Understanding quantum theory. Basic ideas and concepts

Quantum theory is the branch of physics that has changed the world the most in the last hundred years since its creation. Computers and space travel, the internet, solar cells, modern brain research and flat screens - none of this would be conceivable without quantum theory. The next revolutionary step is the quantum computer, for which the race has already begun. And yet quantum physics is still the sub-field of physics around which many unsolved problems and questions of a very fundamental nature entwine. In the eyes of many scientists, it is considered incomprehensible, not least because of misunderstandings and unclear terminology. Nevertheless, much has happened in a hundred years. There are recent experimental results that confirm the theory and even lift it out of the micro-world. There are newer approaches that build bridges to classical physics. The author of this book now offers for the first time an introduction to quantum theory that focuses on understanding and the big picture, rather than on calculation. The author draws a wide arc, connecting the quantum world with the cosmos. Here are some of the book's topics: - Real and possible structures as the driving force of nature, - Quanta and black holes, - The dead end of the smallest particles, - Basic principles of classical physics versus quantum physics, - The concept of time in physics, - Counting facts and possibilities, - Cosmology and the equivalence of mass, energy and quantum information, - Solutions to problems of contemporary cosmology, - The fundamental alternating effects. For students of physics, who have to open up the subject under the now legendary motto "Shut up and calculate!" (David Mermin), this introduction is an extremely valuable addition.