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J. Orlin Grabbe

Publications and source records attributed to J. Orlin Grabbe.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

On the vortex interpretation of Schroedinger's wave equation

There has been a recent tendency to apply Schroedinger's wave equation to macroscopic domains, from Bose-Einstein condensates in neutron stars to planetary orbits. In these applications a hydrodynamical interpretation, involving vortices in some 'fluid' medium is often given. The vortex picture appears surprising in light of more traditional interpretations of Schroedinger's equation, and indeed often appears to rely on ad hoc analogies. The purpose of this letter is to examine the vortex hypothesis in light of a simple, transparent mathematical framework. We find that Schroedinger's equation implies waves can be vortices also for a class of wave functions. Vortices occur in pairs that perform a sort of quantum computation by collapsing into either 0 or 1. Vortices collapsing to 0 ('0-vortices') are longer-lived, and their ratio to 1-vortices is discussed.

quant-ph

Heisenberg's wave packet reconsidered

This note shows that Heisenberg's choice for a wave function in his original paper on the uncertainty principle is simply a renormalized characteristic function of a stable distribution with certain restrictions on the parameters. Relaxing Heisenberg's restrictions leads to a more general formulation of the uncertainty principle. This reformulation shows quantum uncertainty can exist at a macroscopic level. These modifications also give rise to a new form of Schrodinger's wave equation as the equation of a vibrating string. Although a heat equation version can also be given, the latter shows the traditional formulation of Schrodinger's equation involves a hidden Cauchy amplitude assumption.

quant-ph

An Introduction to Quantum Game Theory

This essay gives a self-contained introduction to quantum game theory, and is primarily oriented to economists with little or no acquaintance with quantum mechanics. It assumes little more than a basic knowledge of vector algebra. Quantum mechanical notation and results are introduced as needed. It is also shown that some fundamental problems of quantum mechanics can be formulated as games.

quant-ph