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No Point Particles, Definitely no Waves

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Part of the book series: Fundamental Theories of Physics ((FTPH,volume 81))

Abstract

It is argued that in microscopic physics the discussions of wave-particle duality are not meaningful. This reasoning is based on the observation that waves are a conglomeration of coherent disturbances in a many body system and as such they do not represent individual entities. Newtonian kinematics have no predictive power and they do not offer a physical description of participants in an interaction, except to say that they obey the conservation laws. The point-particle concept is an unnecessary complication in physics.

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References

  1. A. Einstein (1905), Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Vol.2, Anna Beck and Peter Havas, eds. (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1989).

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  2. M. Kaku, Introduction to Superstrings (Springer, New York, 1988).

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  3. See, for example, H. Ohanian, Modern Physics (Prentice-Hall, New York, 1987). C. Rangacharyulu, Elements of Modern Physics, in preparation.

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  4. O. Klein and Y. Nishina, Z. Phys. 52 (1929) 853; English translation in O. Klein Memorial Lectures (World Scientific, Singapore, 1994), Vol. 2, p. 113.

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Rangacharyulu, C. (1997). No Point Particles, Definitely no Waves. In: Ferrero, M., van der Merwe, A. (eds) New Developments on Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics. Fundamental Theories of Physics, vol 81. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5886-2_42

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5886-2_42

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6487-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5886-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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