Quantum mechanics: Myths and facts
arXiv:quant-ph/0609163 · doi:10.1007/s10701-007-9176-y
Abstract
A common understanding of quantum mechanics (QM) among students and practical users is often plagued by a number of "myths", that is, widely accepted claims on which there is not really a general consensus among experts in foundations of QM. These myths include wave-particle duality, time-energy uncertainty relation, fundamental randomness, the absence of measurement-independent reality, locality of QM, nonlocality of QM, the existence of well-defined relativistic QM, the claims that quantum field theory (QFT) solves the problems of relativistic QM or that QFT is a theory of particles, as well as myths on black-hole entropy. The fact is that the existence of various theoretical and interpretational ambiguities underlying these myths does not yet allow us to accept them as proven facts. I review the main arguments and counterarguments lying behind these myths and conclude that QM is still a not-yet-completely-understood theory open to further fundamental research.
51 pages, pedagogic review, revised, new references, to appear in Found. Phys
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Cited by in corpus (5)
- Dangerous implications of a minimum length in quantum gravity
- Boson-fermion unification, superstrings, and Bohmian mechanics
- Extrasolar scale change in Newton's Law from 5D `plain' R^2-gravity
- Topological charges and quasi-charges in Absolute Parallelism
- Intrinsic and extrinsic properties of quantum systems