Fields and Their Quanta: Making Sense of Quantum Foundations

Hobson, Art

Fields and Their Quanta: Making Sense of Quantum Foundations
  • 出版商: Springer
  • 出版日期: 2024-11-02
  • 售價: $6,600
  • 貴賓價: 9.5 折 $6,270
  • 語言: 英文
  • 頁數: 205
  • 裝訂: Hardcover - also called cloth, retail trade, or trade
  • ISBN: 303172612X
  • ISBN-13: 9783031726125
  • 相關分類: 量子 Quantum

    • 海外代購書籍(需單獨結帳)

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商品描述

Because of continuing debates about foundational issues as well as the recent consensus about non-locality, it is time to resolve the long-standing quantum enigmas. These include wave-particle duality, the double-slit experiment, quantum randomness, entanglement, superpositions, and measurement. This book presents that resolution, based on the insights that (1) quantum field theory tells us that reality comprises a set of universal quantized fields that fill the universe and (2) standard quantum mechanics is the non-relativistic limit of quantum field theory. An immediate consequence is that there are no particles and that quanta such as photons and electrons are highly unified ("coherent"), spatially extended bundles of field energy. Every quantum object is always a wave in a field. It is never a particle. As Steven Weinberg puts it, "The basic ingredients of nature are fields; particles are derivative phenomena." This immediately resolves, for one example, the puzzle of the double-slit experiment in which quanta such as photons and electrons individually interfere like waves as they pass through the slits yet they impact the screen like tiny particles. The resolution: each photon or electron is actually a wave that extends coherently across both slits and across the entire interference pattern, and collapses to a far smaller, atom-sized wave (not a particle) upon entangling non-locally with the screen. Thus quantum physicists can finally get their act together. It's about time: After more than 120 years, quantum physics still harbors embarrassing puzzles and physicists remain unable to reach a consensus about what the theory means. Large questions like "What is quantum physics about?" and "What is the meaning of the quantum state?" elicit diverse replies, all different yet all offered with supreme confidence. Every science has healthy differences of opinion, but quantum physics is beyond the pale.

As Fields and their Quanta shows, we can dispense with the diverse interpretations such as consciousness-based views, the hypothesis that other universes are involved in wave function collapse, and the Copenhagen view that there is no quantum world. We can probably also dispense with the suggested reformulations such as the guiding wave hypothesis and various collapse mechanisms, although experimental tests of these are worth doing. Most of these are inspired by the measurement problem, but recent clarification concerning entanglement and non-locality shows that the measurement process is not paradoxical, and that standard quantum physics predicts collapse to a single outcome.

Quantum physics can thus return to being a normal, objective, scientific endeavor with no special interpretation outside of standard (since Copernicus) scientific realism: Nature exists on its own with no need for observers, and we learn about nature by applying logical reasoning to natural phenomena as revealed by observation and experiment.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

由於對於基礎問題的持續辯論以及最近對非局部性的共識，現在是時候解決長期存在的量子謎題了。這些謎題包括波粒二象性、雙縫實驗、量子隨機性、糾纏、疊加和測量。本書提出了這一解決方案，基於以下見解：(1) 量子場論告訴我們，現實由一組充滿宇宙的普遍量子場組成，(2) 標準量子力學是量子場論的非相對論極限。一個直接的結果是，並不存在粒子，光子和電子等量子實際上是高度統一（“相干”）的、在空間上延展的場能量束。每個量子物體始終是一個場中的波。它從來不是一個粒子。正如史蒂文·溫伯格所說：“自然的基本成分是場；粒子是衍生現象。”這立即解決了雙縫實驗的謎題，在這個實驗中，光子和電子等量子在通過縫隙時像波一樣單獨干涉，但它們卻像微小粒子一樣撞擊屏幕。解決方案是：每個光子或電子實際上是一個在兩個縫隙之間以及整個干涉圖樣中相干延展的波，並在與屏幕非局部糾纏時崩潰為一個更小的、原子大小的波（而不是粒子）。因此，量子物理學家終於可以理清思路。是時候了：經過120多年的時間，量子物理學仍然存在令人尷尬的謎題，物理學家們仍然無法就理論的意義達成共識。像“量子物理學是關於什麼的？”和“量子態的意義是什麼？”這樣的大問題引發了各種不同的回答，雖然各不相同，但都充滿了極大的自信。每個科學領域都有健康的意見分歧，但量子物理學卻超出了常規。

