A lost Schrödinger manuscript reveals a twist in quantum physics
sciencealert.comTo give some nuance on the quote "Experimental evidence + logical deduction can never prove that either the deterministic or the indeterministic view is impossible": We can indeed rule out a local hidden variable model [1].
So if the deterministic view is true, then it has to be a holistic theory. The hidden variables must be global, i.e. "accessible" throughout the universe. They cannot be attached to a particle as in Whittaker's model or Schrödinger's modification.
Schrödinger's fix to Whittaker's photon argument was to let the hidden variable take any value between zero and one, instead of just two. It's funny that such a small change was enough to rebuild the quantum probabilities.
It is not surprising that Schrödinger did this, what is surprising that a competent physicist, as Whittaker should have been, could ever write such an obviously weak "proof".
If there are hidden variables, it is pretty obvious that they cannot be binary variables, but their nature must be that of spins, i.e. rotation movements, where the probability of interaction depends on the instantaneous values of the rotation angles of the interacting particles (which correspond to the phases of the "wave" functions describing the system).
Can this shed light on determinism v free will ?
I was hoping it established that the cat is ginger
A good example of a monster whose professional life benefits the world.
Worth the cost? I'd say not, but I'm generally an optimist.
Why was Schrödinger a monster in his personal life?
The guy was a paedophile and justified it because he was so intelligent he deserved to sleep with children.
I had never heard that and just had a look at the Wikipedia article and those claims seem to be primarily based on one biography. Other research based on his journals disputes the image portrayed in the Moore biography.
Great article on an interesting topic.
The article mentions the great Physicist, Prof. S.N.Bose's take in a lecture delivered to the Indian Science Congress in 1944. It is titled "The Classical Determinism and The Quantum Theory".
The corresponding pdf can be found at Prof.S.N.Bose archive under Section 6 "Documents" titled "Presidential address at the Indian Science Congress, Delhi,1944 [Current Science, Vol XIII, No. 1]" - https://www.bose.res.in/Prof.S.N.Bose-Archive/
Prof. S.N.Bose is the Physics great after whom "Bosons", "Bose-Einstein Statistics", "Bose-Einstein Condensate" and even "Higgs Boson" are named - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Nath_Bose
I find SN Bose's derivation of quantized distribution of energy levels so much more elegant than Plank's which reads more like a desperate hack to force a predetermined answer.
Wikipedia has a telling quote from the Physicist, Prof. Partha Ghose;
Bose's work stood at the transition between the 'old quantum theory' of Planck, Bohr and Einstein and the new quantum mechanics of Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Born, Dirac and others.
I have always felt that Prof.S.N.Bose never got full credit and acclaim for his achievements maybe because there were so many other greats at that time though Einstein recognized his originality.
I just want to know what happened to the cat, eventually. Like for real – beyond the (academic) (un)certainties.
70 years later they looked it up and the cat is definitely dead.
Didn't you read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency?