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It can take a bit of unpacking, but someone with some sort of college level physics and mathematics background can use Wikipedia to get a basic understanding of

It can take a bit of unpacking, but someone with some sort of college level physics and mathematics background can use Wikipedia to get a basic understanding of what they are talking about. They are basically saying that the quantum mechanical 'strangeness' of light can be explained with classical, deterministic, physics. It is not necessary to have a separation in which quantum mechanics predominates at one level and trumps classical mechanics. It call all be understood as movement of 'particles' of light (photons) on an underlying wave. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_flux_quantum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_flux_quantum http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_flux http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_flux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_tube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_tube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vortex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vortex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_packet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_packet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_equation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_equation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_%28waves%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_%28waves%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_test_experiments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_test_experiments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_dynamics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_dynamics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_wave http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_wave http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie%E2%80%93Bohm_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie%E2%80%93Bohm_theory

itistoday2 12y ago
Pilot wave theory has been known for decades. So can someone explain how whatever they're talking about is different/new?
- cgearhart 12y ago
  Their central claim is that they found a specific instance of quantum behavior where they can represent the whole model with only classical mechanics rather than falling back on quantum explanations like wavefunction collapse, etc. We think that describing quantum systems requires quantum explanations, so finding a counterexample could be interesting.
- clavalle 12y ago
  So they claim that up until now pilot wave theory hasn't been able to explain entanglement while remaining consistent with Maxwell's equations. They are not saying they came up with pilot wave theory, only that they've removed a sticking point.

itistoday2 12y ago

Pilot wave theory has been known for decades. So can someone explain how whatever they're talking about is different/new?

cgearhart 12y ago
Their central claim is that they found a specific instance of quantum behavior where they can represent the whole model with only classical mechanics rather than falling back on quantum explanations like wavefunction collapse, etc. We think that describing quantum systems requires quantum explanations, so finding a counterexample could be interesting.
clavalle 12y ago
So they claim that up until now pilot wave theory hasn't been able to explain entanglement while remaining consistent with Maxwell's equations. They are not saying they came up with pilot wave theory, only that they've removed a sticking point.