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
References in corpus (62)
- The holographic principle
- Relational Quantum Mechanics
- Quantum Equilibrium and the Origin of Absolute Uncertainty
- Quantum Information and Relativity Theory
- Loop Quantum Gravity
- Gravity and the Thermodynamics of Horizons
- Perturbative Quantum Field Theory in the String-Inspired Formalism
- Research on Hidden Variable Theories: a review of recent progresses
- Quantum Gravity: a Progress Report
- The Nature of Space and Time
- The Casimir Effect and the Quantum Vacuum
- Lecture Notes on General Relativity
- Quantum Gravity as a Dissipative Deterministic System
- A Primer for Black Hole Quantum Physics
- What is quantum mechanics trying to tell us?
- Do we really understand quantum mechanics?
- Faster-than-c signals, special relativity, and causality
- Relational EPR
- EPR-Bell Nonlocality, Lorentz Invariance, and Bohmian Quantum Theory
- Hawking radiation without black hole entropy
- Hypersurface Bohm-Dirac models
- Relativistic quantum mechanics and the Bohmian interpretation
- Probes of the vacuum structure of quantum fields in classical backgrounds
- Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes
- Les Houches Lectures on Black Holes
- Relativistic contraction and related effects in noninertial frames
- Relativistic contraction of an accelerated rod
- Bohmian particle trajectories in relativistic bosonic quantum field theory
- Understanding Bohmian mechanics: A dialogue
- Bohmian particle trajectories in relativistic fermionic quantum field theory
- Quantum States of Black Holes
- Quantization of Point-Like Particles and Consistent Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
- Perturbation theory via Feynman diagrams in classical mechanics
- The general-covariant and gauge-invariant theory of quantum particles in classical backgrounds
- Why isn't every physicist a Bohmian?
- There is no "first" quantization
- A general-covariant concept of particles in curved background
- Causal paradoxes: a conflict between relativity and the arrow of time
- The role of acceleration and locality in the twin paradox
- Generalizations of normal ordering and applications to quantization in classical backgrounds
- A relativistically covariant version of Bohm's quantum field theory for the scalar field
- Covariant canonical quantization of fields and Bohmian mechanics
- Classical mechanics without determinism
- On the existence of black hole evaporation yet again
- Strings, world-sheet covariant quantization and Bohmian mechanics
- Lecture Notes in Quantum Mechanics
- Inappropriateness of the Rindler quantization
- Black holes radiate but do not evaporate
- Covariant many-fingered time Bohmian interpretation of quantum field theory
- How to teach Quantum Mechanics
- Boson-fermion unification, superstrings, and Bohmian mechanics
- BUSSTEPP Lectures on String Theory
- The classical essence of black hole radiation
- Strings, T-duality breaking, and nonlocality without the shortest distance
- Quantum Determinism from Quantum General Covariance
- Cosmological constant, semiclassical gravity, and foundations of quantum mechanics
- Quantum Gravity
- Doing it with Mirrors: Classical analogues for Black Hole radiation
- On particle production by classical backgrounds
- Quantum nonlocality without hidden variables: An algorithmic approach
- Physical stability of the QED vacuum
- Orthodox Quantum Mechanics Free from Paradoxes
Cited by in corpus (33)
- What is the relativistic spin operator?
- Relativistic spin operators in various electromagnetic environments
- Bohmian trajectories and the Path Integral Paradigm. Complexified Lagrangian Mechanics
- Compact Time and Determinism for Bosons: foundations
- Understanding quantum mechanics: a review and synthesis in precise language
- The Madelung Picture as a Foundation of Geometric Quantum Theory
- Unconventional approach to orbital-free density functional theory derived from a model of extended electrons
- Maxwell meets Reeh-Schlieder: the quantum mechanics of neutral bosons
- Quantum Mechanics from Focusing and Symmetry
- On the intrinsically cyclic nature of space-time in elementary particles
- Probability in relativistic Bohmian mechanics of particles and strings
- EPR before EPR: a 1930 Einstein-Bohr thought experiment revisited
- Intrinsic properties of quantum systems
- A Symmetrical Interpretation of the Klein-Gordon Equation
- Thermodynamic Gravity and the Schrodinger Equation
- Quantum mechanics as a deterministic theory of a continuum of worlds
- Dangerous implications of a minimum length in quantum gravity
- Boson-fermion unification, superstrings, and Bohmian mechanics
- Three types of Landauer's erasure principle: a microscopic view
- Probability in relativistic quantum mechanics and foliation of spacetime
- Interpretation miniatures
- Classical and Non-Relativistic Limits of a Lorentz-Invariant Bohmian Model for a System of Spinless Particles
- Analysis of the Jun Ishiwara's "The universal meaning of the quantum of action"
- Is quantum field theory a genuine quantum theory? Foundational insights on particles and strings
- The Klein-Gordon equation in Machian model
- Extrasolar scale change in Newton's Law from 5D `plain' R^2-gravity
- Topological charges and quasi-charges in Absolute Parallelism
- Extra-dimensional confinement of quantum particles
- The Light of Existence
- Intrinsic and extrinsic properties of quantum systems
- The Dirac equation without zitterbewegung
- The fundamental obscurity in quantum mechanics. Could the problem be considered universal?
- Surely You Must All be Joking: An Outsider's Critique of Quantum Physics