Official description

Topics

Realist, phenomenalist, and pragmatist perspectives on scientific theories. Review of conventional textbook quantum mechanics. Local causality and signal locality. Elements of formal measurement theory and wave function collapse; decoherence and the classical/quantum boundary. Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Operationalist quantum mechanics. Hidden variable theories: possibilities and problems. Contextuality and nonlocality; Bell’s theorem. Bohm deBroglie theory and generalizations. Modal interpretations and consistent histories quantum mechanics of Gell-Mann, Hartle, Omnes. Relative state interpretations (Everett’s “many worlds,” more recent work by Wallace and Carroll). Quantum Darwinism. QBism. Relational Quantum Mechanics. A sketch of collapse theories.

This cross listed course is offered at together with PHY491S. For course schedule please see: PHY491H1/1491H