Curious About Quantum Physics Read These 10 Articles

8/11/2019 Curious About Quantum Physics Read These 10 Articles

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Curious About Quantum Physics?

Read These 10 Articles!BY STEVE MARIOTTI

I've been fascinated by quantum physics since I was five. I have even written here about my

enchantment withBell's Theorem(see the article here). My mother brought me over to the large

oak table in our home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. On it, she had spread out some papers byErwin

Schrdinger,theNobel-Prize winningAustrian physicist responsible for some of quantum

theory's core principles.

The brilliant physicistJohn Bell(source)

"This is the intellectual tradition you come from," my mother declared, "all the top quantum

physicists used to come to Ann Arbor every summer to attendthe Summer School in Theoretical

Physics."

"Why don't they come anymore?" I asked.

"Because they developeda bomb which killed hundreds of thousands of people in Japanat the

end of World War II. After that Ann Arbor refused to have anything to do with quantum physics

for many years," she replied.
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I was shocked. A bomb had been developed in our hometown that had killed so many people so

far away?

"It's your duty to do whatever you can to prevent nuclear war," she added sternly.

I didn't fully grasp all she had said, but I nodded somberly.

What I took away from this conversation withmy brilliant mother--who was a beloved special

educationteacherin Michigan for thirty years--is the same thing I hope you will consider: It's

important for every citizen to have a basic understanding of quantum physics so we can all help

preventnuclear war,and so we also understand the fantastic benefits this remarkable discipline

has to offer humanity.

Quantum physics (also called quantum theory and quantum mechanics) studies the behavior of

matter at the nanoscopic level. It looks at how atomic and subatomic particles behave. Whatquantum physicists discovered is that in this super-tiny world, Newton's laws of physics no

longer apply.

In Isaac Newton's physics all matter was perceived as "continuous." In other words, a rock was

smoothly and consistently a rock all the way through. Quantum physicists discovered that

matter is actually made up of nanoscopically small "lumps." They noticed that light is not

actually absorbed by matter in a smooth continuous fashion, but rather in segments. It's as if

you're driving down the freeway but you can only accelerate in multiples of 10 miles an hour, as

physicist James Kakalios explains in his wonderful bookThe Amazing Story of QuantumMechanics.

Quantum physicists have observed fascinating behavior on this level that has revolutionized our

understanding of our world and led to new technologies we use every day. Without quantum

mechanics there would be no personal computers, no lasers, no CDs or Blu-ray players!

If you want a mostly math-free exploration of quantum physics, I highly recommend Kakalios's

book. But if you're eager to challenge yourself and delve into the subject, I recommended you

read my favorite 10 physics articles.
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Author atISAWwith a few of these papers (source: Ricardo Andres)

Here are the first five. Stay tuned for Part II of this article, which will list the next five!

1. "On the Law of Energy Distribution in the Normal Spectrum"(Annalen der Physik, 1901) by

Max Planck.Planck was a German theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory. He won

the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.This article revolutionized human understanding of how

atoms and subatomic particles behave.

Planck at center with other Nobel Prize winners (source).
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2. "On the Motion of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid, as Required by the

Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat"(Annalen der Physik, 1905) byAlbert Einstein.In this paper,

Einstein explained how Brownian motion occurs. Brownian motion was named for botanist

Robert Brown, who noticed through his microscope in1827 that pollen particlesin water were

randomly moving. He couldn't figure it out, but Einstein theorized that this motion results fromthe collision of the particles with the atoms that comprise the liquid. Einstein developed a

mathematical model called "particle theory" to describe these random movements. Brownian

motion was verified experimentally by Jean Perrin in 1908, who wonthe Nobel Prize in Physics

in 1926.

3. "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"(Annalen der Physik, 1905) by Einstein. Also

written duringEinstein's Annus Mirabilis or "miracle year,"1905, when he published four

genius works that laid the theoretical foundation of quantum physics. In this paper, Einstein

detailedhis theory of special relativity,which enabled scientists to better understand movementat the speed of light. It remains the most accurate model we have for motion because it replaced

the idea that time and space could be defined separately with the new idea--since verified by

experiments--that they are interdependent on a space-time continuum.

Einstein at his office in 1920 (source).

4. "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?"(Annalen der Physick, 1905)

by Einstein. Here, Einstein lays out the world's most famous equation:E = mc2. He explains

that mass (m) and kinetic energy (E) are equal, because the speed of light (c2) is constant. In
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other words, mass can be changed into energy and energy can be changed into mass. This is how

nuclear energy is produced by nuclear fission. The nuclei of atoms (uranium atoms, typically)

are split by shooting neutrons at them, and this destruction of their mass releases energy.

