Epistemological and Experimental Perspectives on Quantum Physics

From the very beginning it was realised that quantum physics involves radically new interpretative and epistemological consequences. While hitherto there has been no satisfactory philosophical analysis of these consequences, recent years have witnessed the accomplishment of many experiments to test the foundations of quantum physics, opening up vistas to a completely novel technology: quantum technology. The contributions in the present volume review the interpretative situation, analyze recent fundamental experiments, and discuss the implications of possible future technological applications. Readership: Analytic philosophers (logical empiricists), scientists (especially physicists), historians of logic, mathematics and physics, philosophers of science, and advanced students and researchers in these fields. Can be used for seminars on theoretical and experimental physics and philosophy of science, and as supplementary reading at advanced undergraduate and graduate levels.

Inhalt

Editorial. Articles. Philosophical and Experimental Perspectives on Quantum Physics (6th Vienna Circle Lecture; A. Shimony. Neutron Quantum Experiments and their Epistemological Impact; H. Rauch. The Dynamical Reduction Program: An Example of a Quantum Theory Without Observers; G.-C. Ghirardi. Why do we Find Bohr Obscure? C. Chevalley. Quantum Words for a Quantum World; J.-M. Lévy-Leblond. Quantum and Classical Gödelian Indeterminism, Measurement, and Informational Collapse into the Past; Y.F. Orlov. Recent Advances in the Consistency of Interpretation; R. Omnès. Active Information and Teleportation; B. Hiley. Experimental Quantum Teleportation of Qubits and Entanglement Swapping; D. Bouwmeester, et al. Quantum Teleportation; H.J. Kimble. Quantum Repeaters for Quantum Communication; H.J. Briegel, et al. Quantum Engineering with Atoms and Photons in a Cavity; S. Haroche. Why We Don't Need Quantum Planetary Dynamics: Decoherence and the Correspondence Principle for Chaotic Systems; W.H. Zurek, J.P. Paz. Is the Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Implied by the Correspondence Principle? K. Gottfried. The Histories of Chaotic Quantum Systems; W. Thirring. Epistemological Problems of Measurement in Quantum Mechanics and the Appearance of the Classical World of Macroscopic Objects; E. Oeser. Complementarity of Fringe Visibilities In Three-Particle Quantum Mechanics; M.A. Horne. Short Presentations. Towards Coherent Matter Wave Optics with Macromolecules; M. Arndt, et al. Comparison of Wigner's Function and De Broglian Probability Density for a Wave Packet and the Wave Packets Superposition; M. Bozic, D. Arsenovic. Quantum Complementarity and Information Invariance; C. Brukner, A. Zeilinger. FermiInhibition in Inhomogeneous Atomic Gases; T. Busch, et al. Observation of Three-particle Entanglement; M. Daniell, et al. Matter Wave Diffraction at Standing Light Waves; C. Keller, et al. Entangled States of Orbital Angular Momentum of Photons; A. Mair, A. Zeilinger. Zenonian Arguments in Quantum Mechanics; L. Ropolyi, P. Szegedi. What John von Neumann Thought of the Bohm Interpretation; M. Stöltzner. Observation of the Nondispersivity of Scalar Aharonov-Bohm Phase Shifts by Neutron Interferometry; G. van der Zout, A. Zeilinger. A Bell Experiment under Strict Einstein Locality Conditions; G. Weihs, et al. Quantum Mechanics and Secret Communication; P. Zarda, et al. Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger Paradox for Three Tritters; M. Żukowski, D. Kaszlikowski. Report &endash; Documentation. Science &endash; A House Built on Sand? A Conversation with Noretta Koertge; F. Stadler, I.A. Kieseppä. Ornithology in a Cubical World: Reichenbach on Scientific Realism; W. Salmon. The Shortcomings of the TV-Screen in Cultural Communication; K. Blaukopf. Review Essay. Quantum Measurement: On this Side of Paradox; L.E. Szabó. Reviews. Carnap's Construction of the World. The Aufbau and the Emergence of Logical Empiricism, 1996 (Werner Sauer); A.W. Richardson. Austrian Philosophy Past and Present. Essays in Honor of Rudolf Haller, 1997 (Kevin Mulligan); K. Lehrer, J.C. Marek. Wittgenstein y el Circulo de Viena / Wittgenstein und der Wiener Kreis: Actas del Congreso Internacional, Toledo 1994, 1998 (Nelson G. Gomes); J.P. Galvez, et al. A House Built on Sand. Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science, 1998 (I.A. Kieseppä); N. Koertge. The Cosmos of Science, 1997 (Thomas Breuer); J. Earman, J.D. Norton.