RSS feeds
РусскийEnglish
Issue 11, 2024
Volume year page
Issues Authors PACS Subscription For authors

Issues

 / 

2000

 / 

June

←  →

Reviews of topical problems


Quantum mechanics: new experiments, new applications, and new formulations of old questions


Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prosp. 53, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation

Some of the quantum mechanical conceptual problems, their current status, and related theoretical developments are reviewed. The characteristics of the entangled quantum states are analyzed, and new experiments and quantum information applications involving such states are discussed. The well-known paradox of Schroedinger’s cat (the impossibility of observing superpositions of macroscopically distinct states that are predicted by quantum mechanics) is discussed. It is shown that decoherence (arising when a quantum system is measured in such a way that some information about its state is recorded in its environment) prevents the distinguishing of a superposition and the corresponding mixture. This overcomes the difficulties associated with the paradoxical nature of quantum measurement provided we remain within the framework of the theory of open systems. Other conceptual difficulties, while actually lying outside physics, are now the subject of much research and have already led to new interesting interpretations of quantum mechanics. The suggestion of Wigner and others that the observer’s consciousness be included in the theory of quantum measurement is discussed in this context. A hypothesis is put forward which might enable the functioning of consciousness to be described in quantum measurement terms.

Fulltext pdf (301 KB)
Fulltext is also available at DOI: 10.1070/PU2000v043n06ABEH000771
PACS: 03.65.Bz
DOI: 10.1070/PU2000v043n06ABEH000771
URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2000/6/c/
000165057200003
Citation: Menskii M B "Quantum mechanics: new experiments, new applications, and new formulations of old questions" Phys. Usp. 43 585–600 (2000)
BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)MedlineRefWorks

Оригинал: Менский М Б «Квантовая механика: новые эксперименты, новые приложения и новые формулировки старых вопросов» УФН 170 631–648 (2000); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0170.200006c.0631

References (55) ↓ Cited by (41) Similar articles (20)