Planck and Einstein (source).

5. In 1912, Einstein produced hisGeneral Theory of Relativity.Reading this paper requires first-

year calculus and physics, but it's worth a look simply because it's so incredibly important. In it,

Einstein proved Newton's concept of space and time as absolute realities measurable by fixed

parameters was false. These parameters are actually perceptions and are, therefore, dependent

upon (or relative to) whoever is doing the perceiving.

These pioneering papers have led directly to such discoveries as black holes and, of course,

nuclear weapons and energy--and we've only scratched the surface.

Happy reading!

Ever hear the one aboutthe cat that was simultaneously dead and alive?

In 1935, Austrian quantum physicistErwin Schrdingerdevised a hypothetical experiment, in

which a cat is placed in a sealed box with a radioactive sample,a Geiger counterand a bottle of

poison. The Geiger counter is set to trigger the smashing of the bottle of poison if the radioactive

material decays--which will kill the cat.
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Schrdinger was out to illustrate the flaws in the"Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum

mechanics,which argued that a particle exists in all its potential states at once until it is

observed.

Schrdinger's Cat (source)

As Schrdinger cleverly pointed out, the Copenhagen interpretation would imply that the

radioactive material would simultaneously decay and not decay in its sealed, unobserved

environment. Which would mean the cat would be both alive and dead until the box is opened.

Since that's not possible, Schrdinger wrote thathis hypothetical experiment"prevents us from

so naively accepting as valid a 'blurred model' for representing reality."

That's what I love about quantum physicists--they explore the deepest nature of reality--and

discover such fascinating things. In Part 1 of this two-part series (click here), I recommended

five of my ten favorite physics articles.

Here are the next five!

6."On the Perceptual Content of Quantum Theoretical Kinematics and Mechanics"byWerner

Heisenberg (1927) articulates the German physicist's famous "uncertainty principle," which

Schrdinger sought to debunk with his alive/dead cat.Heisenberg arguedthat you could never

know the exact position and velocity of an object because you would never truly know where the
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object had been. This lead to the idea that the "jolt" provided to a subatomic particle by

observing it could affect it.

Werner Heisenberg and Paul Dirac (source)

Schrdinger and later Einstein debunked that "observation principle", but modern physicists

have confirmed thatHeisenberg was onto something.His uncertainty principle was true. If you

bounce a photon off an electron to try to measure it, the electron's path is changed by the

momentum of the photon that just hit it.

This "uncertainty" explains lots of natural phenomena,including why our sun shines. In the

sun's center, protons collide with each other - sometimes they fuse and release energy in the

form of heat and light. The temperatures at the sun's center are not high enough for the protons

to gain enough energy to escape, according to classical physics. Luckily, thanks to the

uncertainty principle, they do gather up enough bits of energy to burst out and provide us with

sunshine.

7. "The Fundamental Equations of Quantum Mechanics," was written by then-PhD candidate

Paul Diracin 1925. A friend had sent Dirac Heisenberg's paper and the brilliant young physicist

was drawn to a mysterious mathematical relationship that Heisenberg had reached. Tackling it

led Dirac to develop his own quantum theory, and at 31 he became the youngest person to

receivethe Nobel Prize in Physics.With a personality rather like Mr. Spock, Dirac was known
https://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Magnetism/Guide/understanding.phphttps://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Magnetism/Guide/understanding.phphttps://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Magnetism/Guide/understanding.phphttp://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08.htmhttp://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08.htmhttp://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08.htmhttp://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/10/what-is-heisenbergs-uncertainty-principlehttp://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/10/what-is-heisenbergs-uncertainty-principlehttp://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/109/752/642.short?rss=1&ssource=mfrhttp://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/109/752/642.short?rss=1&ssource=mfrhttp://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/109/752/642.short?rss=1&ssource=mfrhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirachttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirachttp://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirachttp://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/109/752/642.short?rss=1&ssource=mfrhttp://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/10/what-is-heisenbergs-uncertainty-principlehttp://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08.htmhttps://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Magnetism/Guide/understanding.php


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for both his long bouts of silence and his love of pure logic. In 1928, he predicted the existence of

antimatter based on his equations.

In fact, I love Dirac's work so much I am writing separate article--coming soon!

