This book left me with an unsettled feeling. New Approaches to Quantum Physics: From Paradoxes to Nonlinearity (2015) has been written for the educated laymen by a couple of scientific dissenters - J R Croca and R N Moreira. In this book, the authors take on the entire physics establishment by attacking directly one of the most cherished thought structures of all time - The Copenhagen Interpretation (CI) of quantum mechanics.
Feynman once said: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." I humbly concur even after having taken a graduate course on the subject. Where did the Schrodinger equation come from? What is the "collapse of the wave function"? These are unresolved questions.
The CI - based on Niels Bohr's "Principle of Complementarity" - tries to make sense of it all. In the process it denies the reality of space and time, does away with causality and resorts to indeterminism and "spooky action at a distance" (Einstein's words). In spite of all this the CI is one of the greatest constructs ever conceived by man!
Croca and Moreira state that the unstated postulate in CI is the "Fourier ontology" according to which Fourier waves are arranged according to frequencies and from which the discrete energy levels are obtained. Now that I think of it, it seems puzzling that the entire edifice of quantum mechanics should rest on the "Fourier ontology" which is but a mathematical artifice. Croca and Moreira opine that the whole "Fourier ontology" can be done away with by seeking solutions using wavelets which are localized spatially and temporally.
The authors also point out that recently (in the 1990s) "supermicroscopes" have been constructed that give resolutions forbidden by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In other words, the uncertainty principle has been violated! This, they claim, is a limitation of Bohrean quantum mechanics and an invitation to go beyond the CI.
They state that Bohrean quantum mechanics is a linear science but nature need not necessarily be described in linear terms. They propose an alternative nonlinear "causal quantum mechanics" based on the de Broglie ideas of "pilot waves".
The book has been translated into English from Portuguese and contains a lot of grammatical mistakes. But the central message is clear enough: Bohrean quantum mechanics is not the last word, inspite of its enormous successes. A simpler, more intuitive approach to quantum mechanics is possible which does not do away with realism.
If Croca and Moreira are even partially correct, we are on the cusp of another revolution in physics which may modify the CI. But it may take a decade or two to come to a definite conclusion. We are living in interesting times!
Feynman once said: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." I humbly concur even after having taken a graduate course on the subject. Where did the Schrodinger equation come from? What is the "collapse of the wave function"? These are unresolved questions.
The CI - based on Niels Bohr's "Principle of Complementarity" - tries to make sense of it all. In the process it denies the reality of space and time, does away with causality and resorts to indeterminism and "spooky action at a distance" (Einstein's words). In spite of all this the CI is one of the greatest constructs ever conceived by man!
Croca and Moreira state that the unstated postulate in CI is the "Fourier ontology" according to which Fourier waves are arranged according to frequencies and from which the discrete energy levels are obtained. Now that I think of it, it seems puzzling that the entire edifice of quantum mechanics should rest on the "Fourier ontology" which is but a mathematical artifice. Croca and Moreira opine that the whole "Fourier ontology" can be done away with by seeking solutions using wavelets which are localized spatially and temporally.
The authors also point out that recently (in the 1990s) "supermicroscopes" have been constructed that give resolutions forbidden by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In other words, the uncertainty principle has been violated! This, they claim, is a limitation of Bohrean quantum mechanics and an invitation to go beyond the CI.
They state that Bohrean quantum mechanics is a linear science but nature need not necessarily be described in linear terms. They propose an alternative nonlinear "causal quantum mechanics" based on the de Broglie ideas of "pilot waves".
The book has been translated into English from Portuguese and contains a lot of grammatical mistakes. But the central message is clear enough: Bohrean quantum mechanics is not the last word, inspite of its enormous successes. A simpler, more intuitive approach to quantum mechanics is possible which does not do away with realism.
If Croca and Moreira are even partially correct, we are on the cusp of another revolution in physics which may modify the CI. But it may take a decade or two to come to a definite conclusion. We are living in interesting times!
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