Related papers: Autobiographical Notes of a Physicist
This is an informal introduction to the ideas of decoherence and emergent classicality, including a simple account of the decoherent histories approach to quantum theory. It is aimed at undergraduates with a basic appreciation of quantum…
Students of quantum mechanics encounter discrete quantum numbers in a somewhat incoherent and bewildering number of ways. For each physical system studied, quantum numbers seem to be introduced in its own specific way, some enumerating from…
Outlooks of particle physics researchers on their careers and the general challenges in establishing their careers over different career stages are surveyed using a questionnaire distributed to participants in an ERC-funded research…
This is an essay review of the book by D. Home: "Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Physics: An Overview from Modern Perspectives" (New York: Plenum Press, 1997), xvii+386 pp., ISBN 0-306-45660-5.
A.P. Balachandran was a theoretical physicist of extraordinary versatility and originality. In a career spanning over six decades, he made many significant contributions to quantum field theory and mathematical physics. His influence…
These lecture notes are an informal introduction to the theory of computational complexity and its links to quantum computing and statistical mechanics.
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…
In the half century since the 1950s computer simulation has transformed our understanding of physics. The rare, expensive, slow, and bulky mainframes of World War II have given way to today's millions of cheap, fast, desksized workstations…
The ongoing progress in quantum theory emphasizes the crucial role of the very basic principles of quantum theory. However, this is not properly followed in teaching quantum mechanics on the graduate and undergraduate levels of physics…
In this thesis I present a short review of ideas in quantum information theory. The first chapter contains introductory material, sketching the central ideas of probability and information theory. Quantum mechanics is presented at the level…
A core level of basic information for physics is identified, based on an analysis of the characteristics of the parameters space, time, mass and charge. At this level, it is found that certain symmetries operate, which can be used to…
Foundational investigations in quantum mechanics, both experimental and theoretical, gave birth to the field of quantum information science. Nevertheless, the foundations of quantum mechanics themselves remain hotly debated in the…
The reader surely knows what particles physics is about: finding building blocks of nature that appear elementary at a given time and study their interactions - so why in the world this essay? The problem is how to arrive at a fundamental…
I shall try to say a few words about two particular ways in which my own work has a certain relation to your work with heavy ions. My title is therefore "Quantum Optics and Heavy Ion Physics".
These lecture notes provide a relatively self-contained introduction to field theoretic methods employed in the study of classical and quantum phase transitions.
In the Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, " 'I' is not the name of a person, nor 'here' of a place, .... But they are connected with names. ... [And] it is characteristic of physics not to use these words." This…
This text aims to explains briefly the formalism of quantum mechanics to mathematicians.
We outline Fermi's early attitude towards old quantum physics. We sketch out the context from which his interest for quantum physics arose, and we deal with his work on quantum statistics. We also go through the first two courses on…
This work sets out to answer a single question: what is the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics? However, we adopt a different approach to that normally used. Rather than surveying physicists, or poring over the precise details of…
Physics has a bad press: it is seen by a majority of people as a boring discipline ever since their High School days. There is no glamour to it, just toil and pain, and for many who engaged in it, the end sight is often unemployment. Could…