The Quantum Dice: An Introduction to Stochastic Electrodynamics

✍ Scribed by Luis de la Peña, Ana María Cetto (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 518
• Series: Fundamental Theories of Physics 75
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In spite of the impressive predictive power and strong mathematical structure of quantum mechanics, the theory has always suffered from important conceptual problems. Some of these have never been solved. Motivated by this state of affairs, a number of physicists have worked together for over thirty years to develop stochastic electrodynamics, a physical theory aimed at finding a conceptually satisfactory, realistic explanation of quantum phenomena.
This is the first book to present a comprehensive review of stochastic electrodynamics, from its origins to present-day developments. After a general introduction for the non-specialist, a critical discussion is presented of the main results of the theory as well as of the major problems encountered. A chapter on stochastic optics and some interesting consequences for local realism and the Bell inequalities is included. In the final chapters the authors propose and develop a new version of the theory that brings it in closer correspondence with quantum mechanics and sheds some light on the wave aspects of matter and the linkage with quantum electrodynamics.
Audience: The volume will be of interest to scholars and postgraduate students of theoretical and mathematical physics, foundations and philosophy of physics, and teachers of theoretical physics and quantum mechanics, electromagnetic theory, and statistical physics (stochastic processes).

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Quantum Mechanics and the Real World....Pages 3-31
Quantum Mechanics as a Stochastic Theory....Pages 33-66
Elements of Electrodynamics....Pages 67-96
Front Matter....Pages 97-97
The Zeropoint Radiation Field....Pages 99-132
The Equilibrium Radiation Field....Pages 133-162
Environmental Effects Through the Zeropoint Field....Pages 163-198
The Harmonic Oscillator....Pages 199-246
Quantum Properties of Other Simple Systems....Pages 247-271
Breakdown of Detailed Energy Balance....Pages 273-297
Front Matter....Pages 299-299
Linear Stochastic Electrodynamics....Pages 301-336
Radiative Corrections in Linear SED....Pages 337-365
The Wave Properties of Matter....Pages 367-394
Stochastic Optics....Pages 395-435
An Outlook and Some Corollaries....Pages 437-446
Back Matter....Pages 447-512

✦ Subjects

Quantum Physics;Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics;Statistical Physics, Dynamical Systems and Complexity;Philosophy of Science