Ensembles on Configuration Space Classical, Quantum, and Beyond /

This book describes a promising approach to problems in the foundations of quantum mechanics, including the measurement problem. The dynamics of ensembles on configuration space is shown here to be a valuable tool for unifying the formalisms of classical and quantum mechanics, for deriving and exten...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hall, Michael J. W. (Author), Reginatto, Marcel (Author)
Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2016.
Series:Fundamental Theories of Physics, 184
Subjects:
Online Access:Full Text via HEAL-Link
Description
Summary:This book describes a promising approach to problems in the foundations of quantum mechanics, including the measurement problem. The dynamics of ensembles on configuration space is shown here to be a valuable tool for unifying the formalisms of classical and quantum mechanics, for deriving and extending the latter in various ways, and for addressing the quantum measurement problem. A description of physical systems by means of ensembles on configuration space can be introduced at a very fundamental level: the basic building blocks are a configuration space, probabilities, and Hamiltonian equations of motion for the probabilities. The formalism can describe both classical and quantum systems, and their thermodynamics, with the main difference being the choice of ensemble Hamiltonian. Furthermore, there is a natural way of introducing ensemble Hamiltonians that describe the evolution of hybrid systems; i.e., interacting systems that have distinct classical and quantum sectors, allowing for consistent descriptions of quantum systems interacting with classical measurement devices and quantum matter fields interacting gravitationally with a classical spacetime.
Physical Description:XIV, 280 p. 3 illus. online resource.
ISBN:9783319341668
ISSN:0168-1222 ;