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    Quantum Theory and Reality

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    mangalvao2009
    This document discusses the relationship between quantum theory and classical physics. It notes that some physicists believe new laws will be found that unify quantum and classical behavior at all scales, similar to advances made by Galileo and Newton. It also examines the view that classical behavior emerges from quantum behavior of small constituents, but finds this view is not entirely believable. The document warns that the relationship between the quantum and classical realms is controversial, with many viewpoints, and it will only present the author's perspective.

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    Quantum Theory and Reality

    Uploaded by

    mangalvao2009
    13 views1 page
    This document discusses the relationship between quantum theory and classical physics. It notes that some physicists believe new laws will be found that unify quantum and classical behavior at all scales, similar to advances made by Galileo and Newton. It also examines the view that classical behavior emerges from quantum behavior of small constituents, but finds this view is not entirely believable. The document warns that the relationship between the quantum and classical realms is controversial, with many viewpoints, and it will only present the author's perspective.

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    This document discusses the relationship between quantum theory and classical physics. It notes that some physicists believe new laws will be found that unify quantum and classical behavior at all scales, similar to advances made by Galileo and Newton. It also examines the view that classical behavior emerges from quantum behavior of small constituents, but finds this view is not entirely believable. The document warns that the relationship between the quantum and classical realms is controversial, with many viewpoints, and it will only present the author's perspective.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    13 views1 page

    Quantum Theory and Reality

    Uploaded by

    mangalvao2009
    This document discusses the relationship between quantum theory and classical physics. It notes that some physicists believe new laws will be found that unify quantum and classical behavior at all scales, similar to advances made by Galileo and Newton. It also examines the view that classical behavior emerges from quantum behavior of small constituents, but finds this view is not entirely believable. The document warns that the relationship between the quantum and classical realms is controversial, with many viewpoints, and it will only present the author's perspective.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    308 Quantum theory and reality

    opinion-an opinion shared by a sizeable minority of physicists-that this


    state of physical understanding cannot be other than a stop-gap, and we may
    well anticipate that the finding of appropriate quantum/classical laws that
    operate uniformly at all scales might herald a scientific advance of a magnitude
    comparable with that initiated by Galileo and Newton.
    The reader may, however, quite rightly question whether it is indeed the
    case that our standard understanding of quantum theory presents us with a
    quantum-level picture which does not also explain classical phenomena.
    Many would disclaim my contention that it does not, asserting that physical
    systems that are in some sense large or complicated, and acting entirely
    according to quantum-level laws, would behave just like classical objects, at
    least to a very high degree of accuracy. We shall try, first, to see whether this
    assertion-the assertion that the apparently 'classical' behaviour oflarge-scale
    objects follows from the quantum behaviour of their tiny constituents-is
    believable. And if we find that it is not, we shall try to see where to turn, in
    order to arrive at a coherent viewpoint that might make sense at all levels. I
    should warn the reader, however, that the entire question is fraught with much
    controversy. There are many different viewpoints, and it would be foolish for
    me to try to give a comprehensive summary of them all, let alone to argue in
    detail against all of those that I find implausible or untenable. I ask the reader's
    indulgence for the fact that the viewpoints that I present will be given very
    much from my own perspective. It is inevitable that I shall not be entirely fair
    to those whose viewpoints are too foreign to my own, and I apologize in
    advance for the injustices that I shall undoubtedly commit.
    There is a fundamental difficulty with trying to find a clear scale at which the
    quantum level of activity, characterized by the persistence of quantum
    superpositions of different alternatives, actually gives way-by the action of
    R-to the classical, at which such superpositions do not seem to occur. This
    results from an inherent 'slipperiness' in the procedure R, from the
    observational point of view, which prevents us from pinpointing any clear
    level at which it 'happens'-one reason that many physicists do not regard it as
    a real phenomenon at all. It seems to make no difference to experiments where
    we choose to apply R, so long as we do so at a level higher than that at which
    quantum interference effects have been observed, yet no higher than the level
    at which we can directly perceive that classical alternatives do take place,
    rather than being in complex linear superpositions (though, as we shall be
    seeing shortly, even at this end some would maintain that the superpositions
    persist).
    How can we decide at what level R actually takes place-if indeed it really
    takes place physically at all? It is hard to see how to answer such a question by
    physical experiment. If R is a real physical process, there is a vast range of
    possible levels at which it might occur, between tiny levels where quantum
    interference effects have been observed, and the much larger level at which
    classical behaviour is actually perceived. Moreover, these differences in 'level'

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