Einstein’s Struggles with Quantum Theory: A Reappraisal

Dipankar Home · Andrew Whitaker

nov 2007 · Springer Science & Business Media

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Einstein’s Struggles with Quantum Theory: A Re-Appraisal, presents an account of all aspects of Einstein’s encounter with quantum theory. Until recently it was accepted that, after important early work, Einstein was simply unable to follow Niels Bohr’s approach to quantum theory, and that Einstein’s own views, centered on realism, were of no interest. This book follows modern scholarship arguing that Einstein’s arguments were well constructed, in the Einstein-Bohr debate his position was legitimate, and his pragmatic approach to realism stimulated John Bell and encouraged the emergence of quantum information theory. The book provides a readable account of Einstein’s achievements in quantum theory, his own views, and the progress his work has stimulated since his death. While some chapters use mathematics at an undergraduate physics level, a path is provided for the reader more concerned with ideas than equations, and the book should be of interest to anybody interested in Einstein and his approach to the quantum.

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Dipankar Home is Professor of Physics at Bose Institute, Calcutta. Over the past two decades he has been working extensively on the fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics, especially on topics related to entanglement and quantum nonlocality, quantum communications, the measurement problem, quantum Zeno effect, quantum time distributions and nonstandard interpretations of quantum mechanics such as the Bohmian model. One area of his research has involved linking the foundational issues of quantum mechanics with realizable experiments. Home's earlier book Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Physics (Plenum, New York, 1997) was positively reviewed in various publications such as Physics Today, Progress in Quantum Electronics, and in The Times (London) Higher Education Supplement.

Andrew Whitaker has been Professor of Physics at Queen's University Belfast since 1999. His early research was in the theory of pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance. In recent years he has been concerned with the foundations of quantum theory and has published over 50 papers in this area. He has had a special interest in the quantum Zeno effect, the interpretations of quantum theory and the Bohr-Einstein dispute. He has written several articles on Belfast-born John Bell. In 1996 he published Einstein, Bohr and the Quantum Dilemma and in 2002 edited Physicists of Ireland: Passion and Precision with Mark McCartney.