正如《場及其量子》所示，我們可以擺脫各種不同的詮釋，例如基於意識的觀點、涉及其他宇宙的波函數崩潰假說，以及哥本哈根觀點（即不存在量子世界）。我們可能也可以擺脫建議的重新表述，例如引導波假說和各種崩潰機制，儘管對這些進行實驗測試是值得的。這些大多是受到測量問題的啟發，但最近有關糾纏和非局部性的澄清顯示，測量過程並不矛盾，標準量子物理學預測會崩潰為單一結果。

因此，量子物理學可以重新回到一個正常的、客觀的科學努力中，沒有超出標準（自哥白尼以來）科學現實主義的特殊詮釋：自然獨立存在，無需觀察者，我們通過將邏輯推理應用於觀察和實驗所揭示的自然現象來了解自然。

作者簡介

Art Hobson has written five previous books:

- Concepts in Statistical Mechanics, a research monograph (Gordon and Breach Science Publishers 1971, Chemical Rubber Company 1987);

- Physics and Human Affairs, a non-mathematical textbook for non-science college students (John Wiley & Sons 1982);

- The Future of Land-Based Strategic Missiles, (American Institute of Physics 1989); co-editor and co-author with 9 other authors;

- Physics: Concepts & Connections, (Pearson/Addison-Wesley 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010), another textbook for non-science college students;

- Tales of the Quantum (Oxford University Press 2017), a non-mathematical overview of quantum physics.

He has written numerous technical and pedagogical physics papers, including the following pre-cursors to Fields and their Quanta:

- "There are no particles, there are only fields, "American Journal of Physics 81, 211-223 (2013);

- "A realist analysis of six controversial quantum issues," in Mario Bunge Festschrift (Springer 2019), pp. 329-348;

- "Entanglement and the measurement problem," Quantum Engineering 2022, ID 5889159 (2022).

Hobson was born in Philadelphia in 1934 and moved to Manhattan, Kansas in 1945. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1955. After 2 years in the Army in Germany, he spent six months in New York City trying but failing to be a professional jazz musician. He then switched to physics and enrolled at Kansas State University in 1958, graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1960, and received a physics PhD in 1964. He then joined the University of Arkansas faculty where he taught and did research until retiring in 1999. He has authored over 175 professional articles, mostly theoretical physics and physics education. He received the American Association of Physics Teachers' 2006 "Millikan Award for Teaching Excellence" for bringing scientific literacy to all college students, and received a "Master Teacher" award from his university. Since "retiring" in 1999, Hobson has had time to study his favorite topic, quantum foundations. He maintains an office in the physics department and commutes to work on his bicycle.

作者簡介(中文翻譯)

Art Hobson 曾出版五本書籍：

- 《統計力學概念》，一部研究專著（Gordon and Breach Science Publishers 1971，Chemical Rubber Company 1987）；
- 《物理學與人類事務》，一本針對非科學大學生的非數學教材（John Wiley & Sons 1982）；
- 《陸基戰略導彈的未來》（American Institute of Physics 1989）；與其他九位作者共同編輯和撰寫；
- 《物理學：概念與聯繫》（Pearson/Addison-Wesley 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010），另一本針對非科學大學生的教材；
- 《量子故事》（Oxford University Press 2017），一本非數學的量子物理概述。

他撰寫了許多技術性和教學性的物理論文，包括以下幾篇作為《場與其量子》的前驅：

- “沒有粒子，只有場，”《美國物理學期刊》81, 211-223 (2013)；
- “六個有爭議的量子問題的現實主義分析，”收錄於 Mario Bunge Festschrift (Springer 2019)，第329-348頁；
- “糾纏與測量問題，”《量子工程》2022，ID 5889159 (2022)。

Hobson 於1934年出生於費城，1945年移居堪薩斯州的曼哈頓。他於1955年獲得音樂學士學位。在德國服役兩年後，他在紐約市待了六個月，嘗試成為專業爵士音樂家，但未能成功。隨後他轉向物理學，於1958年入讀堪薩斯州立大學，1960年以優異成績畢業，並於1964年獲得物理學博士學位。之後，他加入阿肯色大學的教職，直到1999年退休，期間從事教學和研究。他撰寫了超過175篇專業文章，主要集中於理論物理和物理教育。他於2006年獲得美國物理教師協會的“米利肯教學卓越獎”，以表彰他為所有大學生帶來科學素養，並獲得了他所在大學的“優秀教師”獎。自1999年“退休”以來，Hobson 有時間研究他最喜愛的主題——量子基礎。他在物理系維持一個辦公室，並騎自行車通勤上班。

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