by David B Cook (University of Sheffield, UK)

This book addresses some of the problems of interpreting Schrödinger's mechanics — the most complete and explicit theory falling under the umbrella of “quantum theory”. The outlook is materialist (“realist”) and stresses the development of Schrödinger's mechanics from classical theories and its close connections with (particularly) the Hamilton–Jacobi theory. Emphasis is placed on the concepts and use of the modern objective (measure-theoretic) probability theory. The work is free from any mention of the bearing of Schrödinger's mechanics on God, his alleged mind or, indeed, minds at all. The author has taken the naïve view that this mechanics is about the structure and dynamics of atomic and sub-atomic systems since he has been unable to trace any references to minds, consciousness or measurements in the foundations of the theory.

• Preliminaries:
  • Orientation and Outlook
• Probabilities:
  • Simple Probabilities
  • A More Careful Look at Probabilities
• Classical Mechanics:
  • The Hamilton–Jacobi Equation
  • Angular Momentum
• Schrödinger's Mechanics:
  • Prelude: Particle Diffraction
  • The Genesis of Schrödinger's Mechanics
  • The Schrödinger Equation
  • Identities: Momenta and Dynamical Variables
  • Abstracting the Structure
• Interpretation from Applications:
  • The Quantum Kepler Problem
  • The Harmonic Oscillator and Fields
  • Perturbation Theory and Epicycles
  • Formalisms and “Hidden” Variables
• Disputes and Paradoxes:
  • Measurement at the Microscopic Level
  • Paradoxes
  • Beyond Schrödinger's Mechanics?