For more than a century, quantum mechanics has served as a very powerful theory that has expanded physics and technology far beyond their classical limits, yet it has also produced some of the most difficult paradoxes known to the human mind. This book represents the combined efforts of sixteen of today's most eminent theoretical physicists to lay out future directions for quantum physics. The authors include Yakir Aharonov, Anton Zeilinger; the Nobel laureates Anthony Leggett and Geradus 't Hooft; Basil Hiley, Lee Smolin and Henry Stapp. Following a foreword by Roger Penrose, the individual chapters address questions such as quantum non-locality, the measurement problem, quantum insights into relativity, cosmology and thermodynamics, and the possible bearing of quantum phenomena on biology and consciousness.
Each contribution is an article in itself, and great effort has been made by the authors to be lucid and not too technical. A few brief highlights of the round-table discussions are given between the chapters. Topics include: Quantum non-locality, the measurement problem, quantum insights into relativity, cosmology and thermodynamics, and possible bearings of quantum mechanics to biology and consciousness. Authors include Yakir Aharanov and Anton Zeilinger, plus Nobel laureates Anthony J. Leggett (2003) and Gerardus ‘t Hooft (1999). Foreword written by Sir Roger Penrose, best-selling author (The Emperor's New Mind) and world-renowned mathematical physicist.
Since its foundation more than eight decades ago, quantum mechanics has been plagued by enigmas, mysteries and paradoxes and held hostage by quantum positivism. This fact strongly suggests that something is fundamentally wrong with the quantum mechanics paradigm. The best scientific minds, such as Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, David Bohm, Richard Feynman and others have spent years of their professional lives attempting to find resolution to the quantum mechanics predicament, with not much success. A shift of the quantum mechanics paradigm toward a deeper physics theory is long overdue. The Prologue is an introduction by Victor Vaguine of a fundamentally new quantum mechanics paradigm which he calls Super Quantum Mechanics (SQM). The theory and concept will be further expanded in a companion book Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations of Super Quantum Mechanics (February 2013). In contrast with quantum mechanics, which remains an enigmatic and mysterious science full of paradoxes, SQM is an ontological science. The SQM is a giant step in the progression of quantum mechanics toward a deeper physics theory. Fulfilling Einstein’s dream, the centerpiece of SQM is an elementary quantum entity/event which can be visualized by humans. Each quantum entity is tangible with all its physical attributes at all times and not hanging in limbo. The philosophy of SQM is non-local realism. SQM brings non-locality dimension into focus and into system. Einstein stubbornly rejected non-locality, in effect imposing a subjective constraint on objective reality. He thus missed a supreme opportunity of a lifetime to free quantum mechanics from the detrimental influence of quantum positivism and to bring it to a deeper level. In contrast with the Standard Model of particle physics, which assumes elementary particles as point-like with no structure, SQM states that elementary particles (and forces) have dimension and structure. Based on three fundamental reasons, Victor Vaguine declares that the string theory is not valid scientific theory. The author ventures into cosmology by declaring intrinsic connections of SQM with the origin of the Universe through his original concept of absolute quantum entanglement at the pre-Big Bang state. Victor Vaguine states that the inflationary multiverse theory is scientifically invalid and replaces it with a concept of Uni-Universe, a new term coined by the author. The Uni-Universe is an assembly of habitable universes in 4-dimensional space. Each individual universe, such as our Universe, is sharply and uniquely defined. Based on the law of fine tuning, the author estimates: • expected time of arrival of humans on the cosmic scene versus actual timing • size of our Universe (unknown to science until now) • the extent of the habitability in the Milky Way galaxy, the observed Universe and our Universe • a time window for emerging intelligence in our Universe. Never ending scientific progress is presented as a series of curtains, each hiding a fundamentally new scientific paradigm. None of the curtains can be opened by logic or mathematical formalism alone—requiring instead great intuition and counter-intuition. Victor Vaguine declares that the lethal combination of materialism and quantum positivism is an impediment to scientific progress in theoretical physics and cosmology. The book, written at a high scientific level, contains minimal mathematical formalism and is accessible for laypersons with intellectual curiosity.
Christopher G. Timpson provides the first full-length philosophical treatment of quantum information theory and the questions it raises for our understanding of the quantum world. He argues for an ontologically deflationary account of the nature of quantum information, which is grounded in a revisionary analysis of the concepts of information.
