Foundations of Quantum Theory

E.M. Rasel, W.P. Schleich, S. Wölk, Ernst M. Rasel, Wolfgang P. Schleich, Sabine Wölk

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781614999362
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781614999379
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Physics
• Index: Physics

This volume provides a summary of the lectures presented at the International School of Physics ""Enrico Fermi"" on the Foundations of Quantum Theory, organized by the Italian Physical Society in Varenna, Italy from 8-13 July 2016, in collaboration with the Wilhelm und Else Heraeus-Stiftung. It was the first ""Enrico Fermi"" Summer School on this topic since 1977. Its main goal was to provide an overview of the recent theoretical and experimental developments in an active field of research, the foundations of quantum mechanics. The field is characterized by a dichotomy of unparalleled agreement between theory and experiment on the one hand, and an enormous variety of interpretations of the underlying mathematical formalism on the other hand. This proceedings of the ""Enrico Fermi"" Summer School of July 2016 contains 21 contributions on a range of topics: the history and interpretations of quantum theory; the principle of complementarity and wave-particle duality; quantum theory from first principles; the reality of the wave function; the concept of the photon; measurement in quantum theory; the interface of quantum theory and general relativity; and quantum optical tests of quantum theory.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Course group shot
• Science in tumultuous times
• But God does play dice: The path to quantum mechanics
• From the Bohr model to Heisenberg's quantum mechanics
• The linearity of quantum mechanics and the birth of the Schrodinger equation
• Wave phenomena and wave equations
• History leading to Bell's inequality and experiments
• Sewing Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with a quantum zipper
• Quantum state generation via frequency combs
• Time after time: From EPR to Wigner's friend and quantum eraser
• QBism: Quantum theory as a hero's handbook
• Information-theoretic derivation of free quantum field theory
• Revealing quantum properties with simple measurements
• Complementarity and light modes
• Quantum imaging
• Spekkens' toy model and contextuality as a resource in quantum computation
• Casimir forces in spherically symmetric dielectric media
• The strange roles of proper time and mass in physics
• Some consequences of mass and proper time as dynamical variables
• Atom interferometry and its applications
• Atom-chip-based quantum gravimetry with BECs
• Gravitational properties of light
• List of participants