Compendium of Quantum Physics

Compendium of Quantum Physics

Quantum physics is not a simple subject. Yet as the most successful description of the physical world on fundamental scales, its importance demands that students familiarize themselves with its ideas. We’re delighted to offer a new reference that makes this task easier than ever before. Unprecedented in scope, the Compendium of Quantum Physics provides a comprehensive guide to the concepts, experiments, history and philosophy of the field.

As a whole, the book offers three principal benefits. First, it provides clear definitions of numerous terms in quantum physics; second, it traces the historical origins of a wide variety of quantum concepts; third, it provides references to the most relevant literature. And because the historical and philosophical aspects of the subject are as significant as its technical details, many historians and philosophers as well as scientists participated in its writing.

A staggering array of topics and contributors

The roster of 100 contributors includes three Nobel physics laureates—Anthony Leggett, Klaus von Klitzing and Frank Wilczek—as well as science historian Helge Kragh, philosopher of science Abner Shimony, and many others. The 900-page volume consists of 240 alphabetized entries, from Aharonov-Bohm effect to zero-point energy. A glance at the Table of Contents reveals several themes. These include:
• Interpretations of quantum mechanics. In addition to the prevailing Copenhagen interpretation, readers will find detailed discussions of the Bohm, ignorance, Ithaca, many worlds, modal, orthodox, probabilistic and transactional interpretations, as well as a summary entry on interpretations of quantum mechanics.
• Notable experiments. The properties of the quantum realm have been subjected to many tests. Those explored in these pages include the Aspect experiment (which proved the reality of nonlocality); the Davisson-Germer experiment (which first measured the wavelength of electrons); and the Stern-Gerlach experiment (which established the quantization of angular momentum).
• Specific phenomena. Among the quantum phenomena investigated here are the Casimir effect (involving the magnitude of force between conducting plates), the creation and detection of entanglement (linking two or more widely separated particles in a specific fashion) and decoherence (helping explain why macroscopic objects possess classical rather than quantum properties).

In-depth insights on exotic ideas and phenomena

Readers of the Compendium will be impressed by the depth and clarity of its entries. For example, you will learn about:
• Bell’s theorem. While technical in its details, John Bell’s 1964 theorem demonstrated that an entire class of theories about the physical world—known as “objective local theories”—must yield experimental predictions that under certain conditions are inconsistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics.
• Bose-Einstein condensation. A phenomenon that occurs in a macroscopic system of bosons at low temperatures: a nonzero fraction of all the particles in the system will occupy a single one-particle state for all temperatures below a specific transition temperature.
• Delayed-choice experiments. In this class of experiments illustrating wave/particle duality, we postpone the decision to measure a photon as a wave or as a particle until well after the wave packet representing the photon has entered the experimental apparatus. The verdict: the delay does not affect the outcome.
• Heisenberg uncertainty relation. There are actually three such relations formulated in Heisenberg’ seminal paper of 1927. The “indeterminacy relation” states that it is impossible to prepare quantum states in which position and momentum are simultaneousl

Hardcover: 904 pages

Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York ( August 03, 2009 )

Item #: 16-7401

ISBN: 9783540706229

Product Dimensions: 6.0 x 9.25 x 0.0 inches

Product Weight: 50.0 ounces