Escape From Shadow Physics

Kay, Adam Forrest

ISBN 10: 1399609580 / ISBN 13: 9781399609586

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 47322353-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Escape From Shadow Physics
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1399609580
• ISBN 13: 9781399609586
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

'A LANDMARK IN THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PHYSICS' - Jean Bricmont

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 atoms - and therefore all things - aren't real unless shaped by human measurement. Einstein mocked this, asking if his bed evaporated only to jump back into the corner when he opened the door. And yet, quantum antirealism remains deeply influential 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, we may be on the threshold of a scientific revolution in which a century of mystical thinking and learned helplessness is replaced by a rational understanding of nature.

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.