On the Relationship Between Classical and Quantum Mechanics: What Can We Learn from Semiclassical Mechanics?

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Professor Batterman aims to provide an in-depth philosophical discussion of the status of semiclassical mechanics. This is an area of research that is located somewhere between classical and quantum mechanics, and which can most profitably be viewed as a modern formulation of the old (pre-1925) quantum theory. A large part of the concern with this question comes from the fact that many researchers in semiclassical mechanics appear to take the results as explanatory, and even to provide genuine understanding of various quantum phenomena in terms almost entirely classical. The nature of this understanding is being investigated by considering in detail some examples of how apparent failures of the old quantum theory have, subsequently, succumbed to semiclassical treatment. It is Professor Batterman's major contention that for semiclassical mechanics to provide genuine explanations and understanding, it must be considered a theory in its own right. It is not simply an approximation to the quantum theory; that is, not merely a procedure for computing approximations to quantal solutions. It is the aim of this project to consider the implications of this claim.