Refined Characterization of Student Perspectives on Quantum Physics

The perspectives of introductory classical physics students can often negatively influence how those students later interpret quantum phenomena when taking an introductory course in modern physics. A detailed exploration of student perspectives on the interpretation of quantum physics is needed, both to characterize student understanding of physics concepts, and to inform how we might teach traditional content. Our previous investigations of student perspectives on quantum physics have indicated they can be highly nuanced, and may vary both within and across contexts. In order to better understand the contextual and often seemingly contradictory stances of students on matters of interpretation, we interviewed 19 students from four introductory modern physics courses taught at the University of Colorado. We find that students have attitudes and opinions that often parallel the stances of expert physicists when arguing for their favored interpretations of quantum mechanics, allowing for more nuanced characterizations of student perspectives in terms of three key interpretive themes. We present a framework for characterizing student perspectives on quantum mechanics, and demonstrate its utility in interpreting the sometimes-contradictory nature of student responses to previous surveys. We further find that students most often vacillate in their responses when what makes intuitive sense to them is not in agreement with what they consider to be a correct response, underscoring the need to distinguish between the personal and the public perspectives of introductory modern physics students.Comment: 24 pages, 31 references, 1 Appendix (5 pages

Interpretive Themes in Quantum Physics: Curriculum Development and Outcomes

A common learning goal for modern physics instructors is for students to recognize a difference between the experimental uncertainty of classical physics and the fundamental uncertainty of quantum mechanics. Our prior work has shown that student perspectives on the physical interpretation of quantum mechanics can be characterized, and are differentially influenced by the myriad ways instructors approach interpretive themes in their introductory courses. We report how a transformed modern physics curriculum (recently implemented at the University of Colorado) has positively impacted student perspectives on quantum physics, by making questions of classical and quantum reality a central theme of the course, but also by making the beliefs of students (and not just those of scientists) an explicit topic of discussion.Comment: Supporting materials available at http://tinyurl.com/baily-dissertatio

Teaching Quantum Interpretations: Revisiting the goals and practices of introductory quantum physics courses

Most introductory quantum physics instructors would agree that transitioning students from classical to quantum thinking is an important learning goal, but may disagree on whether or how this can be accomplished. Although (and perhaps because) physicists have long debated the physical interpretation of quantum theory, many instructors choose to avoid emphasizing interpretive themes; or they discuss the views of scientists in their classrooms, but do not adequately attend to student interpretations. In this synthesis and extension of prior work, we demonstrate: (1) instructors vary in their approaches to teaching interpretive themes; (2) different instructional approaches have differential impacts on student thinking; and (3) when student interpretations go unattended, they often develop their own (sometimes scientifically undesirable) views. We introduce here a new modern physics curriculum that explicitly attends to student interpretations, and provide evidence-based arguments that doing so helps them to develop more consistent interpretations of quantum phenomena, more sophisticated views of uncertainty, and greater interest in quantum physics.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; submitted to PRST-PER: Focused Collection on Upper-Division PER. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1409.849

Static Negative Energies Near a Domain Wall

We show that a system of a domain wall coupled to a scalar field has static negative energy density at certain distances from the domain wall. This system provides a simple, explicit example of violation of the averaged weak energy condition and the quantum inequalities by interacting quantum fields. Unlike idealized systems with boundary conditions or external background fields, this calculation is implemented precisely in renormalized quantum field theory with the energy necessary to support the background field included self-consistently.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, uses RevTeX4; v2: added acknowledgements; v3: minor correction and clarification

Kissing numbers and transference theorems from generalized tail bounds

We generalize Banaszczyk's seminal tail bound for the Gaussian mass of a lattice to a wide class of test functions. From this we obtain quite general transference bounds, as well as bounds on the number of lattice points contained in certain bodies. As applications, we bound the lattice kissing number in $\ell_p$ norms by $e^{(n+ o(n))/p}$ for $0 < p \leq 2$, and also give a proof of a new transference bound in the $\ell_1$ norm.Comment: Previous title: "Generalizations of Banaszczyk's transference theorems and tail bound

Climate Change and Great Lakes Water Resources

Looks at how climate change will impact water resources in the Great Lakes region and identifies policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change