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Bananaworld: Quantum Mechanics for Primates

Online ISBN:
9780191819643
Print ISBN:
9780198718536
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Bananaworld: Quantum Mechanics for Primates

Jeffrey Bub
Jeffrey Bub

Distinguished University Professor

Distinguished University Professor, Philosophy Department, University of Maryland
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Published online:
24 March 2016
Published in print:
11 February 2016
Online ISBN:
9780191819643
Print ISBN:
9780198718536
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

The fascinating discoveries of the new fields of quantum information, quantum computation, and quantum cryptography are brought to life in this book in a way that is accessible and interesting to a wide range of readers, not just the experts. From a modern perspective, the characteristic feature of quantum mechanics is the existence of strangely counterintuitive correlations between distant events, which can be exploited in feats like quantum teleportation, unbreakable cryptographic schemes, and computers with enormously enhanced computing power. Schrödinger coined the term “entanglement” to describe these bizarre correlations, which show up in the random outcomes of different measurements on separated quantum systems. Bananaworld – an imaginary island with entangled bananas – is used to discuss sophisticated quantum phenomena without the mathematical machinery of quantum mechanics. As far as the conceptual problems of the theory that philosophers worry about are concerned, one might as well talk about bananas rather than quantum states. Nevertheless, the connection with quantum correlations is fully explained in sections written for the non-physicist reader with a serious interest in understanding the mysteries of the quantum world. The result is a subversive but entertaining book, with the novel thesis that quantum mechanics is about the structure of information, and what we have discovered is that the possibilities for representing, manipulating, and communicating information are different than we thought.

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