Research Catalog

Title

The quantum challenge : modern research on the foundations of quantum mechanics / George Greenstein, Arthur G. Zajonc.

Author

Greenstein, George, 1940-

Publication

Sudbury, Mass. : Jones and Bartlett, ©1997.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Zajonc, Arthur.

Description

xvi, 224 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

Since its inception in the early decades of the twentieth century, quantum mechanics has joined Einstein's theory of relativity and Darwin's theory of evolution as a dominating scientific force. Nevertheless, the theory has steadfastly resisted interpretation within a conventional worldview. There is no consensus among workers in the field as to how to solve the difficult and profound problems posed by quantum mechanics. In the past, books dealing with these issues have been constrained by two complementary difficulties. At the instructional level, because the theoretical apparatus of quantum theory is complex and unfamiliar, textbooks are forced to concentrate on the technical aspects of the theory. At the popular level, considerable attention is devoted to the theoretical questions, but such presentations are necessarily limited by their nontechnical nature. The Quantum Challenge fills the gap between these two approaches. The authors present material with rigor and intellectual honesty in ways that are easily accessible to undergraduate physical science, mathematics and engineering students.

Series Statement

• The challenge series
• The Jones and Bartlett series in physics and astronomy

Uniform Title

• Jones and Bartlett series in physics and astronomy
• Challenge series (Sudbury, Mass.)

Subject

• Quantum theory
• Quantentheorie
• Théorie quantique

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-218) and index.

Contents

Matter Waves -- An Experiment -- A Second Experiment -- Locality -- Beyond the Electron -- Neutrons -- Atoms -- Bose-Einstein Condensates -- The Experiment -- Quantum Theory of Two-Slit Interference -- Critique of the Quantum-Mechanical Account -- Photons -- Do Photons Exist? -- Detection and the Quantum of Light -- Photoelectric Effect -- Anticoincidences -- The Hanbury-Brown and Twiss Experiment -- Photons at Last -- Remarks -- Wave-Particle Duality for Single Photons -- The Mystery of Wave-Particle Duality -- Delayed Choice -- The Uncertainty Principle -- The Pfleegor-Mandel Experiment -- Two Lasers, One Photon -- The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle -- Uncertainty in the Pfleegor-Mandel Experiment -- Reflections on the Uncertainty Principle -- Quantum Uncertainty versus Classical Ignorance -- Interpretation of the Uncertainty Principle -- The Uncertainty Principle and Causality -- The Uncertainty Principle and Descriptions of Natural Phenomena -- Some Consequences of the Uncertainty Principle -- Atoms -- Nuclei -- Trajectories -- The Energy-Time Uncertainty Relation -- Average Properties of Systems -- Lifetimes and Line Widths -- Time and Frequency Standards -- More on Causality: The Uncertainty Principle and an Ambiguity in Time -- Origin of the Energy-Time Uncertainty Relation -- Squeezed Light and the Detection of Gravitational Radiation -- Gravitational Radiation -- Squeezed States of the Simple Harmonic Oscillator -- Squeezed States of Light -- Quantum Non-Demolition Measurements.

ISBN

• 0763704679
• 9780763704674
• 0763702161
• 9780763702168

LCCN

96036637

OCLC

• ocm35673429
• 35673429
• SCSB-2117951

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library