The Emergent Multiverse

Author: David Wallace
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191057398
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 547

Book Description
The Emergent Multiverse presents a striking new account of the 'many worlds' approach to quantum theory. The point of science, it is generally accepted, is to tell us how the world works and what it is like. But quantum theory seems to fail to do this: taken literally as a theory of the world, it seems to make crazy claims: particles are in two places at once; cats are alive and dead at the same time. So physicists and philosophers have often been led either to give up on the idea that quantum theory describes reality, or to modify or augment the theory. The Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics takes the apparent craziness seriously, and asks, 'what would it be like if particles really were in two places at once, if cats really were alive and dead at the same time'? The answer, it turns out, is that if the world were like that—if it were as quantum theory claims—it would be a world that, at the macroscopic level, was constantly branching into copies—hence the more sensationalist name for the Everett interpretation, the 'many worlds theory'. But really, the interpretation is not sensationalist at all: it simply takes quantum theory seriously, literally, as a description of the world. Once dismissed as absurd, it is now accepted by many physicists as the best way to make coherent sense of quantum theory. David Wallace offers a clear and up-to-date survey of work on the Everett interpretation in physics and in philosophy of science, and at the same time provides a self-contained and thoroughly modern account of it—an account which is accessible to readers who have previously studied quantum theory at undergraduate level, and which will shape the future direction of research by leading experts in the field.

The Emergent Multiverse

Author: David Wallace
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191631345
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages :

Many Worlds?

Author: Simon Saunders
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191614114
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 636

Book Description
What does realism about the quantum state imply? What follows when quantum theory is applied without restriction, if need be, to the whole universe? These are the questions which an illustrious team of philosophers and physicists debate in this volume. All the contributors are agreed on realism, and on the need, or the aspiration, for a theory that unites micro- and macroworlds, at least in principle. But the further claim argued by some is that if you allow the Schrödinger equation unrestricted application, supposing the quantum state to be something physically real, then this universe is one of countlessly many others, constantly branching in time, all of which are real. The result is the many worlds theory, also known as the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics. The contrary claim sees this picture of many worlds as in no sense inherent in quantum mechanics, even when the latter is allowed unrestricted scope and even given that the quantum state itself is something physically real. For this picture of branching worlds fails to make physical sense, let alone common sense, even on its own terms. The status of these worlds, what they are made of, is never adequately explained. Ordinary ideas about time and identity over time become hopelessly compromised. The concept of probability itself is brought into question. This picture of many branching worlds is inchoate, it is a vision, an error. There are realist alternatives to many worlds, some even that preserve the Schrödinger equation unchanged. Twenty specially written essays, accompanied by commentaries and discussions, examine these claims and counterclaims in depth. They focus first on the question of ontology, the existence of worlds (Part 1 and 2), second on the interpretation of probability (Parts 3 and 4), and third on alternatives or additions to many worlds (Parts 5 and 6). The introduction offers a helpful guide to the arguments for the Everett interpretation, particularly as they have been formulated in the last two decades.

Something Deeply Hidden

Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1524743038
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As you read these words, copies of you are being created. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of twentieth-century physics. Already hailed as a masterpiece, Something Deeply Hidden shows for the first time that facing up to the essential puzzle of quantum mechanics utterly transforms how we think about space and time. His reconciling of quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity changes, well, everything. Most physicists haven’t even recognized the uncomfortable truth: Physics has been in crisis since 1927. Quantum mechanics has always had obvious gaps—which have come to be simply ignored. Science popularizers keep telling us how weird it is, how impossible it is to understand. Academics discourage students from working on the "dead end" of quantum foundations. Putting his professional reputation on the line with this audacious yet entirely reasonable book, Carroll says that the crisis can now come to an end. We just have to accept that there is more than one of us in the universe. There are many, many Sean Carrolls. Many of every one of us. Copies of you are generated thousands of times per second. The Many-Worlds theory of quantum behavior says that every time there is a quantum event, a world splits off with everything in it the same, except in that other world the quantum event didn't happen. Step-by-step in Carroll's uniquely lucid way, he tackles the major objections to this otherworldly revelation until his case is inescapably established. Rarely does a book so fully reorganize how we think about our place in the universe. We are on the threshold of a new understanding—of where we are in the cosmos, and what we are made of.

