Related papers: Autobiographical Notes of a Physicist
Some reflections are presented on the state of the search for a quantum theory of gravity. I discuss diverse regimes of possible quantum gravitational phenomenon, some well explored, some novel.
This is a self-contained set of lecture notes covering various aspects of the theory of open quantum system, at a level appropriate for a one-semester graduate course. The main emphasis is on completely positive maps and master equations,…
I have been asked to write brief, gentle introduction to the basic idea behind the field of "quantum gravity" in 1500 words or less. Doing so appears to be almost as great a challenge as coming up with a consistent theory of quantum…
Learning to think like a physicist (LTP) is often cited as a central goal of graduate physics education, yet what this means in practice and the extent to which physics graduate education prepares students to develop LTP and view LTP as…
Over the last few years part of the quantum-gravity community has adopted a more optimistic attitude toward the possibility of finding experimental contexts providing insight on non-classical properties of spacetime. I review those…
A quantum mechanics representation based on position ($\vec{r}$), linear momentum($\vec{p}$) and energy($E$) eigenvalues is presented here. A set of equations, explicitly independent on wave function, was derived relating these observables.…
Notes from the lectures by the author at the 7th Jerusalem Winter School 1990 on Quantum Cosmology and Baby Universes. The lectures covered quantum mechanics for closed systems like the universe, generalized quantum mechanics, time in…
We discuss various descriptions of a quantum particle on noncommutative space in a (possibly non-constant) magnetic field. We have tried to present the basic facts in a unified and synthetic manner, and to clarify the relationship between…
The concept of the physical state of a system is ubiquitous in physics but is usually presented in terms of specific cases. For example, the state of a point particle of mass m is completely characterized by its position and momentum. There…
This book is an attempt to help students transform all of the concepts of quantum mechanics into concrete computer representations, which can be constructed, evaluated, analyzed, and hopefully understood at a deeper level than what is…
In recent decades there has been a resurge of interest in the foundations of quantum theory, partly motivated by new experimental techniques, partly by the emerging field of quantum information science. Old questions, asked since the…
This resource letter intends to provide physics instructors - particularly graduate student teaching assistants - at the introductory university level with a small but representative collection of resources to acquire a familiarity with…
How should we interpret physical theories, and especially quantum theory, if we drop the assumption that we should treat it as an exact description of the whole Universe? I expound and develop the claim that physics is about the study of…
Even though there has been a tremendous amount of research done in how to help students learn physics, students are still coming away missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: why bother with physics? Students learn fundamental laws and how to…
We consider the implications of some simple assumptions about the nature of the quantum theory of gravity which are plausible for a class of possible theories I have been attempting to construct. The simple assumptions turn out to have…
The success of the abstract model of computation, in terms of bits, logical operations, programming language constructs, and the like, makes it easy to forget that computation is a physical process. Our cherished notions of computation and…
The state of our understanding of cosmology is reviewed from an astrophysical cosmologist point of view with a particular emphasis given to recent observations and their impact. Discussion is then presented on the implications for particle…
Some contributions of physics towards the understanding of consciousness are described. As recent relevant models, associative memory neural networks are mentioned. It is shown that consciousness and quantum physics share some properties.…
This paper collects some problems that I have encountered during the years, have puzzled me and which, to the best of my knowledge, are still open. Most of them are well-known and have been first stated by other authors. In this sad season…
I explore whether it is possible to make sense of the quantum mechanical description of physical reality by taking the proper subject of physics to be correlation and only correlation, and by separating the problem of understanding the…