models like [[Ghirardi–Rimini–Weber theory]] in the same brief section, designating them "mutations" of quantum mechanics.<ref name="Mermin"/>

Manuel Bächtold analyzed Peres' textbook from a standpoint of [[Pragmatism|philosophical pragmatism]].<ref name="Healey">{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quantum-bayesian/|title=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]|last=Healey|first=Richard|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, [[Stanford University]]|year=2016|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|chapter=Quantum-Bayesian and Pragmatist Views of Quantum Theory}}</ref> Peres' insistence in his textbook that the classical analogue of a [[quantum state]] is a [[Liouville's theorem (Hamiltonian)|Liouville density function]] was influential in the development of [[QBism]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first1=Christopher A. |last1=Fuchs |first2=Blake C. |last2=Stacey |title=QBism: Quantum Theory as a Hero's Handbook |encyclopedia=Proceedings of the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi": Course 197, "Foundations of Quantum Theory" |editor-first1=E. M. |editor-last1=Rasel |editor-first2=W. P. |editor-last2=Schleich |editor-link2=Wolfgang P. Schleich |editor-first3=S. |editor-last3=Wölk |doi=10.3254/978-1-61499-937-9-133 |arxiv=1612.07308 |year=2019 |publisher=[[IOS Press]] |isbn=9781614999379 |oclc=1086375617}}</ref>