Time, Quantum and Information

ISBN-13: 9783540440338 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 454 str.

Lutz Castell; Otfried Ischebeck; Carl Friedrich Weizsacker

Opis

This publication centers on the extraordinary ideas in and concepts of physics of th CarI Friedrich von Weizs?cker. At the time of his 90 birthday on June 28, 2002, it seems the right moment to try such a survey. The themes of two Festschrifts for CarI th th Friedrich von Weizs?cker on the occasion of his 60 and 70 birthdays (E. Scheibe and G. Suessmann (eds. ): Einheit und Vielheit, and K. Meyer-Abich (ed. ): Physik, Philosophie und Politik) were his unique capability to encompass physics, philosophy and politics. He may be more known publicly today for his efforts for containment of the Cold War nuclear threat, for the abolition of war as an instrument of international politics, for the social responsibility of scientists, and for the Conciliar Process of the Churches for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. But physics has been his primary professional vocation and has always remained in the center of his thought and life. But even in light of the physics focus of this book, it would not do justice to CarI Friedrich von Weizs?cker to re strict his achievements in physics to efforts only accessible to professionals. The contributions in Part 1 show how his very concentration on physics has led him to take an active part in problems of politics, social change, philosophy and religion.

Spis treści

I Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and His Role in the Physics of the 20th Century.- Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and The Kaiser Wilhelm/Max Planck Society.- The Role of the Physicist in the Nuclear Age.- “The Atomic Bomb Reveals the Political Responsibility of Science”.- On the Unfathomableness of Consciousness by Consciousness.- II Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker’s Contributions to Nuclear and Astrophysics and Their Impact on the Development of Physics.- Introduction: From the Atomic Nucleus to Cosmic Vortex Systems.- The Origins of Nuclear Physics and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker’s Semi-Empirical Mass Formula.- Thermonuclear Processes in Stars and Stellar Neutrinos.- Comets: Fascinating Cosmic Objects.- The Spectrum of Turbulence.- From Dust Disks to Planetary Systems.- III The Unity of Nature and the Nature of Time.- Science and Its Relation to Nature in C.F. von Weizsäcker’s Natural Philosophy.- C.F. von Weizsäcker’s Philosophy of Science and the Nature of Time.- What Is Missing? — The Fundamental Role of Time in C.F. von Weizsäcker’s Conception of Physics and Some Insights from Modern Neuroscience.- Irreversibility via Semichaos.- Remarks on Fractional Time.- The Dynamics of Modelling.- IV The Structure of Quantum Theory and Its Interpretation.- An Introduction to Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker’s Program for a Reconstruction of Quantum Theory.- Interpreting Quantum Mechanics — in the Light of Quantum Logic.- On the Interpretation of Quantum Theory — from Copenhagen to the Present Day.- Epistemic and Ontic Quantum Realities.- Information and Fundamental Elements of the Structure of Quantum Theory.- Multiple Quantization in Fock Space.- V The Ur-Hypothesis and Its Implications for Particle Physics and Cosmology.- The Ur-Hypothesis.- The Momentum Eigenstates and the Lorentz-Invariant State.- C.F. von Weizsäcker’s Reconstruction of Physics: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.- The Operational Structure of Spacetime.- Ur Theory and Space-Time Structure.- Weizsäcker’s Ur Theory — A Cosmological Point of View.- Ur Theory and Cosmological Phase Transition.- Phase Transitions in an Expanding Universe: Paul Roman’s Models and Some Remarks on Entropy.- C. F. von Weizsäcker: Biographical Data and Selected Bibliography in Physics.- The Authors.

Blurb

This collection of essays presented to Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker on the occasion of his 90th birthday addresses a wide readership interested in astronomy, physics, and the history and philosophy of science. The articles treat subjects such as the social responsibility of scientists, thermonuclear processes in stars and stellar neutrinos, turbulence and the emergence of planetary systems. Furthermore, considerable attention is paid to the unity of nature, the nature of time, and to information about, and interpretation of, the structure of quantum theory, all important philosophical problems of our times. The last section describes von Weizsäcker's ur-hypothesis and how it will theoretically permit the construction of particles and interactions from quantized bits of information.