Quantum Physics - An Overview of a Weird World

A comprehensive introduction to the scientific principles of a complex topic in which meaning and interpretation never cease to puzzle and surprise. An A-Z guide which is neither too advanced nor oversimplified and which is complete with figures and graphs that illustrate the deeper meaning of the concepts you are unlikely to find elsewhere. The weirdness and paradoxes of quantum physics are explained at an introductory level, from the first principles to modern state-of-the-art experiments. This is for the non-physicist autodidact who is looking for general knowledge about quantum physics, as it furnishes the most rigorous account that an exposition can provide and which only occasionally, in few special chapters, resorts to a mathematical level that goes no further than that of high school. It will save you a ton of time in searching elsewhere, trying to piece together a variety of information. Instead of being ‘quantum physics for dummies’, this is a deeper account that not only summarizes the experiments but also discusses the philosophical arguments and conceptual foundations. It’s a guide for all those who have always been attracted to the fascinating quantum reality and wanted to understand its principles, even if they are not physicists, but have found only either advanced university-level textbooks filled with complex mathematics or, alternatively, popular science texts that tried to connect with the reader at the cost of crude oversimplification.

This book fills a void: that of a non-academic but serious introduction to the conceptual foundations of quantum physics, as it really is, without treating readers like idiots. The author tried to span an 'arch of knowledge' without giving in to the temptation of taking an excessively one-sided account of the subject. To that end, he has refrained from focusing too much on his personal preferences – something that otherwise would have spoiled the intention of making this a general introduction. It is instead, first and foremost, an effort to provide the reader with the widest possible background on all the basics that everyone interested in quantum physics should have.

What is this strange thing called quantum physics? What is its impact on our understanding of the world? What is ‘reality’ according to quantum physics? This book addresses these and many other questions through a step-by-step journey into this very weird world. The central mystery of the double slit experiment and the wave-particle duality, the fuzzy world of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the weird Schrödinger's cat paradox, the 'spooky action at a distance' of quantum entanglement, the EPR paradox and much more is explained, without neglecting such main contributors as Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Feynman and others who struggled themselves to come up with the mysterious quantum realm. This manual also takes a look at the experiments conducted in recent decades, such as the surprising "which-way" and "quantum-erasure" experiments.

Additionally, because schools, colleges and universities teach quantum physics using a dry, mostly technical approach which furnishes only superficial insight into its foundations, this book is recommended to all those students and physicists who would like to look beyond the merely formal aspect and delve deeper into the meaning and essence of quantum mechanics. A primer that the public deserves.

Marco Masi was born in 1965 and attended the German School of Milan, Italy. He graduated in physics at the university of Padua, and later obtained a Ph.D. in physics at the university of Trento. He worked as a postdoc researcher in universities in Italy, France, and more recently in Germany, where he worked also as a school teacher for three years. His interests veered towards new forms of individual learning and a new concept of free progress education originated from his activity both as a tutor in several universities and as a high school teacher, but especially from his direct, lived experience of what education should not be. He is also interested in metaphysical and philosophical ruminations and loves walking in the woods.