Escape From Shadow Physics: Quantum Theory, Quantum Reality and the Next Scientific Revolution - Softcover

Kay, Adam Forrest

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1399609602 ISBN 13: 9781399609609

Publisher: W&N, 2025

Synopsis

The received wisdom in quantum physics is that, at the deepest levels of reality, there are no actual causes for atomic events. This idea led to the outlandish belief that quantum objects - indeed, reality itself - aren't real unless shaped by human measurement. Einstein mocked this idea, asking whether his bed spread out across his room unless he looked at it. And yet it remains one of the most influential ideas in science and our culture.

In Escape from Shadow Physics, Adam Forrest Kay takes up Einstein's torch: reality isn't mysterious or dependent on human measurement, but predictable and independent of us. At the heart of his argument is groundbreaking research with little drops of oil. These droplets behave as particles do in the long-overlooked quantum theory of pilot waves; crucially, they display quantum behaviour while being described by classical physics.

What if the original doubters of our quantum orthodoxy (not least Einstein himself) were onto something? What if pilot wave theory was right all along? In that case, our whole story of twentieth-century physics is topsy-turvy and we must give up the idea that reality is simply too weird to grasp. Weird it may still be, but a true understanding of nature now seems within our reach.

About this title

About the Author

Adam Forrest Kay studied Classics and physics at the University of Colorado, and did his graduate work in England and France. He is the recipient of many scholarships and academic distinctions. He has two PhDs, one in literature from the University of Cambridge and the other in mathematics from the University of Oxford. His maths dissertation discussed the possibility of three-dimensional Hydrodynamic Quantum Analogues, and in the fall of 2020 Adam took up a research position at MIT to work with John Bush, the leading scholar in the field of HQA. Adam's current research interests centre around realist models of quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and partial differential equations, particularly variable coefficient wave equations.

Edition details

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1399609602
• ISBN 13: 9781399609609
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496