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The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Online ISBN:
9780191889196
Print ISBN:
9780198844686
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Jeffrey A. Barrett
Jeffrey A. Barrett

Chancellor's Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science

University of California, Irvine
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Published online:
23 July 2020
Published in print:
26 December 2019
Online ISBN:
9780191889196
Print ISBN:
9780198844686
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

The book starts with a description of classical mechanics then discusses the quantum phenomena that require us to give up our commonsense classical intuitions. We consider the physical and conceptual arguments that led to the standard von Neumann-Dirac formulation of quantum mechanics and how the standard theory explains quantum phenomena. This includes a discussion of how the theory’s two dynamical laws work with the standard interpretation of states to explain determinate measurement records, quantum statistics, interference effects, entanglement, decoherence, and quantum nonlocality. A careful understanding of how the standard theory works ultimately leads to the quantum measurement problem. We consider how the measurement problem threatens the logical consistency of the standard theory then turn to a discussion of the main proposals for resolving it. This includes collapse formulations of quantum mechanics like Wigner’s extension of the standard theory and the GRW approach and no-collapse formulations like pure wave mechanics, the various many-worlds theories, and Bohmian mechanics. In discussing alternative formulations of quantum mechanics we pay particular attention to the explanatory role played by each theory’s empirical ontology and associated metaphysical commitments and the conceptual trade-offs between theoretical options.

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