Dirac, Heisenberg, and Schrdinger, en route to pick up Nobel Prizes (source)

8. "The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics"by Erwin Schrdinger (1935). After lots of

correspondence with Albert Einstein, Schrdinger proposed his cat experiment in this legendary

paper. Although the uncertainty principle he sought to debunk survived, "Schrdinger's Cat"

remains an important thought experiment for modern physicists, who still use it to test their

theories. It also made for a terrificGoogle Doodle on Schrdinger's 126th birthday, Aug 12,

2013.

9. "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?"Albert

Einstein asked in this classic paper he published in 1935 while residing at112 Mercer Streetin

my beloved Princeton. In this paper, Einstein and his colleaguesBoris PodolskyandNathan

Rosen(known collectively asEPR)described the phenomenon now known as quantum

entanglement. It explains why a hot cup of coffee cools down over time, but a tepid cup of coffee

doesn't heat up. (Very!) basically, the heat energy in the coffee disperses over time as coffee and

air particles bounce around and interact with each other--eventually the coffee particles lose

energy and the coffee cools down until it reaches the same temperature as the air particles in the

room.
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Einstein on his porch at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton (source)

10."On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox," published in 1964, was Irish physicistJohn

Stewart Bell'sresponse to EPR. Written during a weekend Bell spent onthe Isle of Shoals in

New Hampshire,it may be the greatest scientific paper of all time. In it, he proposed Bell's

Interconnectedness Theorem, a "no-go theorem," meaning a theorem that states that a

particular situation is not physically possible.

Specifically, Bell's theorem tests whether or not particles connected through quantum

entanglement (like our coffee and air) communicate information faster than the speed of light.

Experiments have since shown that our universe has a property called "non-locality." In other

words, two particles can be light years apart, yet are linked to each other instantaneously. How

instantaneously? Recent measurements have shown that they communicate at 10,000 times the

speed of light!

Finally, it was a personal thrill of mine recently to have lunch with Dirac's finest biographer,

Graham Farmelo, at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. I can't recommend his

2009 bookThe Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atomenough!

We met at Princeton during a conference on String Theory, another way to think about quantum

physics, taking into account gravity. String Theory is in flux, as geniuses around the world try to

understand our universe. And, I myself haven't mastered my own understanding of this science!
http://journals.aps.org/archive/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777http://journals.aps.org/archive/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777http://journals.aps.org/archive/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777http://philoscience.unibe.ch/documents/TexteHS10/bell1964epr.pdfhttp://philoscience.unibe.ch/documents/TexteHS10/bell1964epr.pdfhttp://philoscience.unibe.ch/documents/TexteHS10/bell1964epr.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_Bellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_Bellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_Bellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_Bellhttps://www.google.com/maps/place/Isles+of+Shoals/@42.9829515,-70.6108328,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e2c86c1cd274e1:0x948a5222bedc9b82https://www.google.com/maps/place/Isles+of+Shoals/@42.9829515,-70.6108328,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e2c86c1cd274e1:0x948a5222bedc9b82https://www.google.com/maps/place/Isles+of+Shoals/@42.9829515,-70.6108328,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e2c86c1cd274e1:0x948a5222bedc9b82https://www.google.com/maps/place/Isles+of+Shoals/@42.9829515,-70.6108328,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e2c86c1cd274e1:0x948a5222bedc9b82http://www.amazon.com/The-Strangest-Man-Hidden-Mystic/dp/0465022103http://www.amazon.com/The-Strangest-Man-Hidden-Mystic/dp/0465022103http://www.amazon.com/The-Strangest-Man-Hidden-Mystic/dp/0465022103http://www.amazon.com/The-Strangest-Man-Hidden-Mystic/dp/0465022103https://www.google.com/maps/place/Isles+of+Shoals/@42.9829515,-70.6108328,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e2c86c1cd274e1:0x948a5222bedc9b82https://www.google.com/maps/place/Isles+of+Shoals/@42.9829515,-70.6108328,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e2c86c1cd274e1:0x948a5222bedc9b82http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_Bellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stewart_Bellhttp://philoscience.unibe.ch/documents/TexteHS10/bell1964epr.pdfhttp://journals.aps.org/archive/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777


10/10

The author and David Gross, Nobel Prize winner in String Theory at Princeton this summer

(source: Ricardo Andres)

About thirty years old today, String Theory was created when a scientist namedGabriele

Venezianocreated his own theory of dual resonance--leading many physicists to look at the

world, the universe as vibrating, resonating strings. As I begin to strengthen my own knowledge

on the subject, I will post more and more!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Venezianohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Venezianohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Venezianohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Venezianohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriele_Veneziano

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Curious About Quantum Physics Read These 10 Articles