A retelling of the Quantum Mechanics story

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• John Ellis, Surface Physics Group, Cavendish Laboratory
• Thursday 22 May 2025, 15:00-16:00
• Seminar Room West, Room A0.015, Ray Dolby Centre, Cavendish Laboratory.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Stephen Walley.

Typical accounts of Quantum Mechanics plot a path to the quantum world starting from a classical mechanics view point – ‘how do we translate momentum into an operator’ etc – , but this is fundamentally the wrong way round: it is impossible to derive an exact theory from an approximation so any attempt to do so results in a story with no coherence or substance in the way it is told. Here I propose an account that simply starts with the observations of how quantum systems behave, adding in special relativity, to develop the basic formalism and concepts of QM and show significant tracks of physics can be developed from just a few initial observations. A candidate is presented for the ‘simplest possible measurement’, proposing that there is no need for either an observer or a measurement device and suggesting that all quantum measurements are essentially an identical and remarkably simple, semi understandable, yet inexplicable, QM process. The basic premise of this approach is that if we are ever to extend our understanding of, for example, measurement and collapse, we need a clearer understanding of what we have in QM and on what it is based rather than ‘we make these unconnected guesses from classical mechanics, this is where we end up and, oh look, it works’, and whilst the author would not pretend to be delivering ‘the answer’, the hope is that this example of an attempt to do so will encourage others to consider developing more transparent explanations of the fundamentals of QM.

This talk is part of the Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Cavendish Laboratory Seminars
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• Centre for Health Leadership and Enterprise
• Featured lists
• ME Seminar
• Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
• Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group
• School of Physical Sciences
• Seminar Room West, Room A0.015, Ray Dolby Centre, Cavendish Laboratory
• Thin Film Magnetic Talks

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