Quantum fluctuations. (English) Zbl 0563.60001

Nelson, Edward

Princeton Series in Physics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. VIII, 146 p. hbk: $ 42.00; pbk: $ 12.95 (1985).

The author says in the preface that his book was written as an ”attempt to express a viewpoint about the nature of quantum fluctuations”. However, the book gives both a detailed account of the kinematics of diffusion processes and a discussion of possible physical causes of quantum fluctuations in terms of the background field hypothesis. The local causality in the sense of Bell and the problem of measurement are also investigated.
This volume provides an introduction to quantum fluctuations because it reviews the necessary basics of differential geometry and probability theory, too.

Reviewer: I.G.Kalmár

MSC:

60-02	Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to probability theory
81P20	Stochastic mechanics (including stochastic electrodynamics)
53B50	Applications of local differential geometry to the sciences

Keywords:

quantum fluctuations; local causality; problem of measurement