Название: The Historical and Physical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
Автор: Robert Golub, Steven K. Lamoreaux
Издательство: Oxford University Press
Год: 2023
Страниц: 769
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf
Размер: 25.8 MB

Following the path by which humanity learned quantum mechanics can lead to an improved teaching and understanding of the fundamental theory and the origins of its perceived limitations. The purpose of this textbook is to retrace the development of quantum mechanics by investigating primary sources (including original published papers and letters) with attention to their timing and influence. Placing the development of quantum mechanics in its historical context, from the nascent philosophical notions of matter, atoms, and void in Ancient Greece, to their scientific realization in the 19th and 20th centuries, the book culminates with an examination of the current state of the field and an introduction to quantum information and computing.

Currently quantum computing is one of the hottest topics in physics and is the object of an enormous research effort. Many academic institutions and internationally prominent corporations are devoting large amounts of resources to the attempt to realize a practical quantum computer. The science-supporting agencies of many governments around the world have made quantum computing one of their highest priorities and have instituted special funding programs to support it. On the scientific side, the interest in quantum computing has led to new ways of thinking about quantum mechanics and the development of new mathematical techniques.

The “golden chalice” of quantum computing is the likelihood that a working quantum computer would be able to factor large numbers in a reasonable time. This is attractive because most currently used schemes for encrypting data owe their security to the difficulty of solving the factorization problem. In fact, interest in quantum computing got a tremendous boost from the publication of Shor’s algorithm, which would be able to accomplish this in significantly shorter times than can be done with clas- sical computing. Basically, this is because a quantum computer works with quantum superpositions of binary representations of numbers.