Related papers: But, how can the atom be so stable, Dr. Maxwell?
This philosophical dialogue explores the idea that the foundational principles of quantum mechanics need not be interpreted as describing a new physics, but may instead arise from the logical necessity of formalising the act of measurement…
Although cosmic expansion at very small distances is usually dismissed as entirely inconsequential, it appears that these extraordinarily small effects may in fact have a real and significant influence on our world. Calculations suggest…
The cosmological constant problem is principally concerned with trying to understand how the zero-point energy of quantum fields contributes to gravity. Here we take the approach that by addressing a fundamental unresolved issue in quantum…
It is shown that the independence of the continuum hypothesis points to the unique definite status of the set of intermediate cardinality: the intermediate set exists only as a subset of continuum. This latent status is a consequence of…
Constructor theory seeks to express all fundamental scientific theories in terms of a dichotomy between possible and impossible physical transformations - those that can be caused to happen and those that cannot. This is a departure from…
We study the Hydrogen atom as a quantum mechanical system with a Coulomb like potential, with a semiclassical approach based on an effective description of quantum mechanics. This treatment allows us to describe the quantum state of the…
The linearization of semiclassical theories of gravity is investigated in a toy model, consisting of a quantum scalar field in interaction with a second classical scalar field which plays the role of a classical background. This toy model…
It is the matter of fact that quantum mechanics operates with notions that are not determined in the frame of the mechanics' formalism. Among them we can call the notion of "wave-particle" (that, however, does not appear in both classical…
The classical limit of quantum mechanics is investigated, by focusing on the study of the center of mass of a many-body system where each particle is described by quantum mechanics. We study how, in the limit when the number of particles…
It is argued on the basis of certain mathematical characteristics that classical mechanics is not constitutionally suited to accomodate consciousness, whereas quantum mechanics is. These mathematical characteristics pertain to the nature of…
Starting from a simple classical framework and employing some stochastic concepts, the basic ingredients of the quantum formalism are recovered. It has been shown that the traditional axiomatic structure of quantum mechanics can be rebuilt,…
A survey of the stability of matter problem is given, starting with the stability of the hydrogen atom. The stablity of bulk matter with Coulomb potentials, with or without relativistic mechanics, and with or without magnetic fields is…
Quantum mechanics is widely regarded as a complete theory, yet we argue it is a tractable projection of a deeper, computationally-inaccessible classical variational structure. By analyzing the coupled partial differential equations of the…
I first review the physical basis for the universal maximal proper acceleration. Next, I introduce a new formulation for a relativistic scalar quantum field which generalizes the canonical theory to include the limiting proper acceleration.…
A charged particle which is allowed to accelerate must have relativistic behavior because it is coupled to electromagnetic radiation which propagates at the speed of light. We treat the simple steady-state situation of a charged particle…
In a previous article [H. Bergeron, J. Math. Phys. 42, 3983 (2001)], we presented a method to obtain a continuous transition from classical to quantum mechanics starting from the usual phase space formulation of classical mechanics. This…
After having explained Samuel Clarke's conception of the new philosophy of physical reality, we will treat the electron field in this context as a field modifying the void. From this we will be able to derive the so-called quantum rules…
When a mountaineer is ascending one of the great peaks of the Himalayas she knows that an entirely new vista awaits her at the top, whose ramifications will be known only after she gets there. Her immediate goal though, is to tackle the…
In this paper I show that light-atom interaction can be described using purely classical field theory without any quantization. In particular, atom excitation by light that accounts for damping due to spontaneous emission is fully described…
We consider classical theories described by Hamiltonians $H(p,q)$ that have a non-degenerate minimum at the point where generalized momenta $p$ and generalized coordinates $q$ vanish. We assume that the sum of squares of generalized momenta…