Aphysical Quantum Mechanics (AQM) is a deeper and more profound quantum theory. Volume One expands the understanding of quantum reality with the addition of two new fundamental categories: aphysical and elementary consciousness of elementary particles. Using the AQM Theory, Volume One details the explanation of all known and long standing quantum enigmas, including “the collapse of the wave function,” and presents and explains the inner structures of perfect geometry of the photon and the intrinsic electron. AQM brings not only foundational transformation to quantum mechanics, but also to other branches of physics, such as quantum optics and particle physics. The paradigmatic power of AQM is such that the author was able to uncover 47 fundamental misconceptions/absurdities in the Standard Model theory of particle physics, and to make 27 fundamental scientific discoveries, all presented in these Volumes.
This book describes a paradigm change in modern physics from the philosophy and mathematical expression of the quantum theory to those of general relativity. The approach applies to all domains - from elementary particles to cosmology. The change is from the positivistic views in which atomism, nondeterminism and measurement are fundamental, to a holistic view in realism, wherein matter - electrons, galaxies, - are correlated modes of a single continuum, the universe. A field that unifies electromagnetism, gravity and inertia is demonstrated explicitly, with new predictions, in terms of quaternion and spinor field equations in a curved spacetime. Quantum mechanics emerges as a linear, flatspace approximation for the equations of inertia in general relativity.
"Scientists other than quantum physicists often fail to comprehend the enormity of the conceptual change wrought by quantum theory in our basic conception of the nature of matter," writes Henry Stapp. Stapp is a leading quantum physicist who has given particularly careful thought to the implications of the theory that lies at the heart of modern physics. In this book, which contains several of his key papers as well as new material, he focuses on the problem of consciousness and explains how quantum mechanics allows causally effective conscious thought to be combined in a natural way with the physical brain made of neurons and atoms. The book is divided into four sections. The first consists of an extended introduction. Key foundational and somewhat more technical papers are included in the second part, together with a clear exposition of the "orthodox" interpretation of quantum mechanics. The third part addresses, in a non-technical fashion, the implications of the theory for some of the most profound questions that mankind has contemplated: How does the world come to be just what it is and not something else? How should humans view themselves in a quantum universe? What will be the impact on society of the revised scientific image of the nature of man? The final part contains a mathematical appendix for the specialist and a glossary of important terms and ideas for the interested layman. This new edition has been updated and extended to address recent debates about consciousness.
What would it mean to apply quantum theory, without restriction and without involving any notion of measurement and state reduction, to the whole universe? What would realism about the quantum state then imply?This book brings together an illustrious team of philosophers and physicists to debate these questions. The contributors broadly agree on the need, or aspiration, for a realist theory that unites micro- and macro-worlds. But they disagree on what this implies. Some argue that if unitary quantum evolution has unrestricted application, and if the quantum state is taken to be something physically real, then this universe emerges from the quantum state as one of countless others, constantlybranching in time, all of which are real. The result, they argue, is many worlds quantum theory, also known as the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics. No other realist interpretation of unitary quantum theory has ever been found.Others argue in reply that this picture of many worlds is in no sense inherent to quantum theory, or fails to make physical sense, or is scientifically inadequate. The stuff of these worlds, what they are made of, is never adequately explained, nor are the worlds precisely defined; ordinary ideas about time and identity over time are compromised; no satisfactory role or substitute for probability can be found in many worlds theories; they can't explain experimental data; anyway, there areattractive realist alternatives to many worlds.Twenty original essays, accompanied by commentaries and discussions, examine these claims and counterclaims in depth. They consider questions of ontology - the existence of worlds; probability - whether and how probability can be related to the branching structure of the quantum state; alternatives to many worlds - whether there are one-world realist interpretations of quantum theory that leave quantum dynamics unchanged; and open questions even given many worlds, including the multiverseconcept as it has arisen elsewhere in modern cosmology. A comprehensive introduction lays out the main arguments of the book, which provides a state-of-the-art guide to many worlds quantum theory and its problems.
Ever since 1911, the Solvay Conferences have shaped modern physics. The 23rd edition, chaired by 2004 Nobel Laureate David Gross, did not break with that tradition. It gathered most of the leading figures working on the central problem of reconciling Einstein's theory of gravity with quantum mechanics.These proceedings give a broad overview with unique insight into the most fundamental issues raised by this challenge for 21st century physics, by distinguished renowned scientists. The contributions cover: the status of quantum mechanics, spacetime singularities and breakdown of classical space and time, mathematical structures underlying the most promising attempts under current development, spacetime as an emergent concept, as well as cosmology and the cosmological constant puzzle. A historical overview of the Solvay conferences by historian of sciences Peter Galison opens the volume.In the Solvay tradition, the volume also includes the discussions among the participants ? many of which were quite lively and illustrate dramatically divergent points of view ? carefully edited and reproduced in full.
