The age of entanglement : when quantum physics was reborn / Louisa Gilder.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilder, Louisa.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quantum theory.

Physical Description:

xvi, 443 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Summary:

An exploration of the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles--one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics. In 1935, Einstein showed that quantum mechanics predicted such a correlation, which he dubbed "spooky action at a distance." That same year, Erwin Schrödinger christened this correlation "entanglement." Yet its existence wasn't firmly established until 1964, in a groundbreaking paper by Irish physicist John Bell. What happened during those years and since to refine the understanding of this phenomenon is the story told here. Drawing on papers, letters, and memoirs, author Gilder humanizes and dramatizes the story by employing their own words in imagined face-to-face dialogues. We see Bohr and Einstein clashing, and Heisenberg and Pauli deciding which mysteries to pursue. We see Schrödinger and Louis de Broglie pave the way for Bell, whose work is here given a long-overdue revisiting. And we see Richard Feynman challenging his contemporaries to make something of this entanglement.--From publisher description.

Contents:

A Note to the Reader xiii

Introduction: Entanglement 3

1 The Socks 1978 and 1981 8

The Arguments 1909-1935

2 Quantized Light September 1909-June 1913 25

3 The Quantized Atom November 1913 32

4 The Unpicturable Quantum World Summer 1921 40

5 On the Streetcar Summer 1923 49

6 Light Waves and Matter Waves November 1923-December 1924 60

7 Pauli and Heisenberg at the Movies January 8, 1925 68

8 Heisenberg in Helgoland June 1925 74

9 Schrodinger in Arosa Christmas and New Year's Day 1925-1926 82

10 What You Can Observe April 28 and Summer 1926 86

11 This Damned Quantum Jumping October 1926 94

12 Uncertainty Winter 1926-1927 101

13 Solvay 1927 110

14 The Spinning World 1927-1929 115

15 Solvay 1930 123

Interlude: Things Fall Apart 1931-1933 128

16 The Quantum-Mechanical Description of Reality 1934-1935 150

The Search and the Indictment 1940-1952

17 Princeton April-June 10, 1949 181

18 Berkeley 1941-1945 185

19 Quantum Theory at Princeton 1946-1948 192

20 Princeton June 15-December 1949 197

21 Quantum Theory 1951 199

22 Hidden Variables and Hiding Out 1951-1952 202

23 Brazil 1952 208

24 Letters from the World 1952 215

25 Standing Up to Oppenheimer 1952-1957 221

26 Letters from Einstein 1952-1954 223

Epilogue to the Story of Bohm 1954 227

The Discovery 1952-1979

27 Things Change 1952 233

28 What Is Proved by Impossibility Proofs 1963-1964 237

29 A Little Imagination 1969 250

30 Nothing Simple About Experimental Physics 1971-1975 269

31 In Which the Settings Are Changed 1975-1982 282

Entanglement Comes of Age 1981-2005

32 Schrodinger's Centennial 1987 293

33 Counting to Three 1985-1988 297

34 "Against 'Measurement'" 1989-1990 303

35 Are You Telling Me This Could Be Practical? 1989-1991 312

36 The Turn of the Millennium 1997-2002 316

37 A Mystery, Perhaps 1981-2006 325

Epilogue: Back in Vienna 2005 331

Longer Summaries 347.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-416) and index.

ISBN:

9781400044177

1400044170

OCLC:

213765737