  1. Wheeler J A, Zurek W H (Eds) Quantum Theory and Measurement (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983)
  2. Mandel’shtam L I Lektsii po Optike, Teorii Otnositel’nosti i Kvantovoî Mekhanike (Lectures on Optics, Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, Moscow: Nauka, 1972)
  3. Bohm D Quantum Theory (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1951) [Translated into Russian (Moscow: Nauka, 1965)]
  4. Blokhintsev D I Printsipial’nye Voprosy Kvantovoî Mekhaniki 2nd ed.(Fundamental Issues of Quantum Mechanics, Moscow: Nauka, 1987)
  5. Markov M A O Trekh Interpretatsiyakh Kvantovoî Mekhaniki (On Three Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, Moscow: Nauka, 1991)
  6. Bell J S Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Bell J S Physics (Long Island City, N.Y.) 1 195 (1964)
  7. Squires E J The Mystery of the Quantum World 2nd ed. (Bristol: IOP Publ., 1994)
  8. Penrose R Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)
  9. Giulini D et al. Decoherence and the Appearance of a Classical World in Quantum Theory (Berlin: Springer, 1996)
  10. Lockwood M Br. J. Philos. Sci. 47 159 (1996)
  11. Kadomtsev B B Usp. Fiz. Nauk 164 449 (1994) [Phys. Usp. 37 425 (1994)]; Kadomtsev B B Dinamika i Informatsiya 2nd ed. (Dynamics and Information, Moscow: Red. Zh. "Usp. Fiz. Nauk", 1999)
  12. Zurek W H Prog. Theor. Phys. 89 281 (1993)
  13. Zurek W H Phys. Today 46 13 (1993)
  14. Leggett T Phys. World 12 (12) 73 (1999)
  15. Whitaker A, in Decoherence: Theoretical, Experimental, and Conceptual Problems (Lecture Notes in Physics, 0075-8450, 538, Eds P Blanchard et al., Berlin: Springer, 2000) p. 299
  16. Einstein A, Podolsky B, Rosen N Phys. Rev. 47 777 (1935) [Translated into Russian Usp. Fiz. Nauk 16 (4) 440 (1936)]
  17. Bohr N, in Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist (The Library of Living Philosophers, Vol. 7, Ed. P A Schliepp, Evanston, Ill.: Library of Living Philosophers, 1949) p. 200 [Translated into Russian (Moscow: IL, 1961)]
  18. Aspect A Nature (London) 390 189 (1999)
  19. Tittel W et al. Europhys. Lett. 40 595 (1997)
  20. von Borzeszkowski H, Mensky M B Phys. Lett. A 269 204 (2000)
  21. Pan J-W et al. Nature (London) 403 515 (2000)
  22. Feynman R P Found. Phys. 16 507 (1986) [Translated into Russian Usp. Fiz. Nauk 149 671 (1986)]
  23. Deutsch D, Ekert A Phys. World 11 (3) 41 (1998)
  24. Bennett C H Phys. Today 48 (10) 24 (1995)
  25. Kilin S Ya Usp. Fiz. Nauk 169 507 (1999) [Phys. Usp. 42 435 (1999)]
  26. Bouwmeester D et al. Nature (London) 390 575 (1997)
  27. Kadomtsev B B, Kadomtsev M B Phys. Scripta 50 243 (1994)
  28. Sokolov Yu L Usp. Fiz. Nauk 169 559 (1999) [Phys. Usp. 42 481 (1999)]
  29. Braginsky V B, Khalili F Ya Quantum Measurement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)
  30. Zeh H D Found. of Phys. 1 69 (1970); Joos E, Zeh H D Z. Phys. B 59 223 (1985)
  31. Zurek W H Phys. Today 44 (10) 36 (1991)
  32. Leggett A J J. Supercond. 12 683 (1999)
  33. Garraway B M, Knight P L Phys. Rev. A 50 2548 (1994)
  34. Haroche S, Brune M, Raimond J R Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. A 355 2367 (1997)
  35. Mensky M B Phys. Rev. D 20 384 (1979)
  36. Menskiî M B Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 77 1326 (1979) [Sov. Phys. JETP 50 667 (1979)]
  37. Zurek W H Phys. Rev. D 24 1516 (1981)
  38. Zurek W H Phys. Rev. D 26 1862 (1982)
  39. Stodolsky L Phys. Lett. B 116 464 (1982)
  40. Stodolsky L, in Quantum Coherence Proc. Intern. Conf. on Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Theory, to Celebrate 30 Years of the Aharonov - Bohm Effect, USA, 1989 (Ed. J S Anandan, Singapore: World Scientific, 1990) p. 320
  41. Joos E Phys. Rev. D 29 1626 (1984)
  42. Mensky M B Usp. Fiz. Nauk 168 1017 (1998) [Phys. Usp. 41 923 (1998)]
  43. Mensky M B Quantum Measurements and Decoherence: Models and Phenomenology (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publ., 2000)
  44. Davidovich L et al. Phys. Rev. A 53 1295 (1996)
  45. Ghirardi G C, Rimini A, Weber T Phys. Rev. D 34 470 (1986)
  46. Bohm D Phys. Rev. 85 166 (1952); Reprinted in Quantum Theory and Measurement (Eds J A Wheeler, W H Zurek, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983)
  47. Griffiths R B J. Stat. Phys. 36 219 (1984)
  48. Omnés R The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994)
  49. Gell-Mann M, Hartle J Phys. Rev. D 47 3345 (1993)
  50. Paz J P, Zurek W H Phys. Rev. D 48 2728 (1993)
  51. Everett H III Rev. Mod. Phys. 29 454 (1957); Reprinted in Quantum Theory and Measurement (Eds J A Wheeler, W H Zurek, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983)
  52. DeWitt B S, Graham N (Eds) The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973)
  53. Laurikainen K V Beyond the Atom: The Philosophical Thought of Wolfgang Pauli (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1988)
  54. Wigner E P, in Quantum Theory and Measurement (Eds J A Wheeler, W H Zurek, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983) p. 168; Originally published in The Scientist Speculates (Ed. L G Good, London: Heinemann, 1961) p. 284
  55. Schrödinger E What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell (Cambridge: The University Press, 1944) [Translated into Russian (Izhevsk: Red. Zh. "Regulyarnaya i Khaoticheskaya Dinamika", 1999)]
© 1918–2024 Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk
Email: ufn@ufn.ru Editorial office contacts About the journal Terms and conditions