QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

internmediate states are impossible. 513 In micro-physics, we also encounter new quantised
properties such as spin, charm and strangeness. Although these are properties whose
conservation in particle reactions is confirmed, it is difficult to construct a clear understanding of
their fundamental nature.
Arthur March, a German professor of physics, tried to conceptualise the ideas of the Copenhagen
school on the foundations of quantum mechanics in a clear and careful manner. He reflected the
new situation in his remark that any phenomenon that occurs in the micro-world consists of
elementary processes or acts which, by virtue of natural law, cannot be analysed. Hence, the
micro-world is by nature atomic not only in respect to matter but to events as well. We shall
never know what happens in an atom during the process that leads to the production or
annihilation of a photon. The emission or absorption of light as well as the scattering of a photon
by an electron are examples of elementary processes or acts which resist any attempt to analyse
them. We cannot therefore apply the principle of causality to these processes. The atomicity of
events appears to us as a discontinuity in the course of events, and only probability relations exist
between present and future. 514
This situation can also be illustrated by saying that the wave properties associated with particles
make the earlier deterministic space-time description impossible: particles are not only
mechanically interacting objects that can be idealised as mass points. At the same time, waves
make possible probability forecasts concerning atomic events. 515 Categories of reality previously
illustrated using separate wave and particle metaphors now appear to be in some way linked. An
clear and visualizible representation of the new connection between particles and waves or
matter and radiation cannot however be found in the classical ”billiard ball” world. Particles are
located at specific points, but waves spread throughout the whole of space. Also, quantum field
theories cannot claim credit for visualisable clarity, through which the connection between
waves and particles has anyway become increasingly clear. In quantum field theories, all
elementary particles are considered to be quanta in the fields that they are connected to. For
example, a photon is understood as a quantum in a electromagnetic field which mediates
513 This strange situation can somehow be visualised by using the simple example of the waves on a string. There
are always some positions where the string is at rest. We can see how the wave-like properties of particles lead
directly to ’energy quantization’ without solving the Schrödinger equaton. Hey and Walters 1987, 42-44.
514 March 1951, 1-3 and March 1957, 47-50.
515 Laurikainen 1993, 155.
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