Einstein Was Right!

ISBN-13: 9789814463690 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 220 str.

Karl Hess

Opis

All modern books on Einstein emphasize the genius of his relativity theory and the corresponding corrections and extensions of the ancient space-time concept. However, Einstein's opposition to the use of probability in the laws of nature and particularly in the laws of quantum mechanics is criticized and often portrayed as outdated. The author of Einstein Was Right! takes a unique view and shows that Einstein created a "Trojan horse" ready to unleash forces against the use of probability as a basis for the laws of nature. Einstein warned that the use of probability would, in the final analysis, lead to spooky actions and mysterious instantaneous influences at a distance. John Bell pulled Einstein's Trojan horse into the castle of physics. He developed a theory that together with experimental results of Aspect, Zeilinger, and others "proves" the existence of quantum nonlocalities, or instantaneous influences. These have indeed the nature of what Einstein labeled spooky. Einstein Was Right! shows that Bell was not aware of the special role that time and space-time play in any rigorous probability theory. As a consequence, his formalism is not general enough to be applied to the Aspect-Zeilinger type of experiments and his conclusions about the existence of instantaneous influences at a distance are incorrect. This fact suggests a worldview that is less optimistic about claims that teleportation and influences at a distance could open new horizons and provide the possibility of quantum computing. On the positive side, however, and as compensation, we are assured that the space-time picture of humankind developed over millions of years and perfected by Einstein is still able to cope with the phenomena that nature presents us on the atomic and sub-atomic level and that the "quantum weirdness" may be explainable and understandable after all.

O autorze

Karl Hess received a PhD in physics/mathematics from the University of Vienna in 1970. He has been a professor of both electrical engineering and physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign since 1980 and has held the Swanlund Chair since 1996 (emeritus 2006). Hess has received a number of national and international awards.