hi all. I recently posted this to sci.physics.research. its a intro to the "qm2" group & also a neat link on an outstanding web page-paper on decoherence by scott c. johnson with animated simulations... one of the really nice products from the group discussion so far (also see FAQ link below). SCJ may turn it into a published paper. we've also been following the bogdanov commotion recently.
------- Forwarded Message From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: introducing qm2 & new web paper on decoherence by SCJ Date: Tue, 05 Nov 2002 19:40:31 -0700 hi all. Im very pleased to have opportunity to do something a little sneaky, and promote a new paper by Scott C Johnson behind his back (haha) along with a plug for a group some here may enjoy. background: I founded/moderate the mailing list qm2 that seeks to reexamine quantum mechanics foundations & look into new theories, now around over a year, about 130 members, and thousands of posts. and we're especially fond of "overly speculative posts" (haha). basically, totally unfiltered (although not totally unmoderated!!). I certainly dont pretend the signal-to-noise ratio is greater than it is here in this great newsgroup (sci.physics.research), but I do promise we're a very fast-paced and almost-no-holds-barred group with extremely intense, lively and animated dialog (hey, I admit uncensored==raw at times!!). SCJ, Phd joined the list recently, within the last few months or so, coinciding with a massive explosion of thousands of posts on the list, in which we achieved an amazing critical mass of cross pollination & exchange of ideas among participants. (at least 3 Phds at this point.) something unlike anything Ive ever seen in cyberspace (I 1st posted to usenet in 1989..) SCJ is, imho, a brilliant up-and-coming physicist. he tells me that he chose not to go into academia with regret due to the salary levels making it hard to support a family. a big loss for the academic establishment I would say!! he's working at intel currently in the quality control division, making sure those pentiums are up-to-snuff!! here is a recent outstanding paper by him in the american journal of physics, which Ive skimmed & highly recommend. SCJ is interested in building up visual models of QM, and education of newcomers to the field. TDG, Phd, his coauthor joined qm2 not long after SCJ discovered the group & invited him. Scott C Johnson and Thomas D Guttierrez, "Visualising the phonon wave function", Am. J. Phys, 70(3) 227-237 (2002) SCJ is interested in advancing & keeping the flame alive of his publication background so that someday he might return to academic research. below I include the msg to the group from october 11th where SCJ announces his first "qm2 web paper" (blush). its an outstanding and nice modelling of decoherence of two particles, revealing the distinction of pure vs mixed states. a beautiful tutorial & device for increasing ones intuitive feel for the concepts. fun animated diagrams!! this is SCJs homepage where you can read more about him & his background http://www.geocities.com/scjphysicist/ we have another Phd member from brookhaven national laboratories whos published superconductor research in PRL and Nature. he posts pseudonymously. he's currently attending the CERN particle accelerator school in long beach, more info here: http://cas.web.cern.ch/cas/ another illustrious and highly engaged qm2 member has a remarkable background including coauthoring a paper with carl sagan in the mid 60s. this is a list of many juicy links Ive collected on qm2 over the last year that conveys a little of the flavor of our interests & the group directions, which I think any serious physicists will find something very interesting. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qm2/message/3008 here's our home page. please sign up!! hope to hear from you. the more the merrier. we're just getting started. the sky's the limit. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qm2/ From: "Scott Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri Oct 11, 2002 2:11 am Subject: Decoherence - --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Scott Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi all, I'm back from my move and I'm trying to catch up on the wealth of QM2 messages you all posted while I was gone. One topic that is particularly interesting to me is decoherence, or the superposition/mixed state discussion. I have a visual way to try to understand that, and I've been meaning to solidify it for a while. So, that's what I did tonight (in addition to reading lots of posts). I present all of you with my first "QM2 paper", which can be found here: <http://www.geocities.com/scjphysicist/decoh.html> This paper has no math and lots of ANIMATED pictures, so I'm hoping it's accessible and moderately enjoyable to everyone in this group. Whether you agree with my demonstration or not is another matter. I welcome all your comments on both the substance and the form of my paper. - --Scott - --- End forwarded message ---