Quantum Theory as an Emergent Phenomenon Adler Hardback 9780521831949

Quantum Theory as an Emergent PhenomenonThe Statistical Mechanics of Matrix Models as the Precursor of Quantum Field Theory\nAuthor(s): Stephen L. Adler\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521831949, 978-0521831949\nSynopsis\nQuantum mechanics is our most successful physical theory. However, it raises conceptual issues that have perplexed physicists and philosophers of science for decades. This 2004 book develops an approach, based on the proposal that quantum theory is not a complete, final theory, but is in fact an emergent phenomenon arising from a deeper level of dynamics. The dynamics at this deeper level are taken to be an extension of classical dynamics to non-commuting matrix variables, with cyclic permutation inside a trace used as the basic calculational tool. With plausible assumptions, quantum theory is shown to emerge as the statistical thermodynamics of this underlying theory, with t.