language: en

Remarks on Some Basic Issues in Quantum Mechanics*

Berthold-Georg Englert
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik,
Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1, D-85478 Garching
, Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten,
Sladionallee 2, A-1020 Wien, Austria,
Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, ,
College Station, TX 77843-4242, USA
,
Z. Naturforsch. 54 a, 11-32 (1999);

[received October 26, 1998]

Two-way interferometers with which-way detectors are not only of importance in physical research, they are also a useful teaching device. A number of basic issues can be illustrated and discussed, even at the level of undergraduate teaching. Among these issues are: the physical meaning of a state vector; entangled systems; Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations; statistical operators and the as-if realities associated with them; quantum erasure; Schrödinger's cat; and, finally, wave-particle duality.

Contents