Recent content by gentzen

  1. gentzen

    Graduate Wavefunction in the context of quantum physics

    I guess there are not too many things to do with them. You could analyse their position-momentum uncertainty, you could analyse the 2D or 3D harmonic oscillator and its radial symmetry. And maybe two or three other things, but then it soon gets boring. Plane waves are simply more interesting...
  2. gentzen

    Graduate Wavefunction in the context of quantum physics

    In the link, the part in bold above refers to functions from the Schwartz space. The Schwartz space is the function space of all functions whose derivatives are rapidly decreasing. The Hermite functions are functions from the Schwartz space, so in this sense the part in bold also refers to...
  3. gentzen

    Graduate Wavefunction in the context of quantum physics

    Yes :smile: The Hermite functions are such a Hilbert basis. They are eigenfunctions of the Fourier transform. They are well localized in both position and frequency space, and this is not untypical for a Hilbert basis. If you scale them, you get another Hilbert basis, which no longer consists of...
  4. gentzen

    Member and Mentor Appreciation Thread

    As much as I like PF, it is no alternative to Stack Overflow for surviving the subtleties, inconsistencies and implementation bugs of existing programming languages and coding tools. And I am thankful that I don‘t need to ask those questions there myself, because waiting hours, days, or even...
  5. gentzen

    Undergrad One does not “prove” the basic principles of Quantum Mechanics

    Maybe not an electrostatic field, but shooting an electrodynamic field at somebody's head is possible. It normally won't hurt, and often it will also be more extended than the head. But that is just because the speed of light is so fast.
  6. gentzen

    Undergrad One does not “prove” the basic principles of Quantum Mechanics

    I initially didn't refer to any specific question, but you are right, in the end that was the question MBastieK wanted to discuss. And my "update" today is certainly also related to that question, because it weakens my explanation for why In that discussion with MBastieK, I also raised that...
  7. gentzen

    Undergrad One does not “prove” the basic principles of Quantum Mechanics

    Since I know that you can read German, my discussion on Physikerboard with MBastieK of such a "don't exist" or "no well defined properties" question for a very simple and specific case could be interesting: In a later reply to bhobba it is mentioned ("The issue of this slight modeling...
  8. gentzen

    Undergrad Single vs. Double slit coherence clarification please

    She is unhappy with the way popularizers use the double slit experiment to illustrate wave-particle duality. She seems to try to better understand the meaning of wave-particle duality for herself, and those oversimplified depictions of the double slit experiment are not helpful for her...
  9. gentzen

    Graduate Understanding Barandes' microscopic theory of causality

    I guess you are confusing David Wallace with Wojciech Żurek here.
  10. gentzen

    Undergrad Value of intuitionistic logic

    Yes. Yes, good point: True is used with respect to a specific model. For statements concerning all models, a different terminology is used. When coming from the syntax side, one could just say provable. I don't remember the terminology when coming from the model/semantics side, but valid sounds...
  11. gentzen

    Undergrad Value of intuitionistic logic

    Well, we still say that a proposition which is True everywhere is just True (or top ⊤), and a proposition which is True only on the empty set (or bottom ⊥/initial object) is False. You can say that the wff is valid, if you want, but you can also just say that it is True. Yes. No need to force...
  12. gentzen

    Undergrad Value of intuitionistic logic

    No, "semantics" just means "theory of meaning". Even so you could talk of "theories of meaning", there is no way to put "semantics" into plural form. In logic, one contrasts syntax and semantics. Well, take the real numbers ##\mathbb R## as your topological space, and ##P:=(-\infty,0)##. Then...
  13. gentzen

    Undergrad Value of intuitionistic logic

    Independent of whether IPL is "supposed to model", it does model various specific "kind of world(s)". Or in other words, there are a variety of semantics for IPL: categorical semantics Kripke semantics open subsets semantics (aka topological semantics) Your formulation "kind of world" sounds...