Classical Concepts in Quantum Theory

在半经典力学、介观物理和量子混沌等领域，科学文献的快速增长正在对经典力学和量子力学之间的关系提出新的问题。经典力学的概念非但没有过时，反而在发现新现象和加深对量子理论的理解方面发挥着核心作用。尽管有这些重要的发展，在科学史和科学哲学文献中仍然没有一本书专门研究这两种理论之间的关系。本研究的目的就是要写出这样一本书。这个项目首先认识到，传统的框架来理解理论间的关系是不够的。经典力学和量子力学之间复杂而微妙的关系并没有被还原论、多元主义和经典极限的著名模型所捕获。在寻找一个新的框架时，Bokulich转向物理学的历史，研究量子理论的创始人如何看待该理论与经典力学的关系。她的工作将提供一个重要的贡献，物理学文献的历史，显示如何尼尔斯玻尔，维尔纳海森堡和保罗狄拉克，所有成员的所谓哥本哈根解释，每个人都有一个独特的哲学之间的关系经典和量子力学。在这三种观点中，她认为狄拉克的理论间关系哲学为理解量子化和半经典力学的最新发展提供了最好的框架。在这一历史性工作的基础上，Bokulich认为最近的发展是狄拉克计划的延续，以精确描述经典力学和量子力学的数学结构之间的相似性。她的研究将为被称为结构现实主义的哲学观点提供一个新的和重要的试验场。为了进一步建立她的案例，Bokulich接下来转向半经典理论及其在量子混沌领域的应用。她专注于她的调查在实验研究的一个特定领域，经典轨道不仅被用来调查，但因果解释，量子现象。这些实验提出了关于量子理论中经典概念的认识论地位的紧迫的哲学问题。这两个案例研究，量子化和量子混沌，提供了科学发现的例子，只有通过仔细研究经典力学和量子力学之间的关系。Bokulich认为，这两个案例研究也将为还原论和实在论的传统哲学问题提供新的启示。作为一个跨学科的工作，整合了历史，哲学和科学的观点，博库利奇的书将有助于进一步在这些不同领域的研究人员之间富有成效的对话。

The rapidly growing body of scientific literature in fields such as semi-classical mechanics, mesoscopic physics, and quantum chaos is raising new questions about the relationship between classical and quantum mechanics. Far from being obsolete, the concepts of classical mechanics are playing a central role in discovering new phenomena and coming to a deeper understanding of quantum theory. Despite these important developments there still does not exist a book in the history and philosophy of science literature devoted to an examination of the relationship between these two theories. The objective of this research is to produce such a book. This project begins with the realization that the traditional frameworks for understanding intertheoretic relations are inadequate. The complex and subtle relationship between classical and quantum mechanics is not captured by the well-known models of reductionism, pluralism, nor the classical limit. In searching for a new framework, Bokulich turns to the history of physics, examining how the founders of quantum theory viewed the relationship of that theory to classical mechanics. Her work will provide an important contribution to the history of physics literature by showing how Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Paul Dirac, all members of the so-called Copenhagen interpretation, each had a distinctive philosophy of the relationship between classical and quantum mechanics. Of these three views she proposes that Dirac's philosophy of intertheoretic relations provides the best framework for understanding recent developments in quantization and semiclassical mechanics. Building on this historical work, Bokulich considers how recent developments in are a continuation of Dirac's program to make precise the similarities between the mathematical structures of classical and quantum mechanics. Her investigation will provide a new and important testing ground for the philosophical view known as structural realism. To further build her case, Bokulich next turns to an examination of semiclassical theory and its application in the field of quantum chaos. She focuses her investigation on a particular area of experimental research in which classical orbits are being used not only to investigate, but to explain causally, quantum phenomena. These experiments raise pressing philosophical questions about the epistemological status of classical concepts in quantum theory. These two case studies, quantization and quantum chaos, provide examples of scientific discoveries that come only through a careful study of the relationship between classical and quantum mechanics. Bokulich contends that these two case studies will also shed new light on the traditional philosophical problems of reductionism and realism. As an interdisciplinary work that integrates historical, philosophical, and scientific perspectives, Bokulich's book will help further the fruitful dialogue between researchers in these diverse fields.