the quantum challenge: modern research on the foundations of quantum mechanics (greenstein, george;...
TRANSCRIPT
Chemical Education Today
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 76 No. 4 April 1999 • Journal of Chemical Education 473
edited byEdward J. WalshAllegheny College
Meadville, PA 16335
Book & Media Reviews
The Quantum Challenge: Modern Research on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
George Greenstein and Arthur G. Zajonc. Jones and Bartlett: Sudbury, MA, 1997. 224 pp. Cloth: ISBN 0-7637-0216,$50.00. Paper: ISBN 07637-0216, $25.00.
Early in his career, Albert Einstein spent two years as a professor at the German University in Prague. His officeoverlooked a beautiful park belonging to the insane asylum of the province of Bohemia, where patients who were not con-fined were allowed to walk. When Philipp Frank first visited, Einstein showed him the view and remarked playfully, “Thoseare the madmen who do not occupy themselves with the quantum theory.” It is well known that Einstein, whose profoundinsights had been so crucial to the development of the quantum theory, ultimately came to regard it as incomplete. Whilehe recognized that it was the “most successful physical theory of our time”, he could not accept the idea that probabilitiesmust replace strict causality.
Einstein’s debates with Bohr concerning the concept of complementarity at the 1927 and 1930 Solvay Congresses arelegendary. Although Bohr was able to respond to almost all of Einstein’s clever arguments, the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen(EPR) paradox, published in 1935, was a profound critique that even Bohr could not answer. Einstein was joined in hisdistaste for the statistical aspects of the quantum theory by Schrödinger, who in 1935 published his famous cat paradox.The success of the quantum theory, however, was not to be denied, and the debates over its foundations slipped into thebackground as the theory became an integral part of normal science.
With the development of powerful computers and sophisticated programs, quantum mechanics has become an everydaytool in chemistry, essential in the interpretation of experiments, and increasingly useful as a predictive method for moleculardesign. Elementary quantum mechanical ideas are introduced in high school and general chemistry courses and then furtherdeveloped and used throughout the chemistry curriculum. It seems, however, that every time I teach some aspect of quantummechanics I am stopped short by a question about the foundations of the theory asked by a precocious student who reallywants to understand the wave–particle duality or one of the other paradoxical ideas in the theory. Up to now it has beendifficult to find an accessible treatment of the important issues in the foundations of quantum mechanics to help me or thestudent find an answer to these profound questions, but Greenstein and Zajonc have come to the rescue.
George Greenstein and Arthur Zajonc, both professors of physics at Amherst College, have written a wonderful book forthose madmen who do occupy themselves with the meaning of the quantum theory. They present the most importantcontemporary problems in the foundations of quantum mechanics in clear language, using only elementary mathematics. Sincethis is a book about science and not philosophy, all the conceptual issues are discussed in an experimental context. Thedetails of very sophisticated contemporary quantum optics experiments that probe important theoretical questions arelucidly explained.
The questions explored in this book include the wave–particle duality, the uncertainty principle, complementarity, theEPR paradox and Bell’s theorem, Schrödinger’s cat paradox, and the measurement problem. After placing each question in ahistorical context, the conceptual issue is framed and then explored in terms of recent experiments. Only simple nonrelativis-tic quantum mechanics is used; no knowledge of advanced topics such as Hilbert spaces or quantum electrodynamics isrequired. While the authors are careful to point out the limitations of each experiment, the enchanting mysteries of thequantum theory are brought into focus in the discussion of these clever experiments.
This volume is part of the Jones and Bartlett “Challenge Series”, which is intended to introduce undergraduate science,mathematics, and engineering students to exploration of the important unsolved problems of our time. I think this bookadmirably accomplishes the goal of the series. It can be read, though with some effort, by an undergraduate who has a basicunderstanding of quantum mechanics such as that gained in a physical chemistry course. The questions raised are profound andexciting. I came away with a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics, but also with a clear sense that there are importantissues still to be resolved.
This is a book to which I will return, and one that I will enthusiastically recommend to both students and colleagues.
Jeffrey KovacDepartment of ChemistryUniversity of TennesseeKnoxville, TN 37996-1600