Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:57, 17 May 2020

Revision as of 17:00, 22 May 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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[[Meinhard E. Mayer]] declared that he would "recommend it to anyone teaching or studying quantum mechanics", finding Part II the most interesting of the book. While he noted some disappointment with Peres' selection of topics to include in the chapter on [[measurement in quantum mechanics|measurement]], he reserved most of his negativity for the publisher, saying (as Ballentine also did<ref name="Ballentine"/>) that they had priced the book beyond the reach of graduate students:

<blockquote>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=6565–66|doi=10.1063/1.2808757|issn=0031-9228}}</ref></blockquote>

Mermin, Mayer and Baez noted that Peres briefly dismissed the [[many-worlds interpretation]] of quantum mechanics.<ref name="Mermin" /><ref name="Baez"/><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 |volume=197 |issue=Foundations of Quantum Theory |publisher=[[IOS Press]] |isbn=9781614999379 |oclc=1086375617}}</ref>

==Related works==