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

教授巴特曼的目的是提供一个半经典力学的地位深入的哲学讨论。这是一个介于经典力学和量子力学之间的研究领域，它可以被视为旧（1925年以前）量子理论的现代表述。对这个问题的大部分关注来自于这样一个事实，即许多半经典力学的研究人员似乎把这些结果当作解释性的，甚至几乎完全以经典的方式提供对各种量子现象的真正理解。通过详细考虑旧量子理论的明显失败如何随后屈服于半经典处理的一些例子，正在研究这种理解的本质。巴特曼教授的主要论点是，为了提供真正的解释和理解，半经典力学必须被视为一种独立的理论。它不仅仅是量子理论的近似；也就是说，不仅仅是计算量子解的近似过程。这个项目的目的是考虑这一说法的含义。

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.