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Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory that describes the behavior of nature at and below the scale of atoms. [2]: 1.1 It is the foundation of all quantum physics, which includes quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Quantum mechanics can describe many systems that classical physics cannot.
Applications of quantum mechanics include explaining phenomena found in nature as well as developing technologies that rely upon quantum effects, like integrated circuits and lasers. [ note 1 ] Quantum mechanics is also critically important for understanding how individual atoms are joined by covalent bonds to form molecules .
The idea of quantum field theory began in the late 1920s with British physicist Paul Dirac, when he attempted to quantize the energy of the electromagnetic field; just as in quantum mechanics the energy of an electron in the hydrogen atom was quantized. Quantization is a procedure for constructing a quantum theory starting from a classical theory.
Part II, "Cryptodeterminism and Quantum Inseparability", focuses on Bell's theorem and other demonstrations that quantum mechanics is incompatible with local hidden-variable theories. (Within its substantial discussion of the failure of hidden variable theories , the book includes a FORTRAN program for testing whether a list of vectors forms a ...
Abraham, R.; Marsden, J. E. (2008). Foundations of Mechanics: A Mathematical Exposition of Classical Mechanics with an Introduction to the Qualitative Theory of Dynamical Systems (2nd ed.).
Quantum electronics is a term that was used mainly between the 1950s and 1970s [7] to denote the area of physics dealing with the effects of quantum mechanics on the behavior of electrons in matter, together with their interactions with photons. Today, it is rarely considered a sub-field in its own right, and it has been absorbed by other fields.
The old quantum theory is a collection of results from the years 1900–1925 [23] which predate modern quantum mechanics. The theory was never complete or self-consistent, but was rather a set of heuristic corrections to classical mechanics. [24] The theory is now understood as a semi-classical approximation [25] to modern quantum mechanics. [26]
The definition of quantum theorists' terms, such as wave function and matrix mechanics, progressed through many stages.For instance, Erwin Schrödinger originally viewed the electron's wave function as its charge density smeared across space, but Max Born reinterpreted the absolute square value of the wave function as the electron's probability density distributed across space; [3]: 24–33 ...