proposal
The purpose of this tutorial is to produce a small/medium sized (20%) Plan paper regarding the foundations of quantum mechanics and different interpretations of the mathematical formalism. The subject interpretations of this class will include the orthodox and Cophenhagen interpretation, the Feynman path integral/sum over histories interpretation, Bohmian mechanics, and the many worlds theory. The tutorial will both focus on the mathematics and formal presentations of these theories as well as the philosophic ontological structure argued by each respective theory. These topics will be linked through the question of "what exactly is (an) interpretation and what role does it play in scientific thought. I hope to explore this question through the analysis of these theories.
I am aware of much of what is at stake in each of these interpretations--i.e. I feel comfortable with the philosophy. What I am much weaker on as the mathematical formalism. I have not really seen explicitly any of these besides the orthodox/Copenhagen interpretation and the MWI stuff. This is going to be the main challenge in this tutorial. I could easily sit down and write a philosophy paper about these theories right now, the role of this tutorial is so that I may ground my paper in the mathematics.
