The Quantum Adventure: Does God Play Dice?

259 Pages·2011·12.78 MB·English

by  Alex Montwill

THe
QUANTUM
ADVENTURE
Does God Play Dice?
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THe
QUANTUM
ADVENTURE
Does God Play Dice?
Alex Montwill Ann Breslin
•
University College Dublin, Ireland
Imperial College Press
ICP
P751.9781848166479-tp.indd 2 10/20/11 3:12 PM
Published by
Imperial College Press
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Covent Garden
London WC2H 9HE
Distributed by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
THE QUANTUM ADVENTURE
Does God Play Dice?
Copyright © 2012 by Imperial College Press
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.
For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright
Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to
photocopy is not required from the publisher.
ISBN-13 978-1-84816-647-9
ISBN-10 1-84816-647-8
ISBN-13 978-1-84816-648-6 (pbk)
ISBN-10 1-84816-648-6 (pbk)
Typeset by Stallion Press
Email: [email protected]
Printed in Singapore.
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This book is dedicated to Ann and Liam,
our life partners
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Contents
Dedication v
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Prehistory — Isaac Newton 5
Chapter 2: Preparing for Quantum Mechanics 15
Chapter 3: The Pre-Quantum Atom — A Temporary 33
Solution
Chapter 4: Max Planck — The Birth of the Quantum 47
Adventure
Chapter 5: Light — Wave or Projectile? 69
Chapter 6: Einstein Enters the Scene 79
Chapter 7: Niels Bohr Introduces the Quantum into 95
Atomic Physics
Chapter 8: Werner Heisenberg — An Equation 109
for Uncertainty
Chapter 9: Louis de Broglie — Matter Waves 125
Chapter 10: Erwin Schrödinger — Wave Mechanics 133
Chapter 11: Eigenstates — The Theory of the Seen 149
and Unseen
Chapter 12: Eigenstates in the Subnuclear World 159
Chapter 13: Paul Dirac — Tying Things Together 171
Chapter 14: Richard Feynman — The Strange Theory 191
of Light and Matter
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viii The Quantum Adventure
Chapter 15: Quantum Reality — The World of the Absurd 213
Epilogue 237
Milestones 239
Index 243
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Lorraine Hanlon, Head of the UCD School of
Physics, for her support and for providing us with the facilities of the
School. Our colleagues were always ready to help; in particular,
Emma Sokell, who assisted with setting up the imaging of demon-
stration experiments and John Quinn, who was always there to res-
cue us from the vagaries of computers. John White made numerical
calculations of graphs and interference patterns.
Special thanks are due to Bairbre Fox, and Marian Hanson who,
at all times, were ready to be of assistance.
It was a pleasure to work with Tasha D’Cruz of Imperial College
Press who guided us through the task with skill and patience.
We are indebted to all who gave us high resolution images of
their experiments and copyright permissions. They are acknowl-
edged individually in the text.
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