Episode 5: Counting Unvierses

Jim goes on a diatribe about infinities and the multiverse.

In this episode, I discuss a paper talking about the relationship between physical entropy and information-theoretic entropy in the context of quantum communication.

This week, I talk about the fate of the universe in Bohmian Cosmology. Specifically, how Torres, Fabris, and Piattella use the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics to modify the Wheeler-De Witt equation in the an accelerating universe.Show Notes: http://papers.physicsfm.com/3

Jim and Randy discuss the ways in which we interpret the wavefunction, quantum indeterminancy, and other strange things that happen in quantum mechanics -- going through nine classes of interpretation and what they mean about the underlying reasons for quantum mechanical behavior.

Randy and Jim discuss the implications of Schroedinger's Cat. In light of the measurement problem, in light of the collapse of the wave function, how can you understand what is happening to a quantum mechanical system?

Randy and Jim talk about measurements of quantum systems, specifically in terms of a paradox involving the measurement of the velocity. This includes a long discussion of the von Neumann model of quantum mechanics.

Jim and Randy discuss Aharonov and Rohrlich's suggestion that quantum mechanics should be formulated in terms of axioms based upon its physical peculiarities -- Nonlocality and Causality.

Randy and Jim discuss modular variables and how looking at an infinite number of slits in a diffraction grating can better elucidate the process of quantum interference than the two-slit experiment.

Jim and Randy talk about two paradoxes that help describe the Aharonov-Bohm effect. This requires an excursion into the gauge invariance of the vector potential of electrodynamics -- and how that gauge has real effects in quantum theory, even though it did not in classical physics.

Jim and Randy discuss the meaning of consistency, black body radiation, the Compton effect, uncertainty relationships, single-slit diffraction, and the clock in a box paradox.