Quantum Physics Commons^™

Physics: Rethinking The Foundations, Kevin H. Knuth

Physics Faculty Scholarship

Physics is traditionally conceived of as a set of laws that universally governs the behavior of physical systems. These laws, however they are decreed, are believed to govern the behavior of not only everything in the universe, but the form of the universe itself. However, this traditional concept of physics as a universal governance is at odds with our modern theories of quantum mechanics and relativity, which place the observer and information in a central role. In this talk, I aim to rethink the foundations and attempt to build physics from the bottom up based on a very simple foundational …

Sustainability Research Through The Lens Of Environmental Ethics, Daniel Clifford Fouke, Sukh Sidhu, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

Two core courses in the curriculum of the University of Dayton’s Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment minor, Sustainability Research I and II, were developed out of the frustration one author, Daniel Fouke, experienced while teaching a traditional course on environmental ethics for the Department of Philosophy. The often-overwhelming nature of environmental problems tended to demoralize both the instructor and the students. Seeking a way to integrate ethical analysis of complex problems with the search for solutions, two courses were proposed that would be team-taught by a philosopher and a scientist or an engineer.

Development of the courses was initially funded …

Conservation Of The Spin And Orbital Angular Momenta In Electromagnetism, Konstantin Y. Bliokh, Justin Dressel, Franco Nori

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We review and re-examine the description and separation of the spin and orbital angular momenta (AM) of an electromagnetic field in free space. While the spin and orbital AM of light are not separately meaningful physical quantities in orthodox quantum mechanics or classical field theory, these quantities are routinely measured and used for applications in optics. A meaningful quantum description of the spin and orbital AM of light was recently provided by several authors, which describes separately conserved and measurable integral values of these quantities. However, the electromagnetic field theory still lacks corresponding locally conserved spin and orbital AM currents. …

Magnetic Fields In An Expanding Universe, David Kastor, Jennie Traschen

David Kastor

We find a solution to 4D Einstein-Maxwell theory coupled to a massless dilaton field describing a Melvin magnetic field in an expanding universe with 'stiff matter' equation of state parameter w=+1. As the universe expands, magnetic flux becomes more concentrated around the symmetry axis for dilaton coupling a<1/3√ and more dispersed for a>1/3√. An electric field circulates around the symmetry axis in the direction determined by Lenz's law. For a=0 the magnetic flux through a disk of fixed comoving radius is proportional to the proper area of the disk. This result disagrees with the usual expectation based on a test magnetic field that this …

Solving The Instantaneous Response Paradox Of Entangled Particles Using The Time Of Events Theory, Sadeem Abbas Fadhil

Sadeem Abbas Fadhil

In the present study, a new theory that relates the special theory of relativity with quantum mechanics is formulated and then used to explain the remote instantaneous response of entangled particles without the assumptions of nonlocality or hidden variables. The basic assumptions of the present theory stands on the foundation of two space-times, namely, the static and dynamic space-times, in which the latter contains space points that move at the speed of light. The remote instantaneous interaction of the entangled particles is due to the closeness of these particles to each other in the dynamic space-time in spite of remoteness …

Quantum Harmonic Oscillator With Superoscillating Initial Datum, Roman V. Buniy, Fabrizio Colombo, Irene Sabadini, Daniele C. Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we study the evolution of superoscillating initial data for the quantum driven harmonic oscillator. Our main result shows that superoscillations are amplified by the harmonic potential and that the analytic solution develops a singularity in finite time. We also show that for a large class of solutions of the Schrodinger equation, superoscillating behavior at any given time implies superoscillating behavior at any other time.

Momentum And Spin In Entropic Quantum Dynamics, Shahid Nawaz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

We study quantum theory as an example of entropic inference. Our goal is to remove conceptual difficulties that arise in quantum mechanics. Since probability is a common feature of quantum theory and of any inference problem, we briefly introduce probability theory and the entropic methods to update probabilities when new information becomes available. Nelson's stochastic mechanics and Caticha's derivation of quantum theory are discussed in the subsequent chapters. Our first goal is to understand momentum and angular momentum within an entropic dynamics framework and to derive the corresponding uncertainty relations. In this framework momentum is an epistemic concept -- it …

Observation Of A Quantum Cheshire Cat In A Matter-Wave Interferometer Experiment, Tobias Denkmayr, Hermann Geppert, Stephan Sponar, Hartmut Lemmel, Alexandre Matzkin, Jeff Tollaksen, Yuji Hasegawa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

From its very beginning, quantum theory has been revealing extraordinary and counter-intuitive phenomena, such as wave-particle duality, Schrodinger cats and quantum non-locality. Another paradoxical phenomenon found within the framework of quantum mechanics is the 'quantum Cheshire Cat': if a quantum system is subject to a certain pre- and postselection, it can behave as if a particle and its property are spatially separated. It has been suggested to employ weak measurements in order to explore the Cheshire Cat's nature. Here we report an experiment in which we send neutrons through a perfect silicon crystal interferometer and perform weak measurements to probe …