Nine formulations of quantum mechanics

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 70, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 288-297

  Styer, Daniel F ^a   Balkin, Miranda S ^a   Becker, Kathryn M ^a   Burns, Matthew R ^a   Dudley, Christopher E ^a   Forth, Scott T ^a   Gaumer, Jeremy S ^a   Kramer, Mark A ^a   Oertel, David C ^a   Park, Leonard H ^a   Rinkoski, Marie T ^a   Smith, Clait T ^a   Wotherspoon, Timothy D ^a  

^a OBERLIN COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 23044530717     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.1445404     Document Type: Article

References (16)

1. To our classical sensibilities, the phenomena of quantum mechanics - interference, entanglement, nonlocal correlations, and so forth-seem weird. The various formulations package that weirdness in various ways, but none of them can eliminate it because the weirdness comes from the facts, not the formalism.
2. E. B. Wilson, "Some personal scientific reminiscences, " International Journal of Quantum Chemistry: Quantum Chemistry Symposium, Proceedings of the International Symposium held at Flagler Beach, Florida, 10-20 March 1980, Vol. 14, pp. 17-29, 1980 (see p. 21).
3. Wilson co-authored one of the very earliest quantum mechanics textbooks, namely L. Pauling and E. B. Wilson, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1935).
4. C. A. Fuchs and A. Peres, "Quantum theory needs no 'interpretation', " Phys. Today 53, 70-71 (March 2000);
5. D. Styer, "Quantum theory - interpretation, formulation, inspiration [letter], " ibid. 53, 11 (September 2000);
6. C. A. Fuchs and A. Peres, "Reply, " ibid. 53, 14, 90 (September 2000).
7. W. Heisenberg, The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory, translated by Carl Eckart and F. C. Hoyt (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1930), p. 20.
8. N. Bohr, "Discussion with Einstein on epistemological problems in atomic physics, " in Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist, edited by P. A. Schilpp (Library of Living Philosophers, Evanston, IL, 1949), p. 237.
9. Reprinted in N. Bohr, Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (Wiley, New York, 1958), pp. 63-64.
10. N. David Mermin, unpublished lectures given at Cornell University.
11. Schrödinger used both words in his first 1926 paper (Ref. 12 in the text). In the translation (Ref. 14 in the text), "congenial" appears on p. 10 and "intuitive" on p. 9. The latter corresponds to the German anschaulch, which has been variously translated as "intuitive, " "pictorial, " or "visualizable."
12. See, for example, A. Pais, Inward Bound (Clarendon, Oxford, UK, 1986), p. 256.
13. We represent arbitrary wavefunctions by ψ(x) or by φ(x), and energy eigenfunctions by n(x), because the Greek letterη suggests "e" (as in "energy eigenfunction" and as in "eta"). This admirable convention was established by D. T. Gillespie, in A Quantum Mechanics Primer (International Textbook Company, Scranton, PA, 1970).
14. I0 J. Bernstein, Quantum Profiles (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1991), pp. 72-77.
15. Cramer, Ref. 63 in the text, p. 661.
16. Cramer, Ref. 63 in the text, p. 663.