Re: a question on incompatibility of properties in a one particle system

From: Bill Hobba (bhobba_at_rubbish.net.au)
Date: 10/22/04 

Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 10:03:21 GMT

"Bilge" <dubious@radioactivex.lebesque-al.net> wrote in message
news:slrncnfe6c.8l.dubious@radioactivex.lebesque-al.net...
> Bill Hobba:
> >"Bilge" <dubious@radioactivex.lebesque-al.net> wrote in message
> [...]
>
> >> Don't be concerned. To the best I can tell, it means that the
quantum
> >> mechanical description of an epr pair as a single quantum state, in
which
> >> the state vector contains all there is to know about the state is
wrong
> >> and should be replaced by a mixed state in which there is more
information
> >> which is simply inaccessible and the environment somehow manages to be
> >> involved in the conspiracy. It's an elaborate and rather obtuse way
of
> >> saying there are hidden variables that conspire to look just like
quantum
> >> mechanics. I think the overall bottom line is that you can call a
theory
> >> deterministic by attributing the randomness to the unknowable and not
> >> differentiating between probabilistic and statistical.
> >
> >BTW on another matter I must admit defeat with those lectures on QFT you
> >gave me the link to. I did get something out of them but its
mathematical
> >complexity is beyond me; and functional analysis - especially Hilbert
Spaces
> >and Distribution Theory - was what I specialized in when I was into
math.
>
> As I mentioned, the material is rather dense. Since the time I mentioned
> the link to those lectures, the author of the lectures on renormalization
> (the one in which you were interested) was given a nobel prize for his
> work in quantum field theory, so if you found things less obvious than he
> did, (and a lot of the material in those volumes is like that), you have a
> good reason. On the plus side, I'd say it's a rather comprehensive and
> compact treatment of field theory with a good outline of string theory,
> even if terse. Anytime I think it might have been more fun to have been a
> theorist, I can peruse those volumes and realize I had a better aptitude
> for experimental physics. People like ed witten have more mathematics
> at their immediate disposal than I know exists.

One does not win a Fields medal for no reason. And one does not decide on
physics over math without reason. Asimov mentioned all but the greatest
mathematicians eventually reach a point where is becomes too hard - that is
when you realize either you love math for moths sake and you persevere or
you go looking for something else - I went looking for something else - and
never regretted it. Greats like Feynman and Witten never did reach that
point of it becoming too hard - they choose physics because that is what
they liked.

>
> >As I said at the time be careful what you wish for - you may get it.
> >When I got Griffiths book I also got Zee's book on QFT in a Nutshell.
> >Its light an breezy style I find quite refreshing highly recommended
> >to anyone.
>
> I haven't seen either of those, but if I come across them, I'll
> give them a look-through. The only book of griffiths' that I've
> seen was the E&M textbook I used as an undergraduate, which I
> think is pretty good, especially for the physical intuition (although
> I didn't really appreciate that fact at the time.)

Sorry for the confusion - it is not the same Griffith's (although he also
wrote a book on introductory QM). This is the Griffith that along with
Gell-Mann and Hartel developed the Consistent Quantum Histories
interpretation - http://info.phys.cmu.edu/people/faculty/griffiths_bob/

Thanks
Bill

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