The Second Quantum Revolution: From Entanglement to Quantum Computing and Other Super-Technologies

331 Pages·2018·2.7 MB·English

by  Lars Jaeger

Lars Jaeger
THE SECOND
QUANTUM
REVOLUTION
From Entanglement to Quantum Computing
and Other Super-Technologies
The Second Quantum Revolution
Lars Jaeger
The Second Quantum
Revolution
From Entanglement to Quantum
Computing and Other
Super-Technologies
Lars Jaeger
Baar, Switzerland
ISBN 978-3-319-98823-8 ISBN 978-3-319-98824-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98824-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952603
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
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To my friends Wolfgang and Alexander
Contents
Part I Quantum 2.0—The Second Technological Revolution
Arising from the Quantum World
1 Mighty Power: How a Theory of the Microcosm Changed Our
World 3
Quantum Physicists—From Magicians to Engineers 5
Ever More Abstract Theory, Ever More Technology—The Laser 7
Quantum Physics and Electronics—From the Transistor to the
Integrated Circuit 9
New Connections—Quantum Chemistry and Quantum Biology 11
Quantum Physics Everywhere—And Much More to Come 13
2 There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom: A New Generation
of Quantum Technologies 15
Quantum Spookiness Becomes Technology 17
Measuring Ever More Accurately—Possible through
new Quantum Technologies 21
The Holy Grail of Data Security—Quantum Cryptology 24
3 Technology on the Smallest Scales: The Possibilities
of Nanotechnology 27
Nano—infinite Possibilities on the Scale of the Invisibly Small 28
Wonder Materials 30
More Valuable Than Diamonds 31
From Micro- to Nanoelectronics 33
vii
viii Contents
Ultra-Small Machines—Masters of the Nano-World 34
When Nanotechnology and Biotechnology Merge 35
Assemblers—A World Out of Dust 37
4 Incredibly Fast: From the Digital to the Quantum Computer 39
Today’s Computer—A Concept from the 1940s 40
A New Way to Calculate 43
Exponential Computing Power 44
Problems Quantum Computers Can Solve—And New
Ones They Could Create 47
When Will the Quantum Computer Come? 50
The Quantum Internet 51
Part II Quantum Worlds—The Bizarre in the Very Small
5 Contradictory Atoms: Philosophical Problems with
the Smallest Building Blocks of Nature 57
Philosophical Contradictions 58
The Cave Allegory Versus Atoms with Hooks and Lugs 60
The Path Towards a Physical Theory of Atoms 62
The Problematic Framework of Classical Physics 64
6 Natura facit saltus: On Quantum Jumps and Particles
Being Created Out of Nothing 67
An Act of Despair 67
The Next Quantum Leap—Einstein’s Light Particles 69
Wave–Particle Duality 71
From Thomson’s Raisin Bread Model to Bohr’s Quantum Leaps 73
Barcodes of the Elements 75
7 Tertium Datur: Wave and Particle at the Same Time 77
Wave–Particle Duality 2.0 78
Wave Mechanics—A Brave New Abstract World 79
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and the New Quantum
Mechanics 81
Wave Function and Probabilities—The Departure
from Physical Causality 83
Contents ix
8 As Well as and Neither/Nor: Superposition—How
Things Can Be Here and There at the Same Time 87
Bizarre Behaviour at the Double Slit 88
The Mysterious Collapse of the Wave Function 91
Bohr’s Principle of Complementarity—The Copenhagen
Interpretation 92
Disagreement—The Bohr-Einstein Debate About a Spooky
Action at a Distance 94
9 Loss of Identity: The New Reality Concept of Quantum
Physics and Its Consequences 97
Resolving the Borders between Subject and Object 98
Two Electrons—And yet One and the Same 99
Two and yet One 100
Old Puzzle, New Solution—The Gibbs Paradox 103
Alternation Games with Fermions and Bosons 104
Superconductivity, Superfluidity, and the Laser—Useful
Macroscopic Quantum Effects 106
Open Problems in the Copenhagen Interpretation 108
Part III From Quantum Field Theories to a “Theory
of Everything”—All Material Dissolves
10 Negative Energies and the Electron Spin: Combining the
Theory of Relativity to Produce a New Quantum Theory 113
Einstein’s Second Stroke of Genius—The Special Theory of
Relativity 114
A New Equation and the Solution of the Spin Puzzle 116
From Consternation to One of the Great Moments
of Theoretical Physics 118
Holes in the Sea 119
The Path Towards the First Quantum Field Theory 120
11 Quantum Field Theories: All Matter Dissolves 123
From the Classical Particle to the Quantum Field in Two Leaps 124
The New World Takes the Lead 127
Quanta of the Electromagnetic Field—The New Role of the
Photon 129
Particles Out of Nothing 131
x Contents
The Dematerialization of Matter 133
Everything Is One 134
12 Infinity Minus Infinity Gives Something Finite: How
Physicists Learnt to Deal with Infinitely Large Values
in the Infinitely Small 137
Open Sesame! 138
Spirals and Loops 139
Complicated Without Limits 142
Beyond the Horizon 143
Remaining Discomfort 144
13 More and More Particles: From the Particle Zoo
to the Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics 147
Confusion in the Particle Zoo 147
The Noble Eightfold Path in Physics 149
Three Quarks for Muster Mark 151
Imprisoned Quarks 153
The Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics 154
The Particle Without Which Nothing Works 156
Not yet the End 157
14 Einstein Does Not Fit: The Fundamental Problem
in Physics Today 159
Einstein’s Second Theory of Relativity 160
Very Close to the Sun 162
Dead End Singularity 163
The Hierarchy Problem 165
Beyond the Standard Model 167
Supersymmetries, Strings, and Quantum Loops 169
Looking Toward the Stars 170
Part IV Cutting Across Philosophical, Aesthetic,
and Spiritual Frames of Thought
15 The Path Towards Substancelessness: Breaking with
2,600 Years of Philosophical Thought 175
Losing Ground Beneath Our Feet 177
Happy Physicists, Unhappy Philosophers 179
“Shut up and Calculate!” 181
Contents xi
16 A New Understanding of Truth: How Quantum Physics
Made Absolute Reality Disappear, and with It Absolute Truth 183
The Revolutionary from Königsberg 185
Happy Philosophers, Unhappy Physicists 187
Wine and Water 189
All or Nothing? 192
17 The Eternal Interplay: Surprising Overlaps Between
Quantum Physics and Buddhism 195
The End of the Ego Illusion 197
The Lack of Substance of the Middle Way 198
Emptiness in the Heart 201
Inextricably Linked and yet Not Blurred into One 203
A Bridge Reaching Across More Than 1,800 Years 204
18 Symmetries: Beauty in the House of Physics 207
From Art to Science 208
Symmetry as Invariance 210
The Greatest Female Mathematician of All Times 212
An Excursion into Fourth Year University Mathematics 214
Too Good to Be True 216
The Birthmark on the Cheek 217
19 Quantum Consciousness and the Tao of Physics:
On Quantum Holism, Quantum Healing, and Other
Quantum Nonsense 221
Quantum Physics and the Mind—A Popular Connection 222
Quantum Physics as a Substitute for Clear Thinking 223
A Few Decades Too Late 224
A Child’s Play 226
The Tao of Physics—The Quantum Esoteric Movement 227
The Fallacy of Quantum Mysticism 230
20 Quantum Physics and Faith: Explaining the Inexplicable 231
Einstein and the Dice-Throwing God 232
Bohr and Far Eastern Thinking 234
Heisenberg and the World of Values 236
How Quantum Physics Pushed Faith to the Side 238
What Physics Has to Leave Open 239