Interpreting Quantum Theories

Author: Laura Ruetsche
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191617377
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
Traditionally, philosophers of quantum mechanics have addressed exceedingly simple systems: a pair of electrons in an entangled state, or an atom and a cat in Dr. Schrödinger's diabolical device. But recently, much more complicated systems, such as quantum fields and the infinite systems at the thermodynamic limit of quantum statistical mechanics, have attracted, and repaid, philosophical attention. Interpreting Quantum Theories has three entangled aims. The first is to guide those familiar with the philosophy of ordinary QM into the philosophy of 'QM infinity', by presenting accessible introductions to relevant technical notions and the foundational questions they frame. The second aim is to develop and defend answers to some of those questions. Does quantum field theory demand or deserve a particle ontology? How (if at all) are different states of broken symmetry different? And what is the proper role of idealizations in working physics? The third aim is to highlight ties between the foundational investigation of QM infinity and philosophy more broadly construed, in particular by using the interpretive problems discussed to motivate new ways to think about the nature of physical possibility and the problem of scientific realism.

The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Author: Bryce Seligman Dewitt
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140086805X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
A novel interpretation of quantum mechanics, first proposed in brief form by Hugh Everett in 1957, forms the nucleus around which this book has developed. In his interpretation, Dr. Everett denies the existence of a separate classical realm and asserts the propriety of considering a state vector for the whole universe. Because this state vector never collapses, reality as a whole is rigorously deterministic. This reality, which is described jointly by the dynamical variables and the state vector, is not the reality customarily perceived; rather, it is a reality composed of many worlds. By virtue of the temporal development of the dynamical variables, the state vector decomposes naturally into orthogonal vectors, reflecting a continual splitting of the universe into a multitude of mutually unobservable but equally real worlds, in each of which every good measurement has yielded a definite result, and in most of which the familiar statistical quantum laws hold. The volume contains Dr. Everett's short paper from 1957, "'Relative State' Formulation of Quantum Mechanics," and a far longer exposition of his interpretation, entitled "The Theory of the Universal Wave Function," never before published. In addition, other papers by Wheeler, DeWitt, Graham, and Cooper and Van Vechten provide further discussion of the same theme. Together, they constitute virtually the entire world output of scholarly commentary on the Everett interpretation. Originally published in 1973. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Multiverse

Author: Anna Yudina
Publisher: 5Continents
ISBN: 9788874397792
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Multiverse presents a new kind of theater, one in which dancers, choreographers, musicians, designers, artists, architects, and even scientists collaborate to create extraordinary multisensory, mind-expanding experiences. Centered on the avant-garde film Gravitation: Variation in Time and Space, starring Diana Vishneva, principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater in New York and the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, the fully illustrated book presents interviews with choreographers William Forsythe and Carolyn Carlson, photographer Nick Knight, artists Bill Viola and Olafur Eliasson, architects Toyo Ito and Santiago Calatrava, robotics inventor and artist Raffaello d'Andrea, and other creators who actively stretch the conventional limits of their fields.

The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III

Author: Peter Byrne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199552274
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 451

Book Description
This book tells the story of Hugh Everett III (1930-1982) who invented a theory of multiple universes that has had a profound impact on physics and philosophy. Everett strove to bring a "rational" order to the interlacing worlds of nuclear war and physics, even as his personal world disintegrated because of his indulgent lifestyle. Using Everett's unpublished papers and dozens of interviews, the book paints a detailed portrait of a man who influenced foundational thinking in quantum mechanics by inventing a way of viewing the universe from inside (known as the universal wave function). In addition to his famous interpretation of quantum mechanics, Everett wrote one of the classic papers in game theory; invented computer algorithms that revolutionized military operations research; and did pioneering work in artificial intelligence. As a Cold Warrior, he designed systems that modelled human behaviour along rational lines, and yet he was largely oblivious to the emotional damage his irrational behaviour inflicted upon his family, lovers and business partners. But he left behind, in the papers on which this book is based, a fascinating record of his life, including correspondence with the leading scientific minds of the day, that illuminates the often bitter struggle over the interpretation of the mystery of measurement at the heart of quantum mechanics.

The Emergent Multiverse

Author: David Wallace
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191741418
Category : Quantum theory
Languages : en
Pages : 530

Book Description
Presenting a striking new account of the 'many worlds' approach to quantum theory, aka the Everett interpretation, David Wallace offers a clear and up-to-date survey of work on this theory in physics and in philosophy of science.

The Nature of Contingency

Author: Alastair Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198846215
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
This book defends a radical new theory of contingency as a physical phenomenon. Drawing on the many-worlds approach, it argues that quantum theories are best understood as telling us about the space of genuine possibilities, rather than as telling us solely about actuality.