Related papers: A Bit too Far
The problem of understanding quantum mechanics is in large measure the problem of finding appropriate ways of thinking about the spatial and temporal aspects of the physical world. The standard, substantival, set-theoretic conception of…
Molecular structure is often considered as emerging from the decoherence effect of the environment. Electrons are part of the environment of the nuclei in a molecule. In this work, their contribution to the classical-like geometrical…
At the primary level of reality as described by quantum field theory, a fundamental particle like an electron represents a stable, discrete, propagating excited state of its underlying quantum field. QFT also tells us that the lowest vacuum…
Some recent results concerning a particle confined in a one-dimensional box with moving walls are briefly reviewed. By exploiting the same techniques used for the 1D problem, we investigate the behavior of a quantum particle confined in a…
It often goes unnoticed that, even for a finite number of degrees of freedom, the canonical commutation relations have many inequivalent irreducible unitary representations; the free particle and a particle in a box provide examples that…
We study equilibrium configurations of infinitely many identical particles on the real line or finitely many particles on the circle, such that the (repelling) force they exert on each other depends only on their distance. The main question…
The variance of the number of levels in an energy interval around a level with large quantum numbers (semiclassical quantization) is studied for a particle in a rectangular box. Sampling involves changing the ratio of the rectangle's sides…
Duality transformations within the quantum mechanics of a finite number of degrees of freedom can be regarded as the dependence of the notion of a quantum, i.e., an elementary excitation of the vacuum, on the observer on classical phase…
In the operational approach to general probabilistic theories one distinguishes two spaces, the state space of the "elementary systems" and the physical space in which "laboratory devices" are embedded. Each of those spaces has its own…
The small angle scattering (by a gravitational field) of classical and quantum particles is considered and compared. It is suggested that the differences in small angle scattering of particles with spin 0, 1, 2 are due to the nonzero…
Semiclassical methods have been applied very successfully to describe the nontrivial transition from the quantum to the classical regime in $\textit{single}$-particle or at least $\textit{few}$-particle systems. Challenges on the way to an…
Physical fractals invariably have upper and lower limits for their fractal structure. Berry has shown that a particle sharply confined to a box has a wave function that is fractal both in time and space, with no lower limit. In this…
This is a comment on arXiv:1611.04445 (PRL, 118, 114801 (2017)). It is pointed out that the fundamental problems in light beam vortices and the relativistic electron vortices are not identical and have subtle differences. The significance…
We address three issues. i. The point particle assumption, inherent to non-quantum physics, is singular and entails divergent fields and integrals. ii. In quantum physics EM plays an asymmetric roll. It acts on quantum wave fields (wave…
Relative motion of particles is examined in the context of relational space-time. It is shown that de Broglie waves may be derived as a representation of the coordinate maps between the rest-frames of these particles. Energy and momentum…
The interaction of an electron with a polar molecule is shown to be the simplest realization of a quantum anomaly in a physical system. The existence of a critical dipole moment for electron capture and formation of anions, which has been…
Small changes in an external parameter can often lead to dramatic qualitative changes in the lowest energy quantum mechanical ground state of a correlated electron system. In anisotropic crystals, such as the high temperature…
Another Bell test "loophole" - imperfect rotational invariance - is explored, and novel realist ideas on parametric down-conversion as used in recent "quantum entanglement" experiments are presented. The usual quantum theory of entangled…
Rotation of such objects as an atomic nucleus or a chromodynamical string can result in specific effects in scattering processes and multiparticle production. Secondary fragments of the rotating nucleus or of the decaying string can move…
A relativistic electron uniformly rotating along an equatorial orbit around a dielectric ball may generate Cherenkov radiation tens of times more intense as that in case of revolution of a particle in a continuous, infinite and transparent…