Related papers: Textbook myths about early atomic models
We begin by discussing ``What exists?'', i.e. ontology, in Classical Physics which provided a description of physical phenomena at the macroscopic level. The microworld however necessitates a introduction of Quantum ideas for its…
In the initial stages of its development, atomic theory had to bypass the laws of classical electromagnetism in an ad hoc manner in order to explain the stability of atoms. In quantum mechanics, however, the classical theory may find again…
This introductory text on the basics of quantum mechanics is intended to serve as a kind of travel guide through the quantum world. It starts by asking whether quantum physics is important, or weird, or incomprehensible. It explains why…
A little more than half a year before Matrix Mechanics was born, Max Born finished his book "Vorlesungen ueber Atommechanik, Erster Band", which is a state-of-the-art presentation of Bohr-Sommerfeld quantisation. This book, which today…
The primary aim, in teaching physics, is that the student should gain an understanding of the principles of physics and how to apply them to different problems. A secondary aim is to allow the students to appreciate the scientific approach…
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…
Einstein's dream of describing elementary particles as solutions of a classical field theory is severely limited by our current understanding of Nature. Quantum theory is inconsistent with any local realistic theory such as evolving…
This article discusses incorrect statements appearing in textbooks on quantum field theory (QFT); some of these mistakes also appear in the research literature. The focus is not on errors made by an individual author, but on conceptual…
While complex numbers are essential in mathematics, they are not needed to describe physical experiments, expressed in terms of probabilities, hence real numbers. Physics however aims to explain, rather than describe, experiments through…
Elementary particle physics is gradually implemented into science curricula at high school level. However, common presentations on educational, semi-technical or popular level contain or support severe misconceptions. We discuss in…
Quantum Mechanics (QM) has faced deep controversies and debates since its origin when Werner Heisenberg proposed the first mathematical formalism capable to operationally account for what had been recently discovered as the new field of…
We review Bohr's atomic model and its extension by Sommerfeld from a mathematical perspective of wave mechanics. The derivation of quantization rules and energy levels is revisited using semiclassical methods. Sommerfeld-type integrals are…
Richard Feynman famously said that nobody understands quantum mechanics and cautioned against asking: "But how can it be like that?" Something about the conceptual foundations of the theory is profoundly puzzling, but just what is so…
It is very common to introduce quantum physics in an historical context. Though there are advantages to this, it is a problem that many of the stories that have become central to the physics lore are mere pseudo-histories far detached from…
The famous gedanken experiments of quantum mechanics have played crucial roles in developing the Copenhagen interpretation. They are studied here from the perspective of standard quantum mechanics, with no ontological interpretation…
We provide an introduction to the theory of quantum measurements that is centered on the pivotal role played by John von Neumann's model. This introduction is accessible to students and researchers from outside the field of foundations of…
Why is it interesting to try to understand the origin of the universe? Everything we observe today, including our existence, arose from that event. Although we still do not have a theory that allows us to describe the origin itself, the…
It is argued that, contrary to conventional wisdom, no trustworthy universal self-force/radiative corrections to the Lorentz force equation, can be derived from the basic tenets of classical electrodynamics. This concords with the apparent…
Since its inception Bohmian mechanics has been generally regarded as a hidden-variable theory aimed at providing an objective description of quantum phenomena. To date, this rather narrow conception of Bohm's proposal has caused it more…
Scholars of the history and philosophy of science have asked what would decolonized science would look like. This paper develops an answer by interrogating the assumption that observations need to be recorded and communicated using the…