Many Worlds?
Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality
- Publisher's listprice GBP 140.00
-
70 854 Ft (67 480 Ft + 5% VAT)
The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.
- Discount 10% (cc. 7 085 Ft off)
- Discounted price 63 769 Ft (60 732 Ft + 5% VAT)
70 854 Ft
Availability
printed on demand
Why don't you give exact delivery time?
Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.
Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 24 June 2010
- ISBN 9780199560561
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages636 pages
- Size 238x161x42 mm
- Weight 1100 g
- Language English
- Illustrations black and white illustrations and line drawings 0
Categories
Short description:
What follows when quantum theory is applied to the whole universe? This is one of the greatest puzzles of modern science. Philosophers and physicists here debate the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics, according to which this universe is one of countlessly many others, constantly branching in time, all of which are real.
MoreLong description:
What would it mean to apply quantum theory, without restriction and without involving any notion of measurement and state reduction, to the whole universe? What would realism about the quantum state then imply?
This book brings together an illustrious team of philosophers and physicists to debate these questions. The contributors broadly agree on the need, or aspiration, for a realist theory that unites micro- and macro-worlds. But they disagree on what this implies. Some argue that if unitary quantum evolution has unrestricted application, and if the quantum state is taken to be something physically real, then this universe emerges from the quantum state as one of countless others, constantly branching in time, all of which are real. The result, they argue, is many worlds quantum theory, also known as the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics. No other realist interpretation of unitary quantum theory has ever been found.
Others argue in reply that this picture of many worlds is in no sense inherent to quantum theory, or fails to make physical sense, or is scientifically inadequate. The stuff of these worlds, what they are made of, is never adequately explained, nor are the worlds precisely defined; ordinary ideas about time and identity over time are compromised; no satisfactory role or substitute for probability can be found in many worlds theories; they can't explain experimental data; anyway, there are attractive realist alternatives to many worlds.
Twenty original essays, accompanied by commentaries and discussions, examine these claims and counterclaims in depth. They consider questions of ontology - the existence of worlds; probability - whether and how probability can be related to the branching structure of the quantum state; alternatives to many worlds - whether there are one-world realist interpretations of quantum theory that leave quantum dynamics unchanged; and open questions even given many worlds, including the multiverse concept as it has arisen elsewhere in modern cosmology. A comprehensive introduction lays out the main arguments of the book, which provides a state-of-the-art guide to many worlds quantum theory and its problems.
This book provides arguably the most vivid and comprehensive treatment of both state-of-the art developments within and criticism of the Everett interpretation.
Table of Contents:
Many Worlds: an Introduction
1. Why Many Worlds?
Decoherence and Ontology
Quasiclassical Realms
Macroscopic Superpositions, Decoherent Histories, and the Emergence of Hydrodynamical Behaviour
2. Problems with Ontology
Can the world be only wavefunction?
A metaphysician looks at the Everett interpretation
Commentary. Reply to Hawthorne: Physics Before Metaphysics
Transcript 1: ontology
3. Probability in the Everett Interpretation
Chance in the Everett interpretation
A Scandal of Probability Theory
How to prove the Born rule
Everett and Evidence
4. Critical Replies
One World versus Many: the Inadequacy of Everettian Accounts of Evolution, Probability, and Scientific Confirmation
Probability in the Everett picture
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: Can Savage Salvage Everettian Probability?
Transcript 2: Probability
5. Alternatives to Many Worlds
Decoherence, Einselection, Envariance, and Quantum Darwinism: From Relative States to the Existential Interpretation
Two dogmas about quantum mechanics
Commentary: Rabid Dogma? Comments on Bub and Pitowsky
The Principal Principle and Probability in the Many-Worlds interpretation
Pilot-wave theory: many worlds in denial?
Commentary: Reply to Valentini
6. Not Only Many Worlds
Everett and Wheeler, the Untold Story
Apart from universes
Many Worlds in Context
Time Symmetry and the Many-Worlds Interpretation
Transcript 3: Not (only) many worlds
Bibliography
Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality
Subcribe now and receive a favourable price.
Subscribe
70 854 HUF
